"Note: some Steam-enabled single-player games (such as Half-Life 2) purchased at a retail store will allow offline play until the user decides to play online or enable other Steam functionality. From that point on, an Internet connection will be required."
"At a LAN party, this means that Internet access must be available to every machine on which Steam games are being played."
*warning- linked forum thread contains some bad language but is a good read for those of you interested in Half Life 2's single and multiplayer abilities/requirements.*
http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?threadid=197798&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
Personally I think this is a load of crap. Valve is now requiring players to be connected to the internet at all times when playing Half Life 2 no matter if you are playing single player or multiplayer online. This includes Lan parties of which most do not have a dedicated internet connection. The lan I go to every month does not have an internet connection so we would not be able to play this EVER at our lan.
This is their glorious plan to curb piracy but in doing this, they are inciting even more people to try to crack the game.
your thoughts?