Why do I need an internet Connection?

[mattig]

Hidy ho all, I was looking what the minimum specs are, and they were saying you needed a minimum of an internet connection.

So my question is, why do you need an internet connection?

[cyberwiz97]

You do need an internet connection (and a Steam account) to install HL2 but, you DON'T have to be connected to play it. You can play "Offline" without being on the 'net. If you're not connected to the internet, when you go to run the game, a Steam window will inform you that it can't connect and you can opt to play "Offline" from there.

[phillippi2]

You need to be connected to the internet the first time you play the game. This is due to the drm 'SteamWorks'.

[MaDShadoW]

Because back in 2004 not everyone had internet and due to the need to create steam account and register the cd-key to it, it was/is needing internet

[istvan_v]

HL2 is actually one of the games that can be run without the Steam client (by launching hl2.exe directly) once they are installed. Obviously, this has the same limitations as using offline mode, so achievements will not be available, for example. The episodes and Portal (but not Portal 2) will work this way, too, but they require the game (episodic, ep2, or portal) to be specified with the -game option.