You can play your Steam games in the offline mode, but of course you eventually have to re-connect for updates to the game. After you download the game, you have to connect at least once for the game to be validated. After that, I'm pretty sure that you can play the game in offline mode.

I find Steam to be pretty unobtrusive, as evidenced by my huge library of Steam games, thanks to all of these addictive sales.

I'm not a fan of Steam myself but for a lot of these prices I'd say it's worth the hassle. I think you could try download some demos or free games (Peggle Extreme, Sam & Max 104, etc) on Steam to experiment with the features. It's not perfect but it's not all bad.

There is a offline mode but it's not really good. I tried buying games and setting offline mode on steam only to find some weeks later that my last login information had expired and I'd have to log in again, not to mention some minor offline mode outages and bugs. But those occurrences are not very frequent. You can't go wrong with using offline mode and switch to online once a week just to update the client and renew login info. Still, it doesn't compare to buying a game on GOG (or other DRM-free service) and not having to worry about anything at all. But when you buy a 20 dollar game for 4 bucks it's easier to deal with some DRM.

EDIT: In other news, Team Fortress 2 for 6.79 today... I think I'll get it.

Steam does like to get online every once in awhile to update and such, but I don't have many problems with it, and I have dial up.

Which does bring me to a question. I can't seem to connect to teh server to validate who I am; is this because Steam has so many people on right now, or is it my slow dial up? :P

It can be both. During those huge sales things get a little hectic, but it's hard to log in when the connection is a bit slow. It usually takes me a couple or more tries with 56-128 kbs. If you're getting a error message that doesn't make sense like "your purchase is still being processed", that more likely a bug some people have been reporting in the last few weeks. If that's the case: open task manager and kill the "steam.exe" process and try opening steam again.

this ^^

All you need to do is launch the game once while online and then you can use offline mode.

Also you can backup your games via Steam, so that when you want to replay them, you don't need to re-download them.

As far as owning the games goes, you can make a local backup to keep your games, if steam goes out of business either an official (they unofficially said so but don't count on it) or a community patch will probably be released that allows you to play your games and you can always just use Steam's offline mode to play.

Personally, I'm pro-Steam, it allows the user to install his/her games on any number of computers, with only a couple of exceptions (games with extra DRM). Also, it takes care of patching and you don't need to carry CDs/DVDs. It makes PC gaming almost as care free as console gaming. Not to mention the joy of buying a new computer launching Steam, going out for a pint and finding all your games installed when you get back home.

Another HUGE plus is for people who own both Macs & PCs. When the mac version exists on steam, you buy the game once and you can play it on your mac as well as your PC.

In the past, I had used offline mode for months without any problems, do you use automatic login?

There is a difference, games gone from GoG are gone, no way to re-download them. Games gone from Steam (only per region afaik, to the best of my knowledge no games have been completely removed) can be re-downloaded. I find this very important for an online service as one of the big plusses of online delivery is that essentially they provide storage for my games.

I do, but I'll deactivate if that is what causing the problem.

Actually, you can download them again. Almost all Digital Distribution services allow this, though some impose limits. But gog like steam let's you download their game as much as you want as it's tied to an account as they explain here:

don't deactivate, auto-login is the right thing to do, just checking because it is a common mistake people make. Can't really help then I'm afraid, did you try Steam's forums? usually people are helpful there.

iirc GoG indeed lets you download the game as many times as you wish but games removed from gog's catalogue don't remain available for download. On the other hand, Steam let's you download games you have purchased even if they are removed from the (regional) catalogue.

I can say that Steam lets you do that from personal experience. I have seen (online) people whining (several threads, iirc even in gog's forums) about GoG's stance on this for games which were later on made unavailable. Personally, I haven't bought a game which is no longer available from GoG so I couldn't test it myself but people say that once a game is removed it is no longer available for download. It may well not be GoG's fault but still its a "+" for Steam when comparing the two.

Personally I like GoG but unless they offer a much much better price for game already on Steam, I go with Steam. It's nice not to worry about being able to re-download purchased games. If the title I'm aiming for is not on Steam, GoG usually is my 2nd choice.

I looked half of dozen threads about it but never found anything that did the trick. What I do is go online every once in a while and that works, unless it's one of the rare instances when Valve deactivates the offline mode.

That's really really bad, I have to agree. If that's true the least they could do is offer those people a refund.

I got it working, so at least my money didn't go to waste. I like Steam, since it has cheap prices for lots of games, and I'm only mildly annoyed at it from time to time when it tries to "call home", as my mom says.

All in all, I'm happy with Steam, and I can't wait for tomorrow's deals! And I love the different "death" scenarios each day, like the icea cream one, and now the rollercoaster.

Steam rocks. I've been using it since Half Life 2 came out 6 years ago and have had few problems with it and the sales are fantastic :P The Steam adventure game library is getting better, but I find I have to supplement it with GamersGate, GOG and Adventure Shop.

Is this the uncensored Culpa that Steam has?

Wednesday's deals includes The Void for just 5 bucks.

Just Adventure gave it an "A" and PCGamer UK gave it a pretty high score as well. Don't procrastinate because it only lasts a day.

Thursday's deal includes the Misadventures of PB Winterbottom for just 2.49!

It received pretty positive reviews and I guess the game closest to it would be Braid.

I can't resist Tropico 3 so cheap. PB Winterbottom and Bioshock seriously tempt me.

Friday's deals include Max and the Magic Marker for $5.00.

Just Adventure gave it a 75/100. It looks it could be lots of fun.

I'm grabbing the XBLA version this week as it's on sale also (though at $5/400 MS Points). Still a great price for this awesome little game on either format.

Saturday's deals include Sam and Max: the Devil's Playhouse for 17.49!

Also, though not an adventure game, the Freedom Force pack is just 1.87! That's quite a steal!

Well, there goes another really good sale. I was tempted by Thief : DS, the Sherlock Holmes games, and the Civ 4 expanions, but I jsut stuck with Culpa Innata and Civ 4. Anyone else get some good buys? I hope to God someone bought Ghost Master for less than a buck, cause it's really worth many more than that!

I got Team Fortress 2; Time Gentlemen, Please!; and the Tropico series expect the Absolute Power expansion to Tropico 3.
I'll wait for a similar sale during the holiday season so maybe I'll pick Dragon Age: Origins+Awakening and the Square Enix - EIDOS Complete Pack, I just couldn't afford those now.

One thing I had to mention...I was told that if you simply disconnected from the internet (or temporarily disabled the internet on the computer) you would not need to log in to steam in order to be able to use offline mode. I haven't tested this myself but it might be worth it for some people.