Half-Life 2 question

I heard that if I buy the game in the store, I still have to go online and do something and download files to even play the game. So I have a few questions about this.

1) Is it true?
2) What exactly is the deal with it and what is it?
3) Can I put these "files" onto a disc so I never have to go online and deal with this bullhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gif if it exists?

I just have these questions because no one seems to be talking about it a lot and to me this is a huge deal. If I want to play the game in 20 years from now on my new rig at the time and Valve is dead then I guess I would be http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/lovesmile.gifed at the time. *is always thinking ahead*

I think that the boxed version just requires activation to play, not files to download. But yeah, I have the same concerns about playing down the road as you do.

I have the game but havn't installed it yet but I do know it has to be activated in order to play it, and yes there are files to download. Guy I work with had an hour wait while it downloaded something. Poor sod's on dial-up though. As for backing the files up I don't know i'm afraid. I'll be installing the game today at some point so i'll post again and let you know.

Thank you for both of your help...s. Yeah. Helps.

I look forward to hearing what happens after you install.

Half Life 2 is encrytped- you need online access to register the game and have the installed files decrypted (takes an hour or so). Once this is done you have access to a program called "Steam" that you have to use as a platform to launch HL2. It basically stops piracy and adds instant access to HL2 and CSS all at once. You can enable an offline mode that means you dont have to sign into steam to get it to work but if you have broadband there is not point in it really. So yes, you do need online access and yes you dont have to sign in every time but no you cant save the files as it is just the decrypted version of the files plus extra from the CD. phew.

Laguna pretty much covered it.

Once Steam and HL2 are instaled you have to create a Steam account and register your HL2 CD Key. Once all that's done (Takes about 5/10 mins to register/activate.) you download an update which takes about 10 mins on a broadband connection, then your free to start playing.

There's no way to save the update's to a CD as there downloaded and installed straight away, rather than being saved as an exe file on your HDD .