Here's an interesting one.

Apparently the PC version of Mass Effect re-checks it's activation every ten days or so. You do not however need a DVD to be in the drive.

http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=628375&forum=125

Obviously this means that the game will disable itself if you're without an internet connection for a long period of time or indeed will simply not even install/activate in the first place.

Not sure what to make of it myself.

by "disable itself" i asume it will re-enable its self later if the net is returned else you would never be able to un-install it or go on holiday.

Tbh its less than steam does now, try unplugging you internet and playing half life 2 (Fyi you can't). I'd be more interested to know what they are reporting back to bioware, as PC gamers have a nasty habit of upgrading every few months and if said upgrade invalidates my install then they can go to hell.

also having yet another installer/ loader installed that slows down my sluggish vista boot and insists on telling me my internet is not on will be annoying .

You CAN play Steam games in offline mode. Just open up the games tab, select 'go offline' from the file menu and play it... The games need to be at 100% updated though with all the latest patches before you can do this.

I'll take you word for it, but that's not my experience from playing half life 2, it wouldn't even load (this is going back 2 years now) and tbh steam just crashes on my vista pc is there is no network connection on start up or vista crashes it (for not responding).

It crashes on Startup if there's no net connection because you didn't set it to offline mode. If you set it to offline mode and then have no net it won't even search for it. Just go to the games tab and update all your games, then go to file > offline mode. Then you can play on LANS etc with no net connection at all.

I've just this minute tested this with HL2 and episodes, even TF2 works like it. They have to be able to let you play them at LANs. Imagine going to some huge LAN and not being able to play any steam games at all That'd suck.

Quote: Midnight
You CAN play Steam games in offline mode. Just open up the games tab, select 'go offline' from the file menu and play it... The games need to be at 100% updated though with all the latest patches before you can do this.

This doesnt work with TF2

Just tried it again, works fine with TF2. Just played a LAN game across 2 pc's both logged into the same Steam account and then went to offline mode 1 at a time.