Got it.

Installed it.

CAN'T PLAY IT!

I can't get my account registered with steam. I get to the screen where it asks me to pick a special question in case I lose my password and then I get a 200 error that referenced some winsock problem. I think Steam's registration servers are getting hammered and that's why so many people are having problems.

This is ridiculous! Valve requires you to log in with Steam before playing the game? I bought the cds so I wouldn't have to go through with this! What about people who don't have internet access and want to play HL2 whenever they please? What if you're on a trip and want to play a bit on your laptop?

Absolutely inexcusable.