It feels like, now that I’ve bought the Orange Box, it’s not so much that I’ve bought a product but that I’ve bought a subscription to awesome.

New things just keep appearing in Steam that I apparently own and can use - just last week a multi-player version of Half Life 2 appeared along with a bunch of other mods, and I swear that there’s a brand new Half Life 2 installment that’s appeared as well.

If anything, I think it’s stuff like this that’ll keep the video game industry afloat - remarkable, surprising generosity with incredible ease of installation and use. It’s legitimately easier to play these legitimate games then cracked versions.

Of course, on the other hand, as soon as you’re not connected to the internet Steam locks down…