Well, I now see that my worst fears (which I foolishly glossed over because Half Life is a cool game) about Steam are true.

I am actually now unable to play a single-player game on my own PC because of network congestion "somewhere" on the Internet. Just that this has happened even *once* is enough to make me seriously reconsider ever paying for a title that requires this "service" again.

"Could not connect to Steam network.
This could be due to a problem with your internet connection, or with the Steam network. Please visit www.steampowered.com for more info."

The site actually claims their network is up.

This, in not so many words, is bullshit.