I always give any new game I play the "dead switch" test. If I flip off the power to my router and the game is still playable offline, it's a winner. If it kicks me out to the main menu, I return it immediately,(reply>), @Silamon Turn off any internet sources your pc might be able to connect to, and do a reboot. If a Steam game works then, you should be fine in the future. That being said, GoG is the better way whenever possible. Download an offline installer of what you bought, stash it or a resiliant storage device and you're good. Keep it well protected, and even solar flares won't damage your games. At least in theory :P,(reply>), @Diner50 It is why I try to buy games on gog instead of steam now. You actually own games on gog when you buy them.<br><br>I don't mind Steam's DRM check in thing as much as the always online nonsense, but it gets really annoying because my internet tends to go out at times and I wanna be able to play single player games when it happens. I always end up having to play a game I've already been playing recently, or go to GoG for my offline gaming.<br><br>It's the "performing first time setup" that they hide the check in behind by the way, you know it's not actually doing that when it is a game that has been played off and on for years...<br><br>Edit: I actually just tried it on a few games on steam offline mode and they worked. Maybe it was my not turning internet off completely though.,(reply>), Uh, based,(reply>), Wow. The day you figure out that Steam force you to refresh a phone home to access games. Say 1 week or whatever timer window before you have to connect to the internet. You might find that there are many games that are going to be DED if Valve do not care anymore about your games.<br><br>But true. There i no way always online is acceptable. Rather row the seven seas before allowing anything of that sort to be acceptable. Bad enough with Steam and such DRM.,(reply>), Nah do it the other way around. See if you can start the game without internet at all. Some of these games now will do a check in with their servers every so often and won't let you play without it. A LOT of games on steam do this, I've had games installed for years, my internet goes out and I try to play them and it won't allow it because it tries to check in with server to authenticate and can't.<br><br>Your test will weed out always online crap but not the check ins that are more sneaky about it.