Steam is not the devil as some people here like to think. I also had my concerns when I first used it back when the orange box came out (I was predisposed because of people whining on forums about it), but it has NEVER bothered me. On the other hand it was helpful. If you have DSL internet you won't notice a thing, if you have dial up it still has offline mode. Auto patching and online backups are convenient and I don't get why some people think otherwise
That's what I don't like....but I'm kinda pissed about the Deluxe-exclusive Babylonians.