Preloading is fun...

Unlike other game developers attempts at anti-piracy, Valve's rendition actually gives something back to the gamer. Instead of resorting to using something like Starforce, which tends to prevent you from playing a game even if you BOUGHT the fucking thing (Thanks, BiA!, nothing but love for you mother fuckers!), Valve developed Steam.

While I'll admit that Steam is MOSTLY annoying, there's one feature that I've recently fell in love with -- the preloading feature. My copy of SiN Episodes: Emergence just finished preloading. Which means the game is on my hard drive as we speak, and I will be able to play it on midnight of the release date if I so choose. I enjoy this.

Now I get to preload Half-Life 2: Episode 1.