Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

It doesn't seem to be mentioned here, but HL2 (which now includes the sequel episodes) is completely free to claim on Steam until the 18th, if you're new to the series.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/220/HalfLife_2/

Also try clicking on the gravity gun at the end of the anniversary page.

Also I highly recommend Black Mesa, which is the remake of HL1 in the HL2 engine. The Xen levels went from what they were to possibly some of my favorite levels in the game, and the music scoring is top-notch. It feels great to play.

Black Mesa is also 75% off right now, incidentally. Seems like everything Half Life is either free or on deep discount for the anniversary.

And when you buy an album on CD you just license it for personal use, you can't play it on the radio or in a commercial space. "Buying" a copy of some intellectual property always had strings attached even in the age of physical media.

Steam can delete a game from your account, they can't delete a cd that I physically have with me.

Why does this even need to be spelled out...

Not contradicting your point, but adding tangential interesting information.

Blu-Ray UHD discs can no longer be played on modern computers as Intel has removed the trusted execution environment needed to decrypt them. Blu-Ray UHD players do a handshake that verifies the use of Intel SGX.

One might have always been skeptical of these discs, especially as AMD had never implemented those TEE instructions.

But I believe the interesting takeaway is that even physical media is becoming something you can’t count on using without the continued permission/assistance of some outside party.

Without regulation I would expect that all new media will eventually require players to be always-online.