Yeah, you are right. I think the last game I played that required NO online component/logging in was Strike Fighters 2.

eaw

I bought "Elite Dangerous: Horizons" directly from Frontier's website, and it doesn't requires Steam, or any 3rd party program. Just run the Elite launcher, choose your startup version, and play.

However, it's fully online distribution, so that doesn't count for the original question.

So that means physical media distribution, no 3rd party DRM/programs to launch... About all I have installed that meets that description is SimCity 2000 and Fleet Defender, both installed from floppy discs into DOSBox.

Have plenty:

The Witcher 2 and 3
ARMA 1 and 2
Kerbal Space Program
DCS
RoF
Rome Total War 1
Medieval II Total War
MS FSX
XPLANE X
IL2: 1946
Company of Heroes
Sim City 4
STALKER
INSIDE
LIMBO
BoB II
Mass Effect 2
Silent Hunter II and III
I-WAR 1 and 2
Falcon 4
....and the list goes on and on. My "offline" games surpass my Steam catalog.

I forgot I still have Il-2 46 installed as well!

There are many games I repurchased on sale on Steam that I had the disc versions of because the #%&#$#% CP wouldn't let me play the games anymore. GRAW was one, that Securom POS would make my drive spin for a good minute, then fail, then I take the disc out, put it back in, wait another minute, fail, take it out, put it back, try again...finally get fed up and reboot, take it out, put it back, wait another minute...THEN it loads.

Yeah, no thanks. Disc-based CP became crap.



The Jedi Master

+1 Jedi

I think a lot that disc-based CP was very dependent on what kind of drive you had and what brand/model. I had occasional problems like what Jedi described but not nearly as bad or as often.

I had two different optical drives hooked up at the time. Different brands. One was a reader only, the other a burner. I would try the disc in both drives as some CP preferred one over the other.



The Jedi Master

I was always so pleased when a developer used to release a patch that disabled the need for the disc to be in the drive.

As I understand it, those disc-based DLCs used the drive's firmware error-correction functionalities to detect genuine copies from copied copies. A copy of a game with a deliberate error in it would be corrected by the burner. So it was the game's job to look for the error in the CD to detect a genuine article.
But, I guess this is only as good as the current-at-the-time error correction methods, and different drives, and newer drives, gradually moved to new correction methods.

I never used to wait for that to happen (if it even did for some of the games I owned at the time). I was straight off to GameCopyWorld to get the no-CD crack

*edit* Wow,they are still going and the site looks just the same as it did 10-15 years ago.

I remember going there as well. The problem was people were getting burned by cracks that had more to them than just disabled CP--malware bundled in that you granted access to your PC when you grabbed it.

I felt the risk was becoming too great and discontinued my visits there. Still, I did get quite a few over the years there to help with some of the worst offenders.



The Jedi Master

Rise of Flight requires online mode to play the campaign so that is DRM. I have loads of games that have no such requirement but they are mostly older games. I have over 130 Dos games installed still. I buy games from gog.com too and all those have no online requirement.

Microsoft disabled Securom so you can't run Securom games anymore. The Microsoft rep actually told people to use cracks. Shows how much they really care about your PCs security. I just re-enabled Securom on Win8.1 but don't know if you can on Win10.

DCS
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
GPL
Wings Over Flanders Field - Champaigne Edition
P3D v.3
Super Bike (SBK) X
SBK 2011
SBK 12 Generations
GTR Evolution
RS Raven Shield (single player)
Ghost Recon Original and: /Desert Siege/Island Thunder (all SP)
Rogue Spear Original and: /Black Thorn/Urban Operations (all SP)
Rainbox Six Original and: /Iron Wrath/Athena Sword/Eagle Watch/Covert Operations (all SP)

I HATE Steam, UPlay, Origin, etc.

For me it has to be flight sims and only one keeps my interest. It's WOFF UE

I have to go back to the mid-90's as the last time I had a cutting-edge PC while buying games on release (just a handful of shooters, racing and flight sims). Once gaming began going heavy on MP/online, I started falling behind (not completely losing interest, just with newer titles). It wasn't due to crappy internet either, I had Comcast Broadband until I moved to Louisiana in 2009. I've just never liked the online requirement (especially now with satellite internet, but it wouldn't matter).

I'm in a long-time dry spell with flight sims, having a difficult time getting back into it and keeping any passion. I've started reading aircraft-related books again (factual and fictional), watching DVDs and next month I'm going see the Blue Angels perform in New Orleans. I think a good airshow should kick me back into gear, I really miss the ones in Jax, FL (alternating between the beach and airbase).

Damn, that's a blast from the past. I didn't think anyone was still playing European Air War.

EAW still has a dedicated online community. It's not huge by comparison to newer sims but it exists.

It's been modded quite a bit. It looks only 15 years old instead of 20 now.

I'd say EAW was probably the last WWII sim I spent a considerable amount of time flying offline. I played multiple careers with it. The MP was fun, but single missions only so I tired of it.

Meanwhile, I've spent more time playing Il-2 and CFS3 MP than I ever did SP in this century.




The Jedi Master

IL-2 1946 was the last WWII flight sim I played a lot for both solo and MP! I dumped Cliffs of Dover after about 7-8 hours of game time.