Farcry II is still secorum'd though. I was very excited for it, then I realized why I didn't buy it before.

Ah, damn. But you can remove it and the game still plays, right? I use Securombegone. : )

Can you? I have heard that removing securom is near impossible short of a reformat.

No it's not. It's been removed. Valve just never updated the store page.

SecuROM can be completely removed in under 5 minutes (without a format) once you know what you're doing.
From my site:
A proven method for removing SecuROM completely from your PC
Read through the following and make sure you understand each step fully. Use of these instructions is entirely at your own risk. If you do not understand the steps or are uncomfortable with performing them, then have someone more experienced perform this for you. You are fully responsible for any adverse effects that may result from your decision to perform the steps below. That said, I have personally proven that this method works, and I did not damage my PC in any shape or form.
Step 1: Uninstall all your games/programs that use SecuROM.
Step 2: Download the SecuROM uninstaller from the SecuROM website.
Step 3: Start up your PC in Safe Mode (hit F8 while booting for the menu) as an Administrator.
Step 4: Run the SecuROM uninstaller.
Step 5: Reboot the PC.
Step 6: Download DelInvFile and install it (You only need the freeware functions, so don’t worry about purchasing it).
Step 7: Run DelInvFile and navigate to Documents and Settings\ <your_user_name> \Application Data\SecuROM
Step 8: Delete the files in the UserData folder using DelInvFile (especially the file names shown in blue).
Step 9: Delete the SecuROM folder.
Step 10: Download RegDelNull and copy the exe file to the Windows\System32 folder.
Step 11: Run “regedit” from the Start Menu and search for “SecuROM”.
Step 12: When you find it (typically at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SecuROM), right click and select Copy key name (for pasting in step 13). You can now close Regedit.
Step 13: From a Command Prompt type the following then hit enter (if the path to SecuROM you copied in step 12 differs to that shown here, then use that path instead, remembering to use -s to indicate a new subdirectory): regdelnull HKEY_CURRENT_USER –sSoftware –sSecuROM
Step 14: Confirm Yes when prompted.
Step 15: Run regedit again, navigate back to the SecuROM entires and delete them.
SecuROM is now fully removed from your PC.

Not worth the risk for me. If the store page says Securom, I have no legal recourse if buying it installs it on my machine. Until Valve clarifies the issue, FCII is a no-go for me.

Well considering the fact that I and others have installed the Steam version on PCs that don't have SecuROM on them and they still don't have SecuROM on them, that's a good enough indication for me -- there's no registry entries, no SecuROM folder and no Paul.dll in the game directories.

Point is, if I buy FCII, and SR ends up on my PC, I don't have a leg to stand on. As long as that is on the storepage, Steam has carte blanche to avoid responsbility if I choose to buy the game. I won't be treated like a criminal, and until that filth is removed from the store page, I will choose not to buy that game, even though I VERY MUCH want it.

Well, Far Cry 2 Fortune’s Edition on Impulse got Tages.

I don't do third party DRM's.

Yep, it's easy to remove. Here's a quick way of doing it:
http://www.simprograms.com/secubegone-an-easy-way-to-remove-securom/
Get the file, run it, it's all automated. It pretty much does what Bansama mentions, but automatically. : )

Well, all I can say is, that's your loss then. As the only DRM on the Steam version now is Steam. But if you want to let a proven error on the Store page put you off I'm not going to stop you.

No, "your loss" is *your* opinion, and is completely subjective. If I said that I refuse to buy FCII for some inate reason, let's say because it has a green jeep in it, you CANNOT by definition state "your loss". In fact, the term "your loss" is about the biggest piece of subjective garbage ever created.

Actually, it is a fact that you are losing something: you are losing the ability to play the game.
The subjective part is whether that loss is important enough to you to matter. Overall it's not a loss in your eyes, but bansama is right in that you are losing something. I mean, if we're going to argue semantics...
Ok, commence on topic discussion!

I tried to play Survival mode with a friend last night but neither of us were able to join the others game.

You cannot lose something that isn't yours. If he purchased the game and then refused to play it, then others could claim that it was "his loss." Otherwise, it's a bogus and trite phrase.