Carmageddon 2 appears to be DRM-free, since most binary files are identical to the GOG ones. Steam folder does have a few more .pix files, but I don't think they are needed.

Well, the game could still need to be in its Steam-folder to run.

Sometimes, there's ways around that - like removing/moving a DLL file (associated w/ Steam) in the game-folder.

Or, say - if a game uses other (garbage) 3rd-party DRM.

If you have any more information to make things even clearer - please, share!

The actual early access version of The Long Dark can be run outside of Steam. I just tried it by myself.

So, some pretty exciting news: The Linux version of Borderlands 2 is DRM-free! Run it in a Terminal and use the same " -nosteam" trick as a bunch of other games.

EXAMPLE:
'/home/[USERNAME]/.local/share/Steam/SteamApps/common/Borderlands 2/Borderlands2' -nosteam

The disappointing thing about this is that only the base game works; absolutely no DLC is recognized at all.

Nice find! I tried it yesterday but got
error while loading shared libraries: libsteam_api.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.
I have to cd to the Borderlands 2 directory and then execute "./Borderlands2 -nosteam" (without quotes) to play the game, I should have tried that from the beginning...

Ah, yeah, I can see that. That's why I ended up just pasting the entire directory location into the Terminal, and that works, too. I keep forgetting about the whole ./ thing to make my life easier. :P

EDIT: You know what seems interesting/awesome to me? When you play the game without Steam, instead of putting your save data in a folder that has your account number as its name, it just makes a "0" folder and throws it in there. The game was programmed to run without Steam; I really wish developers and publishers would just be okay with telling their customers about that stuff.

Victoria 2 is currently on offer on Steam, and since it's mentioned in this thread I'm considering buying it. I'm a bit concerned by the Heart of Darkness expansion's requirement of "a broadband internet connection". Does anyone know if that's just for when using multiplayer, or if it's being used as DRM?

Having lost internet recently with no access to Steam's offline mode, I can confirm that Penny Arcade's Rain Slick Eps. 3 and 4 on Win 7 do not require Steam, but 1 and 2 do. And I'm sure the Genesis games were confirmed before, but the Genesis launcher seems to work without Steam, but you must launch it in the Steam folder, launching it from the desktop icon just brings up the Steam login screen.

Hey, I don't know if this game got popular enough to actually be bought by a lot of people, but does anyone know if A.R.E.S.: EX can be run without Steam, just like the original one? That was one of them that popped up with an error saying that Steam had to be running, and then it promptly ignored itself and ran the game anyway.

I'm not sure if it comes with CEG, but I can confirm it doesn't run without Steam. It just exits silently when you try to execute it. Removing steam_api.dll results in an error that this file is missing.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Not sure if it still makes sense to post in this thread, but I just found out MURI is DRM-free on Steam. Once it's downloaded and installed, you've got what is effectively a portable version that will work everywhere without connecting to Steam or the internet (it's just the .exe and a .sav file).

I still think it's a good idea to post; it's easier to see what was added and when.

Anyway, I'm adding Shovel Knight now. All versions are DRM-free.

Space Hack run without steam.

Anybody know if Dreamfall Chapters on Steam has any CEG or other DRM there or not?