Steam has Half-Life 2 listed! How wacky is that? And it seems you can pre-load it. Now no doubt those of you this concerns are all ready full aware of this. But does anybody actually know what it all means? And is it worth it if you just plan to buy it from a shop when it's released?

It means you can download it and as soon as its made available you just get the activation software from steam/valve and play it straight away.

I suppose doing it this way you get alot of pros from it,your not paying for packaging etc... and the game makers are not forking out £££ money for packaging so they can say 70% price of the game is manufactoring it and packing costs. So on that side you could say its a bit better.

Then the cons of it is, you have to use your own cds and isnt it better just have the proper box and cds on the side ? and also piracy is also a factor :(

and also piracy is also a factor :)
You got your smileys mixed up there mate, so I've fixed it for you.