: Click the button. Once finished, it usually prompts that the game is "Ready" or "Patched," after which you can launch the game without an internet connection.

The fans on his PC began to scream, spinning at speeds they weren't rated for. On the monitor, the face of Kane appeared—not the actor Joe Kucan, but a distorted, hyper-realistic render that looked directly into the webcam.

If you were a die-hard Command & Conquer fan in 2010, you remember exactly where you were when Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight launched. It wasn’t a celebration; it was a funeral. The game that was supposed to be the finale to Kane’s saga arrived shackled to one of the most hated DRM schemes in gaming history: "Always-On" online authentication.