Beyond a joke that we can't play our game when we want

I went to my girl's house where there is no internet access and brought my laptop to play FM for when she was doing uni work or whatever, thinking I can start in offline mode. So when I click "start in offline mode" I get an error saying there is a problem with internet connection!

I have to be online to start in offline mode!!! SERIOUSLY WTF!! This Steam bs is too much. We were told its so everyone could get their game at the same time yet we who bought from gameplanet (never buy from them by the way) had to wait hours before we got it. So that excuse for making us go through steam is redundant.

Why can't SI just have it so when us loyal customers hand over our hard earned money for the game that we can actually PLAY IT whenever we want to?

Absolute joke! This sort of thing sickens me. Please SI, no Steam next year, or at least let us choose because it has been a massive FAIL!

Just had to get that off my chest

You have to start online the very first time for Steam to confirm that you're using a legal version. After the validation, you can then set it to play in offline mode.