Read my post again. Nowhere did I say they couldn’t be played without them, but that the experience was significantly kneecapped in many instances, creating a comparable effect for collectors of physical media, hoping for a product that will outlast server shutdowns.
Much like how this new CoD will be completely non-functional for anyone who picks it up many years from now, so will these games be handicapped, some almost to the level of not being playable. The Day 1 patch problem is something that’s becoming quite an issue, outside of GotY additions that collect all the patches and DLC.
just realized that the game is out so my comment is moot... oh well, wrong? again.
IMO, the game most likely has code that checks for internet first (so the time and time are correct) then checks that the date is after the hardcoded date in the game...
long story short, (OT?)i had to activate GTAV to play GTAV offline, my internet was down so i had to use cell phone data... not much though.
so the first data game patch may just be a very minor patch, or just a Date check thing.
so my “sunshihe and lollipops” outlook in this case is that, to start the game it will require a date check, and not GIGABYTES of data download...