To be quite honest, I have no idea why some people seem to have these awkward problems with steam. I've read stories people've written about it taking them several hours to install, verify and download (individually) their games. I've never had such a problem, and neither have my friends.
It takes just as long as any non-Steam game to install things, downloads things -faster- than usual, and verifies so fast I don't even notice it.
I do, of course, realise that there's hundreds, if not thousands of people who completley disagree with how Steam has been put into action, but I absolutely love it.
On the subject of the games- Love them all. Especially the amount of mystery through the Half-Life storyline. Very subject to interpretation.