On steam if you go into offline mode, then restart the client you can start a game without updating.
unless this changed in the last 2 years, steam detects if a game has an “update pending” so regardless if you go offline, if it detected there was an update it prevents the game from launching. I tried to get around my parents crap download with that trick and it failed.
Which is stupid! I want to play.
Well my Internet connection makes it a 3 Minute wait for 40 gigs.
But steam should stop the Update if I want to play
A workaround you can do is, before launching steam disconnect from the internet, then launch steam, when it launches it will say no connection and give an option to launch in offline mode, once offline mode is launched you can turn your internet back on. Just keep in mind steam also has to refresh your games every once and awhile as well so you have to go online at /some/ point or it won’t let you play the game offline anymore. Steam is super annoying in that matter.