Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Yes, I had to download a download manager (similar to direct2drive). After you pay it allows you start the download (but you can get the manager beforehand, not sure why).
Im not sure about the DRM, but the patches have to be downloaded from gamesload (they had the latest one). There was no activation of any kind, although I did have to use their download manager to install the game.
Hope that helps
