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Steam Community -- NOW.
- Thread starter Mrbob
- Start date
Mrbob said:
Valve is taking over the internets confirmed, first they get a stupid amount of games on the service, then take the best bits of both gamespy arcade, and XBL, and make it totally free when you own the games, masterstroke.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
This made me redownload Steam.
My inner PC fanboy has been slowly waking up lately 
Some of the things I like most about the new consoles, e.g. downloadable games, are much more mature on PC, even if more scattered. I wasn't aware of how many (full) game download services there are out there. I haven't used Steam in quite some time, but I'm going to delve back in and have a look around.
Some of the things I like most about the new consoles, e.g. downloadable games, are much more mature on PC, even if more scattered. I wasn't aware of how many (full) game download services there are out there. I haven't used Steam in quite some time, but I'm going to delve back in and have a look around.travisbickle
Member
Microsoft aren't going to react to this, as long as there are people willing to pay, and there are, then MS will keep a subscription service. I piss and moan all the time about the cost of sky movies and sport, or those downloadable movies that cost about a £5 a time, there's always some mug who'll pay that much so they keep the price there.
Steam is brilliant. It has it's kinks like anything else but it does a great job. Hassle free game patching, installing, buying, downloading etc.
Basically all the PC games I play are on Steam. I just bought Trackmania United off it and I'm loving it.
More developers are jumping on board every day, if you don't use steam yet you're part of the problem (also you weird 'gametap' people......Steam has Sam & Max as well you know )
Basically all the PC games I play are on Steam. I just bought Trackmania United off it and I'm loving it.
More developers are jumping on board every day, if you don't use steam yet you're part of the problem (also you weird 'gametap' people......Steam has Sam & Max as well you know
)travisbickle said:
PC gamers haven't shown any willingness to subscribe to LIVE (Unless they're already subscribing to LIVE for 360). I agree it's the reason MS won't be dropping LIVE costs anytime soon for 360 (Unless they need to eventually react to Sony's service). But let's not confuse the two.
ElectricBlue187
Member
nice, Valve. They aim to strip the one flimsy advantage Live Anywhere has over Steam, very smart move.
Mr Killemgood
Member
REV 09 said:
I think it was made available on the Xbox 360 when you played for 3 hours and poured water onto the console
Illuminati
Member
I still think the best part about Steam is the ability to backup games. I reformat my PC at least once a year and it has always been a hassle getting my software installed, up and running. All I really have to do is either run restore or copy the files from the SteamApps folder. Then start up Steam and boom all my games are installed.mandiller said:
pr0cs
Member
This is great news, I hope Steam totally destroys Live for Windows. Microsoft needs to start making the Gold level service absolutely MUST HAVE for both XBOX and Windows and at this point (at least for Windows) it's a complete joke.
It's funny how some of the popular opinion of Steam has changed. I remember when HL2 was released and the bitching about Steam was ****ing near deafening. Now people love it like they like love ice cream.. pretty odd.
It's funny how some of the popular opinion of Steam has changed. I remember when HL2 was released and the bitching about Steam was ****ing near deafening. Now people love it like they like love ice cream.. pretty odd.
Gearharaden
Banned
Although I definitely love Steam on the user-end for keeping all my video game program files organized and streamlining the buy process, the thing I love more about Steam and Valve is how kind they are to other developers. I don't think I've ever heard developers mention how awesome it is to work with Valve as a publisher, because every game that has used Source seems to be happy to be on board with Steam.
One of the recent examples I stumbled upon was how Postal 3 is going to be using Source. Vince Desidrio, the game's director, mentioned how new things were added to Source every week. He said that every time they thought of something they'd like in the engine, Valve would come by and tell them that they added it, before they even asked. On top of giving devs a stable and fully developed game engine, Valve also offers people the chance to publish their game on Steam, which has millions of users and insures a great install base for games just releasing. The amount of perks that seem to come from working with Valve appear endless.
On top of this all, Steam is a great way to show off indie games. One that springs to mind is Infernal. It looked cool but I didn't want to jump the gun and buy it, but then a demo for it came out, so I checked it out. Great game. It's like a hybrid of action-adventure/Soul Reaver-esque gameplay. I highly recommend it.
It's like every time I see a game that I know about get released on Steam, I'm happy to be a supporter. It used to be that only fellow Valve junkies used Steam, but now a good portion of PC gamers in general have Steam tucked away somewhere in their HDD.
All in all, the addition of things like the Steam Community makes me enjoy Steam even more. The thought of finally being able to hop into a game oh HL2: DM where the scores aren't ridiculously off-kilter, the guy in first being far and away ahead by like 100 kills than the guy in second.
One of the recent examples I stumbled upon was how Postal 3 is going to be using Source. Vince Desidrio, the game's director, mentioned how new things were added to Source every week. He said that every time they thought of something they'd like in the engine, Valve would come by and tell them that they added it, before they even asked. On top of giving devs a stable and fully developed game engine, Valve also offers people the chance to publish their game on Steam, which has millions of users and insures a great install base for games just releasing. The amount of perks that seem to come from working with Valve appear endless.
On top of this all, Steam is a great way to show off indie games. One that springs to mind is Infernal. It looked cool but I didn't want to jump the gun and buy it, but then a demo for it came out, so I checked it out. Great game. It's like a hybrid of action-adventure/Soul Reaver-esque gameplay. I highly recommend it.
It's like every time I see a game that I know about get released on Steam, I'm happy to be a supporter. It used to be that only fellow Valve junkies used Steam, but now a good portion of PC gamers in general have Steam tucked away somewhere in their HDD.
All in all, the addition of things like the Steam Community makes me enjoy Steam even more. The thought of finally being able to hop into a game oh HL2: DM where the scores aren't ridiculously off-kilter, the guy in first being far and away ahead by like 100 kills than the guy in second.
Giganticus
Member
I love the look of this, but I hope Valve extend this to other non-Steam games I have. Or of course, if Xfire introduces these features too. There's also that Gamespy Comrade thing which I haven't really looked at though I think some of the matchmaking and tournament features are paid for only - though at less than half the price of GFWL ($20 a year).
I love PC gaming. So much choice. So much cheaper (software wise at least).
I love PC gaming. So much choice. So much cheaper (software wise at least).
travisbickle said:
I agree, I don't see them making anything free in the short run, XBL subscription is a nice source of revenue for them, western developer and IP acquistion from the PC space would probably be better for them, that way if people want to play certain games online, they really don't have a choice but to pay to play it through Live, and they can control the platform the games are being released on as well as their release schedules.
VictimOfGrief
Banned
Well no... but Windows Live just became free as of Valve's annoucement of this.Speevy said:
Good. Any pressure on Microsoft to realize they don't have a monopoly on gaming is good. I'm just starting now to see how paying for Live is ridiculous, even though I've done it since 2003. Home will provide a service that looks as complete as Live, if not more, and Steam looks like it's the exact same thing for free.
BrokenSymmetry
Member
The M.O.B said:
When Steam was just released it was very much reviled by almost everyone. Just a few years ago, requiring key-validation over the Internet every time you play the game was unheard of, and the source of many, many complaints about Steam.
It's just in the last 1-2 years, as Steam's game catalog has expanded and its performance improved, that people have started to warm to Steam.
Posted?
http://www.developmag.com/news/27641/Valve-signs-up-Bizarre-Creations
Hmm..I wonder if it'll run on Vista, or if the constant references to XP are very deliberate.
http://www.developmag.com/news/27641/Valve-signs-up-Bizarre-Creations
Hmm..I wonder if it'll run on Vista, or if the constant references to XP are very deliberate.
First screens of some community features? Looks like it!
Source - http://www.flamehaus.com/bbs/2-vt124433.html?start=15
Steam community this summer!!
ElectricBlue187
Member
gofreak said:
it's likely that Microsoft moneyhat'ed the Vista version
Teknopathetic
Member
The Steam Community interface looks like a proper interface for a PC. I saw screens of the Games for Windows Live interface and...yeah...
http://i12.tinypic.com/4vea03k.jpg
Works with non-Steam games? The community page feature? I wonder if it's kinda like X-fire, then.
EDIT: I see the edit by Quellex... sounds like it's just voice/messages then and not the game tracking I was hoping for.
Works with non-Steam games? The community page feature? I wonder if it's kinda like X-fire, then.
EDIT: I see the edit by Quellex... sounds like it's just voice/messages then and not the game tracking I was hoping for.
I would think it works for tracking all games, not sure, I think you may be right though, as it's under the communication header. I highlighted voice because I think it's a pretty notable new feature, not to suggest it's only voice that supports all games. We'll see.nataku said:http://i12.tinypic.com/4vea03k.jpg
Works with non-Steam games? The community page feature? I wonder if it's kinda like X-fire, then.
EDIT: I see the edit by Quellex... sounds like it's just voice/messages then and not the game tracking I was hoping for.
Considering this is public now, hopefully a mainstream site has more information soon.