Steam has existed ever since human beings noticed the white mist above boiling water (it most definitely existed before that, but we didn’t, so it doesn’t count). Yet it was not until the first century AD that man decided to begin to harness the power of steam; when the people of Roman Egypt managed to make a ball rotate. It wasn’t, however, until the 17th century that steam was used for anything useful; a water pump was made and the steam engine was born. Towards the end of the 18th century, we decided we need higher pressures and the steam boat was made.
Steam remained one of the main sources of power into the start of the 20th century, but we then decided that electricity and combustion engines were much more practical. So, there you have it; that’s the history of Steam. Near the start of the 21st century, however, Steam took on a different meaning altogether (note the big S). The Steam revolution happened all over again and this time, it wasn’t just about some white mist above boiling water; it was about games and more specifically, the digital distribution of PC games.
So, what’s so good about Steam? Well, it is to a PC gamer what PSN or XBL is to a PS3 or Xbox 360 owner; it’s the ultimate platform for playing your games, sharing and discussing, playing online with the community and keeping up to date with the latest releases. Now, we’ve all seen just how bad PSN and XBL can be with the prices of full retail games, but Steam is different. The prices are always reasonable and sometimes even better than anywhere else.
It’s not just that you usually get good prices on release, it’s that Steam has many sales that are extremely decent; in the recent Christmas sale I managed to get a ton of bargains including Super Meat Boy for £3, a bundle with two S.T.A.L.K.E.R games for £3 and many others. Before that, I managed to get The Orange Box for £4.25, and Psychonauts for 99p was my first purchase just over a year ago. Now, I’m not going to spend all day talking about the simply awesome deals that I’ve had in the past, there’s many other reasons why Steam is the best thing that’s happened to PC gaming since PCs could play games.
Everyone loves gifts and everyone loves gifting stuff, but no-one likes driving across the country just to give a game to someone that you know through the internet (and no-one likes the Royal Mail); so the Steam gifting service is a brilliant idea. You can just literally click on an item as if you were going to buy it and gift it to anyone in the world – Valve really encourage you to do this, there are even special packs sometimes with four copies of a game, discounted. That’s one for you and three to give to me.
There are a lot of things about Steam that make it great; you can have your account on multiple PCs and it’ll transfer your library over; you can back up all of your games with the press of a button to save having to download them again; the downloads are always nice and speedy, and that grid view for your games looks simply stunning. It’s nice to have all your PC games in one accessible place rather than searching through folders. Arguably, both the best and worst thing about Steam is that you’ll buy games in the sale that you’ll never play, just because they’re that cheap; best because they’re cheap and worst because you’re basically throwing money away.
Now, how about the community features? We love our community features here at TSA. There’s a friends list with instant messaging and voice chat, you have a profile (here’s mine, add me!) and all your gameplay stats are recorded, so that you and all of your friends can see just how many hours you’ve played of a game and then realise that you have no life! There’s also a wall, of sorts, that shows what you’re friends have been up to (which games they have bought, which achievements they’ve unlocked). The wishlist system also lets you choose the games you really want and if you’re lucky, someone might gift them to you.
The group system is great; we’ve not really done anything with TheSixthAxis’ group other than gather members as of yet, but if there’s enough interest, then we could set up some online games or tournaments. The online is usually stable through Steam due to the dedicated Steam servers. Sadly, there’s one bad thing about Steam: it doesn’t track your hours played or achievements unlocked if you’re offline and it doesn’t work with my University’s internet system.
I’ve gifted you something in this article: the knowledge of Steam and why it’s so good. So, go on, sign up, download those deals and play those games. Oh, and it’s on Mac too if you’re into that. If you’ve not got a good PC or a Mac, then go buy one; it’s definitely as essential as owning any of the consoles.
ericzap
Steam sounds just lovely. I’ve never had the dough to buy a decent PC which is why I’ve always been a console gamer. I am being given a hella fine laptop for graduation of my choice apparently though and that’ll all change.
While I’m here, can anyone recommend a good brand of laptop to go with for a student/gamer? I was thinking Asus but can anyone recommend a different brand?
beeje13
If you’ve no budget, alienware, but you can get good gaming laptops in the 500-700 pounds mark, Asus will be reliable if you prefer to go with them, look for good laptop graphics (i.e Ati and nVidia)
cc_star
Gaming laptops for around £600 and a gaming PC for around £400
eBay Shops are the best place to get more bang per buck
ericzap
I’ve been looking at the Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) machines, they’ve been Setting graphical records but they’re damned expensive. Plus I’d prefer something portable for classes.
Alienware always seemed a little pricey for what I’d get.
DuffyBox
The Acer Aspire 4820TG-7805 seems like a great deal – light and powerful with 8 hours (supposedly) battery life.
mynameisblair
I got an HP G62 and it plays quite a few games on medium – really surprise with how well it handles them.
PCs will always be better for gaming, though. Just have a look around.
ericzap
I actually rather dislike HP, my family and I have had some bad experiences but I will for sure take a look at the G62 lineup.
aerobes
But but … what about trophies!? ;)
Seriously though, I’ve heard people speak of this and seen it mentioned /alot/ but haven’t ever looked into it and actually haven’t even gamed on a PC since Championship Manager 97/98 (which was/is utterly delightful even now but that’s by the by), however, after reading this, I feel it might be time to give it a try, especially with some of those prices you quote!
I’m a Mac user and take a look later today to see how I like it.
Good read, Blair.
beeje13
It has steam achievements, not as well implemented as trophies but its something i suppose.
deadwelsh
Bring steam to ps3 please!
I am fed up with seeing an amazing game on the ps store and only having the option of paying £30+ for a game thats over 2 years old and has no physical product or resale value. At least when its only £5 it doesn’t seem as bad.
Mr-Flame-Head
i have been a steam user since more or less when it first started, my first game was counter strike and then the half life 1 anthology now i have many things, and i also love the steam sales and steam achievements because they dont seem to have value so games can have as many or as little of them as they choose just look at champions online it has 712 achievements
mynameisblair
712!? I thought TF2 was bad with 350+.
that’s crazy…
ericzap
Why is it that Steam can have such reasonable prices and PSN is crippled by absurdly high retail prices. It’s the reason the PSP Go is seen as such a failure!
solidsteven
I think it might that PC games are generally cheaper than console games and most of the games on there are not worth that much anymore. and you can find some rare games on there.
G_The_Enemy14
I downloaded steam when I got my laptop, but never actually used it. Suppose I should now, seeing as though I’ve never heard a bad word said about it.
Kevling
I remember Steam (not steam) being universally hated when it launched. That’s quite a turnaround. Honestly I’d have excepted to read some of that in this article, but hey, literal steam is good too.
shields_t
I think it’s detractors never expected digital purchasing of games to take off in such a way. Steam must have been responsible for bringing down the piracy level of PC games and that can’t be a bad thing.
Kevling
I don’t think it was a DRM angle, it was more that it was buggy and just didnt work very well when it first launched.
mcphatty
I’ve had Steam since Half Life 2 and have loved all 6 years of it! It’s facilitated hundreds of hours of post-pissup Counterstrike, good times :)
cc_star
I recently bought a powerful laptop so I could game on it, and I’ve been blown away by the graphics & framerate.
So far I’ve only bought the Complete Valve pack with every Valve game (40gb worth, haven’t even finished downloading it yet) and I picked up Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box for FREE when EA gave it away over Christmas.
Steam is the glue that holds it all together, it’s great proper group & voice chat features, cloud saves & many more. If the PSN can approach Steam for features that Sony will be laughing.
To sum up PC gaming is great, Steam is great
mcphatty
Burnout for free? I feel gutted for missing that! Try Audiosurf and World of Good for some cheap indie goodness, they should tide you over until all that downloading is done.
solidsteven
It’s such a shame that most gamers don’t bother with it.
My laptop will only support older games.
I think Sony might ask valve to create a PS3 based steam.
KeRaSh
I got into Steam after building a new gaming PC around September and I was blown away by the XMas sales. Got Dead Space, Red Faction Guerilla, Just Cause 2, Burnout Paradise, Crysis pack, Machinarium and the Serious Sam HD pack for less than 40 Euro combined. I’ll get all my shooters from Steam in the future. It just makes sense now that I have a gaming PC.