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.
gazzagb
The xmas sale was simply brilliant, the only thing that limited me from buying more was that my laptop is pretty basic.
That’s the main thing I don’t really like about PC gaming – you need to be almost constantly upgrading your system in order to play the latest games on their highest level.
colmshan1990
At E3 Valve announced that they were bringing Steam elements to the PSN.
Any word on which elements yet?
I’m very interested to find out…
mynameisblair
Cloud saves and other little features I think for Portal 2 – nothing massive.
ARUMIR Sympozium
Just got into steam just after the new year…. god the content
RocketSOL
Steam is brilliant. I’ve always had an account but never used it unitl I got my decent PC.
I love the fact you can change your name on steam without any fuss. Yeah, it makes it harder for your friends to know who has just signed in but all they have to do is ask!
colossalblue
It’s worth pointing out that for a lot of people (myself included) half of the charm of Steam is in the older titles at crazy knock-down prices. Things you may have missed first time around and can now enjoy for very little outlay. For most of those you don’t need a high-spec PC.
Also worth pointing out that most of the older stuff doesn’t work on a Mac too…
aerobes
Your final line had occurred to me too (myself using a Mac), much to my chagrin.
I’ll take a look before I get disappointed but I’d like old stuff like Transport Tycoon, Theme Hospital, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and various other things.
RocketSOL
I’m having some right trouble playing the original Deus Ex on steam. Got it for the bargain price and if it isnt the textures playing up, its the sound or the speed of the game! Madness!
solidsteven
I might create an account with steam. But do Valve check for virus on their games? i don’t want to spend my money on something and get a virus. Also for those who are not sure if there system can support the game, get the demo to see if that is supported.
Person678
I’m sure Activision load all their software with trojan horses.
mynameisblair
That’s like saying you’ll get a virus from PSN! It’s a completely legitimate program for the digital distribution of games and it’s 100% secure, there’s no way you could get a virus
Also, for checking you can run something, go here:
http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/
solidsteven
thanks blair, it’s just that i don’t like downloading stuff without doing my research and that i’m using a slightly outdated AVG. Steam is what PSN should have been.
@person I KNEW IT! they called me crazy.:P I refuse to buy anything that is related to acti.
TSBonyman
Nice article Blair, i knew very little about Steam before except that there was a lot of moaning about it in it’s early days. I’ve only noticed a change of attitude towards it since Valve announced Steam would be coming to PSN but that’s probably because i wasn’t paying that much attention to it before and i’m sure it’s been improving steadily since it launched.
The special offers sound very attractive although buying a chunk of games in one go does probably mean you won’t have time to play everything properly. At the same time, if you joined Steam around the time of the xmas sales that could set you up for several months of gaming at a fraction of the cost of buying those games individually at a retailer which is great.
I’ll be sticking with my PS3/HDTv for gaming but i’m interested in seeing what Steam brings to PSN. Bringing Cloud saves would be cool, especially if it encouraged Sony to implement the same feature on PSN.
DJ Judas
I love Steam, had my account since it launched, but over the last 3 years or so it’s really taken off.
Far too easy to waste money on games though, I got Mass Effect for £3 and can’t find the time to play it.
Most valuable to me is how easy it is to bring your games to another system for a new build, beats countless disks and patches any day of the week.
wick15
I’ve recently started to really get into PC gaming. Steam is my Client of choice. It offers awesome content that is well priced. Tried Games for Windows Live and thought it was lacking in games and the pricing was ridiculous, put me off it for good.
The only con to PC gaming is that you can never be sure that your computer will run the games properly unless you have a decent system. But if you know the basics about PC specs then you will be able to work it out easily.
It’s good to see that TSA is starting to recognise PC gaming more. Just another awesome feature to this already awesome site.
Nice one Blair.
hunterstryfe
I have a steam account, just not a decent gaming PC lol