The ZAZ Blog: When all you have is a chicken and a rocket launcher, make some really badass scrambled eggs.

Steam is pretty cool
« Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry »

Written by Thom McGrath on Monday, November 30, 2009 at 8:10 PM (-05:00)
Categories: General (26)
Tags: Borderlands (1), "Half Life" (1), "Left 4 Dead" (1), Steam (1)

Steam is Valve's community and game distribution service. I was introduced to Steam some years ago when I started playing Half Life 2. The ability to download complete games was pretty neat, and I did that. The idea of having Steam running all the time bugged me however. I thought "why on Earth should I keep this running just for Half Life?"

Also, digital download services bother me, because I don't physically have a copy of the product. When I want to install a game, I really don't want to wait hours to download it.

I recently started playing Left 4 Dead 2, which requires Steam as well. This time around, however, my impression of it has completely changed. The reason behind the change is Left 4 Dead 2 makes excellent use of Steam and the community features. It is easily compared to Xbox Live, but less awful. Here's a few cool features:

  1. Steam will automatically download updates for Steam-powered games.
  2. Steam Cloud keeps my settings synced between computers.
  3. I can make physical backups of the games I download.
  4. Steam sells a lot more than just Valve games. In fact, most new games are available on Steam.
  5. Valve Anti-Cheat is better than PunkBuster.
  6. By pressing shift-tab, I can bring up an overlay which includes friend information, and even a web browser. I can do this in any game, even non-steam games. The ability to bring up a browser in-game is very handy, especially in games such as Borderlands.

I could keep going. Overall, I think Steam is pretty cool.

License: Creative Commons (details) | Digg | E-Mail Thom McGrath
View More Entries From The Same: Day | Month | Year

Comments
Comments are being accepted below.

Taking a break from wasting time, Fargo came by to say:

Dude, I love Steam. It's evolved into a really neat delivery platform and tool chest.

Now if only they'd make games and Steam for linux.

[ November 30 2009 | E-Mail ]

Quoting the prophet, Thom McGrath:

Well see now I need to find you on Steam.

http://www.steamcommunity.com/id/tekcor

[ December 1 2009 | E-Mail ]

Pings
This entry is accepting pings.

Leave a comment
We utilize unique methods to ensure your email address stays private while remaining useful.
Depending on the authentication scheme used, some or all of the personal data entered below will be ignored in favor of the data stored with your account.


Disclaimer: I am currently an employee of REAL Software. My comments and opinions are mine alone and do not represent those of my employer. My posts are not official REAL Software communications, and may contain information that is incorrect or misleading.