GHG
Member
Doesn't really matter when the keys from 3rd party storefronts redeem on Steam.
Found the EGS stan.
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So why is steam so great?
- Thread starter sunnysideup
- Start date
Doesn't really matter when the keys from 3rd party storefronts redeem on Steam.
Found the EGS stan.
yamaci17
Member
i feel like home with steam activity page. to be able to see the screenshots my friends share, the achivements they got, the games they play, the games they bought... its a great system. its the only platform on PC that is similar to PSN/Xbox Live where you can share stuff about the games you play
regional pricing is another winning factor. their gamepad implementation is good, though not good enough for me and i rather use ds4windows for my dualsense gamepad
btw it opens very fast for me and is usually snappy
regional pricing is another winning factor. their gamepad implementation is good, though not good enough for me and i rather use ds4windows for my dualsense gamepad
btw it opens very fast for me and is usually snappy
nemiroff
Gold Member
It's supposed to just work, and to be flexible and reliable. And it is. The UI is fairly functional and has more worthwhile features than a desktop icon so-to-speak.
I don't know why you're saying it's slow. It's starts on Windows boot (unless you opt-out, but why would you) and is instantly ready whenever you click on it. And even from complete cold start it takes a total of 6 seconds including initiating a connection to Steam.
I don't know why you're saying it's slow. It's starts on Windows boot (unless you opt-out, but why would you) and is instantly ready whenever you click on it. And even from complete cold start it takes a total of 6 seconds including initiating a connection to Steam.
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VN1X
Banned
Not sure if serious but I'm sure developers also really enjoyed uploading new patches to said websites where you had to download them manually or otherwise be stuck with dated versions lol.
Gamershell.com, among others, was good for that sort of shit though haha.
Sean Mirrsen
Banned
I personally think it's one the best things about the client. I'm so tired of all the PC apps following Windows in adopting a "mobile-friendly interface". Opening Steam is like a breath of slightly less stale air, there's still some good old desktop UI elements and design principles in there.
VN1X
Banned
Oh yeah completely forgot to mention that part. The activity page is like facebook-lite for gaming but without all the propaganda and fear mongering lol. It's really neat and nothing but positive vibes over there.
Sometimes I'll have someone randomly comment on a purchase or screenshot I've uploaded (perhaps not interacted with them in a while) and then you have a lil' chat and it makes your brain chemicals go brrr (forgive me for using such complicated scientific terms). I like it!
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Gamezone
Gold Member
Don't forget in-home streaming and remote play using Steam Link.
JimboJones
Member
Epic game launcher's social aspect rivals that of a Nintendo Switch.
buenoblue
Member
Yeah I have no real problem with steam apart from lack of customization. But some peoples devotion to it and the hatred of any other front end I do find puzzling and anoying.
I use gog galaxy 2.0 but it's not quite there yet for me. Playing 1440p or 1080p games on my 4k tv seems to confuse it and the font and scaling is never right after I exit a game.
I use gog galaxy 2.0 but it's not quite there yet for me. Playing 1440p or 1080p games on my 4k tv seems to confuse it and the font and scaling is never right after I exit a game.
Holammer
Member
I try to be polite on GAF, but this thing? It stinks of low effort trolling.
What the fuck even is the "classical way" anyway? Have your games in big PC game boxes, grab one from the shelf when you want to play, insert the disc and install via its own installer and then type down the registrations code. Is that it? If so that's the stupidest shit I ever heard.
Soodanim
Gold Member
Expand that to all PC gaming. If Steam never came along, god knows what state PC gaming would be in today. Not only did it pave the way, it didn't force exclusives or any of that shit. They left the market open. If Microsoft or someone else got in, we'd all be playing shitty locked down UWF games in the Windows Store or some other bollocks.
When Steam does not just the game installation, but also the C++ redistributables and all of that boring nonsense for you, life is much easier. It takes nearly all of the mess away. A few greedy publishers pushing their own launchers doesn't take anything away from Steam.
i remember the era before steam.
download and install gamespy/won/... update.
download and install game major update 1.3.exe
download and install game minor update 1.3 -> 1.4.1.exe
download and install game minor update 1.4.1 -> 1.5.exe
download and install punkbuster udapte.exe
repeat this every weak for every game
now i open steam and everything is download and installed automatically.
download and install gamespy/won/... update.
download and install game major update 1.3.exe
download and install game minor update 1.3 -> 1.4.1.exe
download and install game minor update 1.4.1 -> 1.5.exe
download and install punkbuster udapte.exe
repeat this every weak for every game
now i open steam and everything is download and installed automatically.
Syphon Filter
Member
I agree, everything you mentioned are the same reasons I don't like steam. The UI/UX is worse than origin, uplay,etc and it's bloated and slow, the only reason it is popular is because they got started first in digital for pc games and sort of locked people in leaving no choice for customers to buy a lot of games elsewhere.
Kataploom
Gold Member
This is literally false, even inside Steam ecosystem itself, since you can buy all your Steam library elsewhere for cheaper if you want to... Steam itself is the last storefront I visit for my purchases since I always find cheaper keys in Fanatical, Humble, etc.
BusierDonkey
Member
Are you under the "store" tab? That's the actual store. Click on the "Library" tab and all your games (and only your games) are there. You can sort and group them however you like.
Reizo Ryuu
Gold Member
For those who don't like what steam looks like, you can use a skin like Air for Steam.
Now the library updates and such have disabled most of the skin features, but it still looks calmer/cleaner than the default.
It also gives you more options in the settings menu directly:
Now the library updates and such have disabled most of the skin features, but it still looks calmer/cleaner than the default.
It also gives you more options in the settings menu directly:
Sentenza
Member
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
It more than does the job and is very robust these days.
No issues which I can nitpick when it's the best out there with some growth in one or two of the competiting launchers.
No issues which I can nitpick when it's the best out there with some growth in one or two of the competiting launchers.
Origin Uplay EGS and Gog are slow AF. I'd argue steam is the fastest of them all.
cinnamonandgravy
Member
eh it's a bit ugly but it works.
at least its not the xbox one dashboard.
at least its not the xbox one dashboard.
Sentenza
Member
it is, it doesn't even need to be an argument since it's a measurable factual statement. I remember posting a video months ago where I compared their startup time and Steam even after the recent redesign that according to some made it "heavier" was by far the quickest of the bunch.
This is almost two years old at this point, but things didn't get better for the competition.
The startup time, how smooth it is to navigate, the memory footprint are all parameters where Steam is better than the ones mentioned, and this while still dwarfing all of them combined in terms of integrated features and functionality.
And while this is more subjective, I'd argue also while having a far prettier (and more practical in terms of actual use) UI.
Spoiler: EGS was unsurprisingly complete trash tier under any metric I checked.
But you know what's up. A lot of the people commenting here that Steam is "ugly" maybe want to imply that the Playstation Store is better.
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synchronicity
Member
It's the greatest consolidation of gaming options within the medium, and that's just for starters.
Laptop1991
Member
I come from a time on PC before Steam so i wouldn't say it's great, but it's the easiest and hassle free of PC client's and rarely interferes with game play for me, some of the others can be a pain at times.
Lupin3
Targeting terrorists with a D-Pad
Ugly? Well, it's not particularly pretty, but can't say I've experienced it as slow. Got most of my games there, easy to manage, decent download speeds. Everything's just... easy.
Some time around when the blueprints for Stone Henge was made, I too hated clients. Now I can't even begin to think how I ever managed without them. It's like pre-cut oven paper, try living without it even for a week...
Wildebeest
Member
It has the most games and people have friends lists which they don't want to leave behind. I think that GOG Galaxy has the better game library. It also has integrations to synch games from other launchers.
WitchHunter
Banned
It works. It's nothing fancy. They were the first, they enjoy their position.
Dream-Knife
Banned
Steam has always been fast for me, you might have a hardware issue.
It doesn't look outdated to me. What is a store you would like it to look more like?
As for the question in the OP: It just does everything you need. It's the standard platform of PC gaming, has web, and music functionalities, Steam overlay, cloud saves, communities, messaging. I can't think of anything it is missing.
It doesn't look outdated to me. What is a store you would like it to look more like?
As for the question in the OP: It just does everything you need. It's the standard platform of PC gaming, has web, and music functionalities, Steam overlay, cloud saves, communities, messaging. I can't think of anything it is missing.
Sentenza
Member
It really doesn't. It's slower, less organized, lacking sorting/filtering options (especially the dynamic ones that make the new Steam library so good to use).
Also, the latter (syncing with other launchers) is broken as hell and keeps nagging the user with constant request to re-log/resync... Not to mention that it still requires to run the other launchers in the end when you start playing, which make the whole "centralization" thing kinda pointless.
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BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
It's not perfect but they do so much right that I don't really care about my minor gripes.
Wildebeest
Member
Maybe the Epic integration has occasional synch problems, but it doesn't nag in my experience. It might technically be slower to load everything, especially if you have multiple integrations, but it has better filters and bookmarkable tabs. In terms of actually launching games, if you know what you want, then just launch it however you want. You don't need the library to launch GOG games as they are DRM free...
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
It has a ton of features that.. well.. "just work".. for lack of a better term. It's great at managing game installs, has built in mod support, the best forums/reviews/etc. systems.
And you can set it to launch to your "library" so you don't launch to the store. Also the library screen is pretty customizable.. not sure what issue you even have with it?
Games requiring extra launchers is that game/publishers fault though not Steam.
And you can set it to launch to your "library" so you don't launch to the store. Also the library screen is pretty customizable.. not sure what issue you even have with it?
Games requiring extra launchers is that game/publishers fault though not Steam.
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BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
big picture mode is getting a redesign with the launch of the steamdeck, or so they say
Sentenza
Member
I'm not sure if "more modern" is how I'd describe a giant ass pop-up taking one third of the available surface in the middle of the screen.
Larxia
Member
I couldn't agree more, I hate that everything now have to have this mobile / minimalist design. Everytime a software changes for a design like this, it becomes less intuitive, less ergonomic, more tedious to use (which is funny because it's apparently supposed to do the opposite...), it also often removes features, options, customization and such.
Everytime someone mention that Steam design is too old, it makes me fear that one day we will sadly get a sad, poor mobile design for steam with much less features compared to today.
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bargeparty
Member
steam sucks, they ruined the interface and the sorting blows. it was perfectly fine before.
BWJinxing
Member
Workshop is worth it's weight in gold. I don't have to visit some ad-malware,infested site.
Ive reinstalled cities skylines, steam re-downloaded all of the mods aviable.
No other PC storefront can save you time and anger steam can.
Saving 10$ dollars on a game platform vs convince and time saved on another, my time is worth more then counting pennies.
Ive reinstalled cities skylines, steam re-downloaded all of the mods aviable.
No other PC storefront can save you time and anger steam can.
Saving 10$ dollars on a game platform vs convince and time saved on another, my time is worth more then counting pennies.
GHG
Member
So your complaint about big picture mode (which works perfectly with any controller by the way) is that it hasn't evolved?
Let me ask you this then, what other storefront offers something similar?
P.S. it has evolved over time BTW, you just haven't been paying attention and there will be an update when Deck launches.
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ChoosableOne
ChoosableAll
I spent a small fortune on Steam. It doesn't have to be great at this point, it just has to survive. I like the way it is though.
Hinedorf
Banned
In the last 10 years the steam summer sales have been so insane a large group of people started amassing quite a catalog of games all within steam for pennies on the dollar, the long term success of this process has earned Steam the respect and loyalty it deserves. I can still queue up a game I bought 10 years ago.
Sleepwalker
Member
I'm not a legacy user, rather new to pc gaming but even I found some old games from way back then on my account lol. I truly don't care too much about it because I have no friends on it or friends that play on pc period. But it's nice for what it does. It's cool to have a central hub for your games and to not have to chase them individually.