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[MNC]

JET SET RADIO

My love for Valve first started with the Steam platform. I was a mere teenager that didn't get to know the early awesome PC gamings because I had a horrible PC so I joined Steam during the early friends beta period and I downloaded all kinds of demo's. How cool is that? A platform where you could chat with friends while playing a game, and using an overlay and what not... It was amazing! I quickly tried the Half Life 2 demo but it wouldn't even start on my awesome 800Mhz computer with an ATI Radeon 9000 that I bought myself. Lost, but not defeated, I had to try this game. The screenshots looked really cool and there were alot of aliens! I like aliens. So I got my sister's laptop, who, is younger than I am but had A FREAKING LAPTOP WHEN SHE WAS 13. This was unknown in my household! I am the older one!

Anyway, I installed Steam on the laptop and tried demo and oh my god it ran! It loaded the game within just 6 minutes and it looked amazing on low textures.

Fast forward to 2008/2009, Orange Box had just been released. So I bought Orange Box in 2009. I didn't even have a PC to play it on yet. It wasn't until a few weeks later I got a PC handed down to me by my dad. I now had a whopping PC with an Nvidia FX 5200 and a 2,8 Ghz processor. Hyper threaded!

Steam had spread among my close friends and as soon as L4D1 came around, we pre-ordered it and played the pre-order demo daily, religiously. It was the best experience ever.

Fast forward some more, I am in a mental hospital. I do not know what year it is anymore. I borrowed this computer from the little man in the cage. He says HL3 won't be released. I say he's crazy. Crazy I say.

Anyway, I preorder every Valve game and I'm pretty much a little bitch fanboy for just almost everything Valve.

 

[Salsa]

MNC smells

 

[Gvaz]

How can that be brony mode when they got the marks at the wrong position and one of them is a giraffe!

Because the know bronies are stupid and will buy into anything mlp related.

Ugh bronies. Just nuke it from orbit and throw it into the largest sun in the universe.

 

[microtubule]

or

@MRORANGE, thanks for the competition giveaway!


The Half Life series, Team Fortress series, Counter-Strike series, Left 4 Dead series and the Portal series are my all time favorites from Valve Corporation. I have spent many hours over the years playing in those worlds. Even if the games were linear the worlds did not seem linear. These guys have mastered the art of packaging enjoyment and entertainment in digital form.

I had a small website at the time many years back and Valve even offered a copy of Half Life to use in a giveaway. I was really flabbergasted at the time.

/sarcastic voice
Now Valve is one step closer to world domination with their Steam service which seems to be constantly improving. We gamers are in trouble if Valve ever decides to give a President the Steam service killswitch in the future. Now what if that President has a thing for EA and makes Origin the defacto "subscription service". Okay, tinfoil stuff. I'll leave now.
/sarcastic voice off

Also if you like the music from Portal 2 be sure to download the free soundtrack from Valve (click here for link)

 

[Rickenslacker]

Ugh bronies. Just nuke it from orbit and throw it into the largest sun in the universe.

Can you just throw me into the sun of the universe that is your heart? <3

 

[graywolf323]

Home
Jet Set Radio HD

Honestly while Steam is still my favorite platform I have some fear for the future. The push towards including software, while it hasn't happened yet, seems completely unnecessary to me. Also the changes to the sales which we saw caused a rather chaotic Summer Sale this year what with daily deals plus community choice deals and flash deals where some things ended up discounted during one of them but not the rest (Saints Row 3&#8217;s various packs/dlc being the best example). On the other hand Big Picture Mode is great (though I can&#8217;t figure out how to use autocomplete when typing on the daisy wheel?) and there still isn&#8217;t anyone close to competing with Steam.

 

[AIRic]

Poker Night at the Inventory

Jet Set Radio

Just Cause 2

As a new adopter of digital downloads outside of MMOs, Steam is quite a revelation. I used to buy all my PC games in retail. I have a Steam account since the release of the Half-Life 2 and the episodes disc and only used the service for those games. Since I formatted my computer about 2 weeks ago, I only have Steam installed and I am rebuilding my gaming library from the store. With all the specials and discount, I've been visiting the store every day. I also thanks the Steam store and NeoGaf threads/users for opening me to the wonderful indie gaming scene. Being able to have all my PC gaming collection under a simple program is incredible. I still can't believe that I was blind to not see how Steam was more than a Valve games distributing system. It might sound too much enthusiastic, but it's my feeling of this system.

One thing that always surprise me it's the downloading speed, it seems that it's the only time that my internet connection is fully used (900K). Downloading Alien vs. Predator, from GMG special yesterday, was very fast for a 15 GB file. I'm not sure how it works for installing games, but it's so trouble-free (Are the games downloaded uncompressed?). Even old games like the Worms games given to me by friendly Gaffers were installed without needing old DX files installation.

Now, I have an ambition to have a online friend list, something I've never done before. Question : What is the quickest way to add friends? I'm in the Borderlands GAF group, is it possible to add all those gamers in one shot?

EDIT : Sorry for my english, it's my second language.

 

[Gvaz]

Can you just throw me into the sun of the universe that is your heart? <3

I'm sorry. You can still be saved! I will pray to Gaben that you overcome your serious affliction. Also I need to get my 20ft pole, because 10ft isn't long enough.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

I like Steam, it does everything I want from a digital store and online community. Valve on the other hand worries me. They've become basically the platform leader by accident. Its like as if a hippy commune accidentally produced the national phone service. I don't think they really want the position. I imagine at some point they will sell steam to someone and who knows that those people intentions will be? So I've been trying to buy from other sources (Amazon, GoG, Origin), just to not put all my eggs in one basket.

 

[ShaneB]

Now, I have an ambition to have a online friend list, something I've never done before. Question : What is the quickest way to add friends? I'm in the Borderlands GAF group, is it possible to add all those gamers in one shot?

EDIT : Sorry for my english, it's my second language.

English is fine No worries bud, quickest way to add friends? I don't think you can just add all members from a group, and isn't there like 400 people in the BL2 gaf group? That's a lot of friends! There is a steam id thread, but it's kinda lifeless. From time to time people will post their Steam id's here and ask for friend requests, and that'll generally get you a bunch of new friends

Great idea for a contest MRORANGE, I think I'll put up an entry later.

 

[Rickenslacker]

I'm sorry. You can still be saved! I will pray to Gaben that you overcome your serious affliction. Also I need to get my 20ft pole, because 10ft isn't long enough.

Where is your God now?

 

[The Wizard]

Super generous competition MRORANGE, nice work.

Well I’ve only really gotten into PC gaming rather recently but I have to admit Steam / Valve have been a big draw for me. Their games are some of my all-time favourites and Steam is pretty much my platform of choice for playing games on at the moment. That’s not to suggest they’re without flaws though, there non strict deadlines approach to things usually works out it can also lead to ridiculous delays between games and even today seemingly simple to implement features remain missing from the steam client. Overall though I think their reputation as a consumer-friendly company is earned, and I am looking forward to their future innovations and of course, steam sales.

 

[zkylon]

"WHER BE MAH HL3?!" is 100 words long rite?

 

[Jables Swan]

Home or Rome: Total War

I've been on Steam for about 3-4 years now consistently and I've loved every minute of it.. until recently. I'm not a huge fan of the social media type look update thingy they have released. I love the idea of Greenlight when they finally get it tweaked and I still love having all my games digital, all in one place and getting them on the cheap. They are making a crap load of money off me and I haven't even touched all the games I've played. Like many, I suffer the backlog curse.

Steam for me isn't perfect but it's so damn close.

 

[Blizzard]

Yo is that Brony mode for Snuggle Truck real? If so, please get that game the fuck off my account.

There should be rules against devs trojan horsing shit on to your account that way.

Calls himself Stallion Free, doesn't want ponies to be free, what is this bias.

 

[Giard]

Jet Set Radio
Crysis
Poker Night at the Inventory

They're in order of preference, if that matters
Thanks for giving us the chance to win these.

What I think about Valve and Steam? Honestly, I didn't really like Valve before. I'm not a fan of the Half-Life series, and I never was a huge PC gamer (except for strategy games, like Rise of Nations or the Civilization series).

My opinion of them changed once I heard about the Orange Box. Team Fortress 2 and Portal seemed fun, so I bought it for my 360. Again, didn't like Half-Life all that much (perhaps because I did The One Free Bullet achievement). However, I had lots of fun with TF2 and Portal was amazing.

A few years later, I keep hearing about Steam, but I'm a "comfy couch" dude and I don't have a gaming PC. Then, my friends and I played a game with someone's laptop plugged into the TV and USB controllers, and I realized you could have the "comfy couch" experience with a PC.

A couple of months later, it's the 2012 summer sale I know I'm going to get a gaming laptop soon, so I decide to buy a couple of games. I was extremely impressed with the prices. I had just pre-ordered Halo 4 and a couple of other games for 39.99, and I thought it was an amazing deal! I cancelled almost all my pre-orders, and bought tons of games for $5 instead. I'll be getting a longer HDMI cable soon, so I can plug my laptop into my TV more easily.

I guess now I consider myself a fan of Valve, but not for Half-Life or Left 4 Dead, but because of Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Steam prices. Once my HDMI cable arrives, I'll be trying out Big Picture mode using my 360 controller. If there's one complaint I have, it's that I don't agree at all with their new TOS, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't affect me, seeing as I live in Quebec.

 

[Game Guru]

This list is in order of preference.

What can I say about Steam that has not already been said? Before I joined Steam, I was almost purely a console gamer. Yeah, I would have some games like Civ III, Quake III Arena, Sonic R, and The Sims, but I was never big into PC gaming. However, Steam has changed that. I now have over 100 games on Steam over the four years I've been using it, many of which obtained via indie bundles. To me, Steam is the best digital distribution service for games out there, bar none. The only reason why I still use my consoles is mainly due to the value that I still give to physical games. The way I see it, if the console makers want me to buy digital games, they are going to have to compete with Steam. I can safely say that Steam has made me a PC gamer and has shown me the value of PC games.

 

[YianGaruga]

Super Competition Time!

HOME or KUNG-FU STRIKE

I only started using Steam a lot about a year ago when I built a new gaming PC, but it has changed how I play games, what kind of games I play and how I view the industry. Through the huge catalogue and the sales I play a lot of games I would've never even knew existed before. Digital distribution is pretty much the only future I currently see for videogames, as the $60 retail model is no longer sustainable, and Valve/Steam is at the frontier of that movement. Unlimited shelf-space, no production cost per-unit, bigger profits to developers, especially small teams. For consumers, they are doing the absolute best job at competing with "free", which is what all digital media have to compete with today. The service they offer combined with extremely flexible prices is fantastic. In my opinion they're the unchallenged #1 in this. One thing I'm especially interested in are their experiments with virtual economies as in TF2 and DOTA, or even Steam itself with its sales and inventory system. I don't have an opinion on their push into the software sector, as it probably won't affect the games store at all. From Valve's point of view, diversification is good.

 

[kami_sama]

HOME
JET SET RADIO
ROME - TOTAL WAR

I first started using steam in 2007, when I bought a retail copy of Half Life 2. I had to register for the service. I didn't touch it again until 2008 when I bought Audiosurf, when they were still using USD for every region. The sales were mostly bad, and there wasn't a lot of third party games. I used it sporadically. But more and more third parties showed up and sales became a lot better. It became the first software I installed on a new computer after Firefox. It is also of mention that I bought a new card, as the one I had was the one on the motherboard. Since then I'm first and foremost a PC gamer and I'm proud of my more than 200 games. That was thanks of Steam getting better and better.

 

[Wario64]

Mirror's Edge, Jet Set Radio, Just Cause 2

I signed up for Steam when it first came out but haven't actually used it properly until May of this year when I got a real PC (I haven't really PC gamed since 2004). I think Steam is pretty awesome and everything I envisioned XBL to be in the future/today but didn't. Love the community aspect of it and just hanging out in GAF chat once in a while. People may complain about Steam's DRM but I find it convenient in my case since it auto-updates all my games in the background, and I have all my games in one place. Buying and gifting games is way simple and encourages people to give up money so easily, compared to PSN/XBL which feels so archaic in comparison. Download speeds aren't even that bad so I don't mind too much having all my games in digital form. I do hope we have the ability to trade or sell games back, but Steam sales makes totally makes it up for it. I always login and check to see what the daily deal is.

As for Valve, their games are some of the best in the industry. I remember reading up on Half-Life previews back in the day before the game came out and I knew this game was gonna be huge. It easily lived up to my expectations, and again and again with Half-Life 2 and Portal 2. I don't mind the excruciating long wait for the next installment of Half-Life 3 if it ensures that the level of quality never dips.

Steam easily the best platform IMO and I don't see myself leaving the PC scene ever again unless I go bankrupt.

 

[AIRic]

English is fine No worries bud, quickest way to add friends? I don't think you can just add all members from a group, and isn't there like 400 people in the BL2 gaf group? That's a lot of friends! There is a steam id thread, but it's kinda lifeless. From time to time people will post their Steam id's here and ask for friend requests, and that'll generally get you a bunch of new friends

Great idea for a contest MRORANGE, I think I'll put up an entry later.

Thanks! I'll do that. Here's my Steam ID : airic82. Everyone should feel free to add me anytime.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Poker Night at the Inventory
Renegade Ops

Valve makes the decision to be a small, agile company filled with bright people. This helps them in a lot of ways, but it hurts them in other ways. We still don't have video recording. In-game screenshots came a year or more too late. And part of it is because those require a lot of infrastructure, and infrastructure requires people. The length of the transition between the old content system and the new content system, and thus most of the server speed scaling problems Valve has had, is a result of this. All the complaints you hear about support are also a product of this.

It also means that while Valve is very good at making tools available for developers, they're a lot less good at convincing developers to use them--because evangelism needs people and it needs an active investment.

I'd like to see Valve grow, not enough to be a huge corporation, but enough to address its deficiencies. Whatever incentive Microsoft gives people to use GFWL, Valve should be copying, doubly so that Windows 8 is coming up. All these developers who go PS3/360 and have no PC port, Valve should be nagging them. Valve should have a Japanese team.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Valve has done a great service to not just PC gamers but all gamers in general. The half life series paved the way to many popular aspects of modern FPS games. When you look at games in terms of digital distribution most people think Steam. It's hard to even imagine where PC gaming would be at this point without Steam. It pretty much started the revolution and now DD makes up some 70% of the market for PC gaming. Even the likes of Sony are taking note and have just recently started preloading games on PSN similar to how Steam has been doing for quite some time now. Well I'll end it now since you said keep it short

 

[1-D_FTW]

Yo is that Brony mode for Snuggle Truck real? If so, please get that game the fuck off my account.

There should be rules against devs trojan horsing shit on to your account that way.

Suddenly feeling real good about not going for the Humble Bundle Android 2 package

 

[Fireblend]

Super Competition Time!

Jet Set Radio
Home
Crysis

^in that order.

So, my opinion on Valve/Steam. Well, I think that there should be a clear division between the company and the product, as much as they remain linked together in the public conscience. Valve is a very successful company that has achieved to remain surprisingly independent throughout its history; not only do they do whatever they want, they do it efficiently, its customers have a very clear understanding of this, and it gives them a very important edge. The fact that very talented people started and run the company makes this an aspect that's unlikely to change any time soon, and the critical acclaim to which they have been subject for most if not all of their gaming efforts and their tendency to over-deliver guarantees them a stream of revenue from a rabid fanbase.

And if this wasn't enough, they've got Steam, which is evidently the result of a stroke of genius. I don't think people fully realise the duality inherent in their business model; even though Gabe's face gets splattered in both Valve and Steam-related memes and whatnot, I highly doubt the gaming-development and steam-development teams are very interconnected within the company's structure; even those two "views" of Gabe in the public eye are different; one is some sort of gamer Santa every sale, while the other delays Half-Life 3 every other reddit post. To me, even though the relationship between "the source games" and Steam is undeniable, Steam is interesting because of its tendency to be disruptive towards the industry, not because it's a product by the same people that made Half Life (although admittedly one could argue that Steam got an important early push thanks to its enforced usage to play Source games, as well as how convenient it is for Valve to always have at least one of their games support every new Steam feature as soon as it's out of the door).

Anyway, to me Steam is interesting because of how disruptive it is. It's the equivalent of emerging business models for other forms of content such as music or books in gaming form. It wasn't long ago that stores were attempting to sabotage digital distribution by threatening with driving up prices or ordering smaller orders for games that were simultaneously available in such distribution methods. That didn't last long either. And then there's the fact that Steam (maybe as a result of Gaben's own background) seems to be madly in love with statistics. They love exploiting sales, giveaways, community content sub-stores, and a myriad of other features like no other distribution medium for no reason other than to see if it'll drive up sales, and they have a very decent analytical ability to identify which of these work and how. As a CS student, I have no doubt they've got some amazing datamining systems going. And it has worked, and the community has responded positively. They're now in a position from which they can keep growing to the point that their userbase is willing to follow them even into the console market, they've got some great R+D projects reminiscent of Google's, and despite some controversy they seem to remain committed to what their community identifies as positive ideals (even though there will be challenges ahead inherent to digital distribution methods, specially that of digital goods ownership, I sure wish my kids could use my Steam account).

 

[Mengy]

Jet Set Radio

Mirror's Edge

Rome Total War Gold Ed.

My opinion on Steam:

I think it's been freaking awesome. Not only has it redefined digital distribution and brought it into the mainstream, but it's done it in an excellent manner. Being privately owned it doesn't have to answer to corporate wishes or the whims of stockholders. It was created by a gaming company, for gamers, to sell games at good prices. It's allowed me to buy so many games at great prices that I otherwise would have simply passed over or written off, or never even heard of. More importantly, it's helped the developers of those games reach an audience. That's great for both the gamers and the industry. And Greenlight should be an even better vehicle for indie developers and gamers, which are in many ways the future of gaming and the antithesis of everything that is "wrong" with the industry today.

I personally think Steam is the best thing to happen to PC gaming in over a decade.

 

[mr. grape]

My first experience with Steam was when I bought/activated a cheap copy of Sins Episodes from Big Lots back in 2006 (or 2007, I forget). I quickly played through the game and forgot about Steam. I didn't get serious about Steam until late in 2011 during one of the seasonal sales, and from that point on I've been addicted to purchasing Steam games. Before then, I had very little interest in PC gaming, Valve pretty much converted me.

The pricing structure is amazing, and IMO pretty much set the standard for what PC gaming is today. I don't know if I'd still be PC gaming if Steam didn't come along.

 

[grkazan12]

The first time that I ever used and joined Steam was on the exact date of December 25, 2004 because my brother got me Half-Life 2 for PC (a couple months earlier we bought a Gateway). The most memorable thing for me that morning was witnessing the terrible software and activation process of Steam. HL 2 was my most anticipated game for that year and I couldn't even start it up because Steam was unavailable, thus it couldn't be activated. To tell you the truth, I didn't mind Steam that much once HL 2 activated. Fast forward a couple of years later, hearing about Steam again from the 2010 Winter Sale Thread was the tipping point for me to jump back into PC gaming. Built a PC in early 2011, installed Steam and I was surprised to find an excellent gaming service that is simply a cut above the rest. Steam is the reason why I haven't turned on my consoles in about 15 months.

 

[Eideka]

I personally think Steam is the best thing to happen to PC gaming in over a decade.

That's not even open to debate.

 

[Tomodachi]

Jet Set Radio

Thanks a lot for the contest MRORANGE, that's one of the many reasons I just love this thread. I hope my English will suffice, but I'm sure it will be a mess

What I love the most about Valve is their obsession with data. They are among the few companies in the gaming industry who don’t let decide non-gamers, old corporate folks with only a vague idea of what gaming is all about. They understood that the only meaningful way to operate in this industry is to closely follow what your customers buy, want, loathe, and with modern tools keeping track of this is even easier than before. The fact that they care so much about their data is the reason of Steam’s success itself. They try to innovate at every turn but improving on what is already working and fixing what isn't.
They're one of the few companies who give a damn about what they do. The main examples of this philosophy are Greenlight and the latest Summer Sale, when they gave the users a lot of decisional power. Maybe something was a little rough around the edges, but I'm sure every year we'll see an improvement of the formula because if someone can and want to learn from its mistakes, it’s Valve. Gaben be praised.

 

[Visualante2]

Valve has released a series of fairly predictable sequels since the Orange Box. Continually ignoring their most beloved franchise, Half Life. It's quite depressing that Doug won't let them talk about it.
Nothing average but at the same time nothing that really blew my mind. I think Dota 2 is the best thing they've done since Episode 2. I'm happy as long as Valve is happy and doing things they want to do, even if they don't appeal to me. It saddens me that Steam is becoming slightly anti consumer after so many great steps forward (EULA, region restrictions, pricing). Greenlight has been a mess but I think it can be fixed.

I hope Valve splits Steam off into a separate company. I don't think the relationship is mutually beneficial at this point.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Jet Set Radio, Poker Night, Mirror's Edge

I'm sort of worried about steam at the moment. The addition of other types of software on the service might turn their front page into something more akin to the 360 dashboard with games and software all thrown into the same shelf space. I don't want to boot steam and see a daily for some CAD software. I wish they'd just spin it off into it's own piece of software.

As far as greenlight goes, it could be cool but leaving the decision making to the community could be a bad thing and keep good games off the service because the developers aren't good at promoting their game to the public. There should be an alternate channel that might cost a bit more but gets the game into the hands of someone at valve and let them judge whether the game should be on the service or not. I'm afraid that once the new car smell of greenlight wears off, steam will become the place of the major publishers and the AAA indie developers.

That might be a bit nitpick-y because the service is great at the moment. There's not much else I'd want on the service right now. It's pretty rad.

 

[xenoflux2113]

So I have been on steam for just over a year now and the service while not perfectly perfect is a fantastic thing. It has made me a main PC gamer and I have become a, as people at work call me, a "steam activist/purist". I guess I have been spoiled by the interface and overlay and how easy things are with steam but to anyone in the office I talk to about gaming it always comes to the platform of choice and I praise PC gaming and Steam as a big factor in it. Also because of steam and this thread I have talked to so many great people. Even during some rough times there were people on my friends list that were more supportive and would listen then even family, and for that I do have to thank you guys as you are all awesome.

 

[Metalmurphy]

I've been using Steam since it's release date, (because I didn't have a choice if I wanted to play CS1.6) and it always baffled me how they handled it from the start (barely any improvements for years and years, friends list didn't work for more then a year, etc), it even brought me to use other alternatives like Xfire.

But now I see my self again baffled, but for opposite reasons. The speed in which steam has been improving over the last 2 years is amazing. Gifting system, screenshots, new community stuff, steam workshop, greenlight, big picture mode, etc... They've been filling ever users request and then some. And it doesn't look like they're stopping.

<3 Steam.

 

[xJavonta]

I'm late but I just grabbed TL2 for $.47 at GameStop. Traded in Skyrim for 360 since I don't play it and Madworld for Wii since I haven't really played it and got the Steam Wallet card for $.47. Good deal.

 

[xJavonta]

Mirrors Edge
Crysis
Jet Set Radio

I've always been a Valve fan. I played Half-Life 2 years after it's release in 2000, and I just fell in love with the game. The atmosphere was just phenomenal and Valve has been a favorite of mine ever since. To this day, I still think Valve are some of the best game devs out there. Their products usually take quite some time to develop, but it's totally worth it in the end. Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is my favorite game of all time and nothing has topped it yet.

As for Steam, I'm a huge fan of it. Sure I dabbled in PC gaming when I was younger, but I never really had the PC as my primary gaming platform. Whenever a game was multiplat, I went for a console version instead because my computers were always hand me down bullshit that made gaming less than ideal. Then, almost 3 years ago I got a "gaming laptop". I spent more time on Steam after seeing it's ridiculous sales (I only used Steam for Half-Life prior to this), and realized that all of this time, I was paying ridiculous prices for games on my Xbox and PS3 that I could get for less than half of on Steam. Being a broke student, this was more than enough to sway me to the Steam side. So I saved up some money and bought my current PC, and I haven't looked back since. Steam has only gotten better with time, with the enhanced features (revamped Voice Chat, Big Picture Mode, New Community, Greenlight), and the future looks very bright from here. I'm in it for the long run.

And of course, thank you MRORANGE!!!

Edit: Sorry, didn't realize this was a double post.

 

[Family Fry]

Don't know if it has already been mentioned but point n click adventure The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav has dropped in price, now only $20/£15.99.

http://store.steampowered.com//app/203830

 

[PhaZZe]

reported again in case anyone has not seen it

NS2 only for Gaf

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/kcycR/natural-selection-2

 

[human onion]

Although I only joined Steam in 2010, I still feel like I've stuck with Valve for years and years. I own most of their games, and all of them are the closest thing to first person shooting perfection. The Half-Life series, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Counter Strike, Portal and Dota 2 have consumed more of my time than most other games.

As for Steam itself, its convenience and massive amount of features make the user feel in power. I dislike some of their policies, however. Lack of resale and the potential to have all of your games taken away are scary, driving me away from using the service for buying anything but Valve games most of the time (except on sales, which are awesome).

I also dislike some of the changes made to TF2 over the years, including the addition of useless weapons and overabundance of hats that make the game's file size monstrous. Overall, however, Valve are masters of their craft and a great part of PC gaming.

 

[Sajjaja]

Poker Night at the Inventory
Kung Fu Strike
Just Cause 2

Valve..... oh boy. They've been nothing but good to me to be quite honest with exception to my first Steam account magically disappearing that had Counter Strike on it way back in 05. I'm still kinda sore about that, but hey, I got a better collection now

Anyways, I feel that they have been a fan favourite for a long time now, and for good reason. They've listened to their userbase and actually take into account what their users want. Games. Simple. Their leadership is fantastic, but I feel that their progress is slowing. With the rise of other DD services such as Origin they need to step up their game and really get creative. Creating a virtual economy (HATS) isn't going to do it anymore. That is not to discredit them by any means, they are one of the few companies that have kept PC Gaming alive and are serving as a means to let it grow into something even larger than it ever has been (especially now with the Greenlight initiative.) I hope they never die and continue to revolutionize PC Gaming (and possibly even console gaming :O )

 

[dot]

Ah, what the heck. I hate typing essays but I suppose this wouldn't hurt. Let's see...

Valve. I wasn't really familiar with this company until just recently. I mean, i've heard about Half-Life here and there but i never really gave them a thought. Who introduced me to Steam was my best friend. A few years ago, he let me borrow his laptop for a couple months. I saw Street Fighter IV on the desktop and was like, woah! I didn't know fighting games were on pc (lol). I asked him to tell me what his steam account was, and then he proceeded to tell me to get my own account (jerk!). So i did.

Yeah, pc gaming was very foreign to me back then. I was always a big console gamer but i think it took Steam to show me that pc gaming is pretty cool! I think then Steam led me to NeoGAF, and if it weren't for one of the steam threads i probably wouldn't have met a certain person who is just amazing. (You know who you are. )

I think what Valve is doing is a really good thing for the gaming industry. Sure, digital downloads isn't the same as having a physical piece of medium, but it isn't all that bad. It's really convenient to have all your games in one place. And their sales are just amazing! I also love how involved they are with the community. I've only been a steam member for 2 years and i am really glad it exists.

End. (ok, that was more of a story but whatever. I actually had fun writing that haha.)

 

[drizzle]

Home
Mirror's Edge

I really do think Valve and Steam were the salvation of PC Gaming. Not that it really needed salvation - games were being sold on PC before them, but they removed the black veil from some publishers eyes and made them notice that yes, the PC is the "other" gaming platform that also needs love.

And I don't even need to talk about what they do for the end-user: The sales are the best thing they made.

It changed the way I consume videogames.

Edit: Is it cool to ask for Mirror's Edge even if I already have the game? It's for my cousin. If it's not cool, just Home will be fine.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

Steam has a come a long way in recent years and has truly set the standard for digital distribution economy and content delivery. Steamworks is nearly flawless, and with a userbase of an average peak of nearly 4 million active player per day multiplayer games are far less likely to become abandoned swaths of empty lobbies and queues months after release (unlike SOME console games I know of). The only downside is the plethora of games that still don't use it or for which you're forced to go through GFWL or U-play. Community features are equally impressive, with the recent beta update and hubs, screenshot/video sharing, friend recommendations/reviews wishlist sharing, instant messaging, and (although shitty) integrated web browsing and all accessible through an overlay that can be implemented even into games which are not officially available via steam. My only suggestion being the addition of party creation/chat to make going from game to game easier as a group or create ad hoc gaming session hangouts.

The selection of games on the service, new and old, is nearly unrivaled (with gog.com coming in at a close second), and becoming better and better each passing week especially with the introduction of Greenlight (though the system has a few growing pains to go through first). The DRM is about as minimally intrusive as can be without allowing rampant piracy. The ability to transfer your digital licenses for titles to other people/accounts would be ideal, but I can also see how easily such a system is abused. The latter point is moot though in light of Steam's greatest strength: the almighty Steam sale. Besides the occasional GMG or Amazon digital deal (or the name your own price $0.01 indie bundle), Steam's sale pricing is virtually unmatched. When I can get 15+ games for less than $80 something is clearly going right in this world (fuck backlogs).

Lastly, Big Picture mode really is sleek as hell. And with the start-on-boot option it's perfect for a living room emulation machine much like more popular MAME front-ends (if I can ever get around to individually adding all my emulation library). I'd actually love to see someone build an arcade cabinet using BPM if they ever get around to allowing custom skinning for it.

The only thing I don't like about Steam is that it's almost too good, i.e. all this time they spent on it could've been spent on half life fucking 3 barney's day out in black mesa. But Valve's been otherwise great software wise. TF2 has been a phenomenal ride, even if it's beginning to wear (vanilla loadout is best loadout). I could play L4D2 versus day after day and never get bored. I'm not HUGE into Dota 2 but it's well built for what it is, as is CSGO. The Portal franchise has been fantastic, even for a guy who didn't get around to finishing the first one til 2 years before 2 came out. And of course the release of Valve's employee handbook has anyone who's remotely interested in games crying themselves to sleep at night with dreams of that magic place in bellevue. But at the end of the day, I need me some half life 3.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Even though Valve owes all their success to establishing a monopoly that just ruthlessly siphons off 30 cents on the dollar from poor victims developers, and their sales cheapen intellectual properties, Uncle Gabe gave me 10 free games last Christmas. So now I like him. Give me Jet Set Radio and I'll like you too.

 

[SteveWinwood]

Here's a Hootie and the Blowfish song: http://youtu.be/Ln6WQqRDrCo

 

[Madrugador]

CRYSIS
HOME
JET SET RADIO

This is my whole opinion about Steam. As someone who lives in a third world country, Steam has been an amazing experience.

I've been playing videogames since a was 4 but it has always proven to be dificult because prices were always too high where I live. During this time I was always charged twice for a game and pricedrops didn't existed... almost every PC game was hard or even impossible to find (unless you were a pirate).

Things got a lot better with the years, but games were still more expensive than they should. When digital distribution came my mind was blown away and this is when this hobby changed forever for me. I was finally able to buy at the same prices as first world countries and when I was introduced to Steam (an the Steam sales) I became a PC gamer and never looked back (I was a Nintendo fan at the time).

Steam not only made me a PC gamer, it changed my whole relationship with videogames. I still have a lot of critics about the service, like the unstable client, some regional restrictions (which I HATE) and some other online features, but the way it improved this hobby for me is unmatched.

Now, some games are even cheaper here in comparison with some first world countries. I really appreciate this, not because of the savings, but because Valve has shown me that they really want me to be their client.

 

[Gvaz]

So what is this quote shit about?

 

[Volcynika]

I just hope there is no good news about Steam stuff before the contest is over, I won't be able to find it!

 

[Joe Molotov]

So what is this quote shit about?

This is Steam-GAF, bro.

 

[spindoctor]

Don't know if it has already been mentioned but point n click adventure The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav has dropped in price, now only $20/£15.99.

http://store.steampowered.com//app/203830

Probably would have picked it up at launch if it was that price. Now I'm in the "might as well wait for a sale" mode for it. Getting the pricing right is so important, especially for indie games.

There's a new Groupees Be Mine bundle coming soon - http://youtu.be/7IQPWCHeY7Q

The games apparently seem to be King's bounty, Neo Scavenger, X-Blades, Oddworld:&#65279; Stranger's Wrath and Tropico 3.