The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Metro]

The competition is not XBox and PS3, it's XB1 and PS4. His point is that i5/660ish is going to be the minimum for next gen games. As such you aren't going to see dated hardware in the Steambox. Can you play most current games on specs much much lower? Yes. Will you be able to play newer games on said lower specs? No. So it's not surprising the lowest specs on the Steambox are the entry level rigs for next gen gaming with the 'crazier' ones meant for ultra settings and massive resolutions. You really expect them to put Core 2 Duo and 400 series GPU guts in those things?

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah, releasing it and having next year's Fallout 4 and the rest run like crap on it would quickly kill the whole initiative.

 

[Metro]

And keep in mind the Nvidia 800 series is coming out next year, too.

Edit: And Gurkog already said that, oops.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Brut just let me dock with him, and now I can see how some of this stuff works from the borrower's side. Here's the warning message, the all clear message, and where it puts a shared library/what it looks like. It says 3 minutes since I missed the first warning it gave, but it apparently pops a new one up every minute or two:

As I learned from my buddy, it doesn't list any duplicate games in the shared library. One oddity is it listed a bunch of EA games I thought had login requirements even if they don't have Origin requirements, such as Sims 3, Darkspore, and Spore.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

So, I'm being literally SPAMMED with coupons by Steam here. All for shit and/or uninteresting games, of course. I like it how these drops completely circumvent my Wishlist.

I have a theory about why that is: My wallet amount. Except for the Shadow Warrior coupons, which I got for various reasons, I'm getting discount coupons for games that makes it so that I just can afford to buy them right now. 10%, 25%, 33%, 50% and in one case 90% off!

Wrong, I currently have like 40 cents left over from cards, never much more than that (highest amount must have been 5 dollars from the summer sale cards; I don't really use the wallet), and I still get coupons on a regular basis. My guess is that the software checks the "people who bought this game also bought..." lists for your owned games and gives you related coupons.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Did some more Steam sharing testing. I took a game from Brut's list on my ok'd computer and tried moving it to another PC using my same account to see if I could get it rolling.

First method I tried was packing it up using the "Steam backup" feature and then installing on the other machine. It recognized the installer but asked for a CD key to unpack it.
Second method was moving the game directory and .acf files to the appropriate folders on the other computer, then starting Steam in offline mode. It DID recognize the game and show it on the list, but under the "Unrecognized source" categorization and refused to launch. If I started Steam in online mode it would correctly label it as "Bruticis's library" and show the game, but it wouldn't launch and the only option it gives is to purchase the game.

Summary, even though the glorious god-Gaben is generous and lets you play shared games in offline mode, you can only do it on the machine that was ok'd for it in the first place. Without resorting to actual cracks and shit of course. But if you're going to go that far you may as well go full pirate.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

 

[Morgoth]

Looks very precise.

Day 1.

 

[Infinitron]

Multi-headed Cow Just wanted to say I really appreciate the research you're doing in this thread. A value-adding poster is a good poster.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Multi-headed Cow Just wanted to say I really appreciate the research you're doing in this thread. A value-adding poster is a good poster.

No problem. I was really curious about how they handled shit with Steam sharing and I figured others might be as well, so may as well post what I find.

 

[Monad]

The controller looks really bad for movement, I'd rather have an analog stick for movement personally. It also looks bad for a game like civ as you're constantly having to swipe, lift, swipe.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

The controller looks really bad for movement, I'd rather have an analog stick for movement personally. It also looks bad for a game like civ as you're constantly having to swipe, lift, swipe.

I think the main point is it works "Good enough" if someone is really hell-bent on playing games while lying on the couch. It's still not up to M&K snuff, but it looks tolerable and looks to work better than a normal controller. For mousey shit anyway, and maybe shooters. He was accurate but kinda slow.

 

[DalekFlay]

Lots of swipe, lift, swipe, lift there... first person camera in Portal 2 looked real clunky. They upped the sensitivity for CS:GO, and it's better, but then they have to really pause and focus to be precise.

Not sold.

 

[tuluse]

Obviously, you're not going to be able to play competitive FPSes against people with M+KB, but it looks like you could play Portal 2 without wanting to pull your hair out.

 

[DalekFlay]

Obviously, you're not going to be able to play competitive FPSes against people with M+KB, but it looks like you could play Portal 2 without wanting to pull your hair out.

Well Valve is proposing the thing as a mouse replacement, and said it can play every Steam game effectively, so... forgive me for judging it based on their own stated goals and intentions.

Also the swiping camera movement makes me want to vomit.

 

[tuluse]

I don't think they ever said it will be a replacement, just an alternative.

 

[DalekFlay]

I don't think they ever said it will be a replacement, just an alternative.

They were careful to never actually say "just as good as a mouse" but if you read their site and language they make it clear the goal is to be a fine replacement for a mouse so you can play traditional PC games and PC genres on a couch. They say it can be used to play every game on Steam, period.

If it comes with major caveats and whole genres it doesn't work well for, like online FPS or RTS, then I don't see how it possible reaches that goal.

 

[tuluse]

There is a difference between playing and playing well.

I could see playing casually with this, co-op some Portal 2, play a game of Civ. Actually competing against opponents with a M+KB is a different story.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

That looked so tiring on the right thumb.Also different games will probably use different mapping for the dragging,making it additional hassle.

 

[Gurkog]

They could set it to scroll the cursor in whatever direction your thumb is positioned from the center when pressing. That would eliminate fatigue, but then it wouldn't be any better than retard stick.

 

[Infinitron]

Isn't it basically a flat trackball?

 

[bot]

Looks very precise.

Day 1.

As compared to what? Consoletardis-ridden gamepads of the yesteryear? I hope you all closeted consoletards realize that from the second that piece of decline is released all the money-grabbing devs will design their games with steambox's limited controls in mind, in the name of the lowest common denominator.

 

[Morgoth]

It's gonna be good for the Dark Souls and other Japanese-developed games that cannot into KB/mouse input.

 

[Space Satan]

I suppose this could segregate unwashed masses of consoletards. With steam controller, they could raise above other unwashed scum and be happy that they are one step closer to PC masters. Its basically a nouveau riche of gaming - they are still retards, but a bit more refined ones.

 

[funkadelik]

Isn't it basically a flat trackball?

It looks like they took two really shitty mouse touchpads from laptops, made them circular, and put them onto an Xbawx controller. Anyone who has ever tried to play a FPS competitively with those touchpads knows that this controller will suck.