Valve’s Steam service has arguably become the most popular way to get games for the PC, beating out competitors such as Desura and Origin. Quick and simple to use, Steam provides game updates, friends lists, and much more. However, it is not without its downsides. As more and more publishers turn to Steam to distribute their games, it is becoming a must-have for PC gamers.
Steam Cloud offers easy installation whenever a user wants to play a certain game on his PC. Since all purchases are also stored on Steam, it is possible to delete the game and then reinstall at a later date. Games can also be downloaded on multiple computers, though they can only be played on one at a time. With constant promotions and sales, Steam will frequently give better deals than retailers and other distribution platforms for games. As of right now, Steam is offering a Winter Holiday Sale, giving deep discounts on almost all their games. There are also numerous free games and samples on the platform, allowing users to play without having to pay a cent. The variety of games offered on Steam makes it a huge plus for PC users wanting to keep tabs on all of them. While it doesn’t have everything, such as games produced by Blizzard, those games can be added to the Steam library, which lets it be opened using Steam. That feature also gives it the Steam overlay, which is convenient for chatting with friends.
However, Steam requires that all games bought on Steam to have Steam running to actually play them. Some games — notably The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — also have the requirement of activating the product on Steam in order to play the game at all. This may be an annoyance to players who just want to play the game instead of having to register a Steam account and then associate the product with that account. Gamers with outdated hardware (like me) also find that the Steam program takes a decent chunk of processing power just to have it open. Since all games offered on Steam require Steam to be open to play them, it can be a slight annoyance.
Overall, Steam is a great service that every PC gamer should already have. Sure, it has a few downsides, but there isn’t any reason not to have it. The support is great; notifying Valve of any complaints is easy and the response is usually quick. In short, Steam is definitely worth having.