Comments on: Valve Officially Launches Steam’s “Big Picture”, Holds Gamepad-friendly Sale to Celebrate

By: Rob Williams

Rob Williams — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:48:00 +0000

I think the general idea is that people would build dedicated PCs (like HTPCs) to use it with. It’d in effect be a complement or replacement to a standard console. You can get some great-looking chassis that add to the decor of a room rather than detract from it, so the possibilities are definitely there.

I could definitely see me doing something like this at some point, but literally all of my gaming is done at the PC and I don’t have extreme interest in sitting 10′ or more from a screen to do it.

By: The Focus Elf

The Focus Elf — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Yes I just don’t see me disconnecting my Caselabs Case and dragging it downstairs to connect to the TV, I hope Steam realizes that people with Smart TVs and high-end gaming rigs don’t usually use their PCs as HTPCs but likely have a decent home network infrastructure, I’d love to see it. Sadly, for now I won’t get much use out of TheBigPicture

By: madmatTG

madmatTG — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:09:00 +0000

The new Steam client also gives you the option to install games to other drives or other folders on the same drive. On a game by game basis. Sweet.

By: Rob Williams

Rob Williams — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 02:40:00 +0000

This is exclusive to the PC at the moment. Its best use would be on an HTPC that’s connected to a TV. I’m hoping that in the future, they’ll add functionality that will let you -stream- from a PC somewhere in the house to your Smart TV – that’d be pretty stellar.

By: The Focus Elf

The Focus Elf — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:59:00 +0000

Sure, it makes sense, I love the idea, and really haven’t experienced anything else… I’m curious though, aside from the TV and internet connection, what hardware can we run it on? I see PS3 is an option, nice to see that… Xbox? Kind of excited to play some of these controller games on my TV!

By: Rob Williams

Rob Williams — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 22:16:00 +0000

Well, Steam on the desktop hasn’t changed. The Big Picture mode is there for those who happen to want it – and in quick tests, I -can- see how useful it’d be on a big TV. I was impressed with just how fluid it was to navigate with the gamepad, and I can easily say that I prefer Steam’s implementation here over the UIs seen on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (though those focus a lot on non-game content as well).

I don’t think performance should be much of an issue here, much like it isn’t in the desktop client (at least, where browsing your collection is concerned). It’s worked beautifully for me so far.

By: The Focus Elf

The Focus Elf — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:45:00 +0000

What type of hardware… or moreover, how does Steam manifest on the old LCD? The multitude of content being churned out is first-rate DS. This looks awesome, lord knows I have enough Steam Games. Maybe not as much as you. XCOM?