Now you can! Steam has introduced a fairly straight-forward review system that allows you to write reviews for games that appear on their store pages. You'll also be able to rate other reviews, and if you happen to take a liking to a particular reviewer, you will be able to take a look at all their reviews. Now you too can be a hardcore game critic!!!!1
Valve's got a lot of ideas on how to improve virtual reality gaming, but for now, their prototype will remain just that, even though it's said to be the best in the world. Instead of releasing their hardware, Valve is collaborating with Oculus Rift:
All questions related to silly phone games will be directed to Gabe Newell and responded with "WHY U NO PLAY STEAM?"
300 lucky beta testers will soon be receiving their steam machines to begin testing. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be able to try out the Steam operating system:
SteamOS will be made available when the prototype hardware ships. It will be downloadable by individual users and commercial OEMs. (But unless you're an intrepid Linux hacker already, we're going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out.)
It's currently in beta, but Steam users can now broadcast their gameplay for friends or strangers.
Starting today you can watch your friends' games with the click of a button via Steam Broadcasting, now available in beta. When you see a friend in game, simply click on "Watch Game" from their profile or from the Steam Client Friend's List to open a window into their gameplay — no game ownership, special fees, or additional apps required.
Find out more from Steam.
Pictured above are the old Steam controller prototype and the new mockup with buttons from Valve's Steam Dev Days conference.
Steam recently passed 65 million active accounts (Xbox Live has 48 million), and the Fall sale has pushed their concurrent user count over 7 million. DOTA 2 is still holding out as the most popular game on Steam, with over 500,000 concurrent players. The PC Master Race is going strong!
The official Steam Controller is headed for the wild!
The Steam Controller features dual trackpads, HD haptic feedback, dual-stage triggers, back grip buttons, gyroscope and accelerometer sensors, and fully-customizable control schemes. It has a wireless range of about fifteen feet with the option to use it wired, and up to 80 hours of play on a pair of AA batteries.
Want to buy one? You can pre-order a Steam Controller for $49.99 here. A limited set of controllers will be shipped out on October 16th, with a wide release to follow.
