Steam is coming to the Macintosh operating system, some people don’t really see it as being that big of a deal. I, on the other hand, see Steam definitely growing by leaps and bounds. We covered it a little bit on episode 19 “DRM for Kids” of the Geek Gamer Radio podcast, but there were a lot of questions that we didn’t know the answers to at the time which Valve has been kind enough to clear up.
For one, in a nutshell, Steam for the Macintosh is going to have not only Portal 2 (which is going to be the first time a game has been released at the same time for both the PC and the Macintosh by Valve) but it’s also going to have Left 4 Dead 2, Counter-Strike, the original Portal, the Half-Life series and Team Fortress 2 in April. And this is Valve we’re talking about here who is probably one of the biggest companies in the industry right now, so we know full and well there ARE going to be other games coming out for this thing. And the funniest thing is, specifically Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, they’re coming out for the Macintosh BEFORE the PS3 … IF they ever hit the PS3 at all.
One of the things we questioned on the show was (basically) if you would have to buy it for BOTH platforms or just the one, meaning if you already have the PC version of, say, Team Fortress 2 would you have to buy it again for the Macintosh. The answer is no. If you already have it for one system, you can play it for the other. And that includes all of your settings saved over the cloud AND multiplayer are going to be on the same servers. So in the near future you may have some Mac guys kicking your ass in TF2. And all of this completely negates all the talk we had about “would the performance of the game be better under Mac OS natively (which they will run natively) or just rebooting into Windows and running them that way. Purely because Steam is a FREE platform and you’re not having to buy these games separately for each system. That, and not everyone dual boots Mac OS and Windows anyway, so it’s pointless.
Of course, that multiplayer option doesn’t count for the 360 because it’s on a console, and it honestly wouldn’t be very fair anyway. But that isn’t what this is about anyway. I don’t do console bashing all that much because I can’t see limiting myself on the games I play. I play these games for the love of the game, not for the love of the system they’re on. If a game is fun and it’s for a console (yes, even the Wii for how much crap we give it), fine. A good game is a good game, and I’m going to soon be a multi console owner seeing as how I’m getting a Playstation 3 soon so you people can shut up about me and the PS3. 🙂
And the reason I’m calling Steam a “platform” is because that’s exactly what it is now. There’s a lot of “hardcore gamer” talk on GGR because, for the most part, that’s what we are. But Steam is a platform that’s free and ANYONE can join. Not only are there games like Call of Duty, Battlefield and (my personal favorites) the Quake and the Unreal series, but there are also games like Plants Vs Zombies and … well … ANY other PopCap game. Along with hundreds of dirt cheap indie titles. It’s not about whether you’re a “hardcore gamer” or not, you don’t have to be to get the most out of Steam. All you’ve got to be is a gamer. Sure, you have the people who limit themselves to one type or style of game, but then you’ve got the people who play all KINDS of things on the platform. I own, as of this writing, 126 games on it ranging from Chains, Plants Vs Zombies and the Indiana Jones games to the Battlefield 2 Collection, that bigass id Software Collection, the Unreal Collection and I’ve even got Call of Duty World at War in there. I’ve also got Xbox 360 games in the hundreds when you count the Live Arcade and the indie games because I don’t like to limit myself. And speaking of the Xbox 360, I can definitely see Steam getting bigger than THAT.
A lot of people are under the mistaken impression that, because there is so much “hardcore gamer” talk around surrounding it that you need a higher end system to use the platform. I have Steam installed on all three PCs I have running in the house. One is a higher end dual core system (compared to the rest) and another is an Acer Aspire One netbook. The one that I’m typing on right now is an Athlon XP 2600+ with a gig of RAM and Geforce 4 MX graphics. For those of you who just kind of blink at that one, this system was mediocre in 2003 or 2004. Neither one of those systems are going to run these “hardcore” games we talk about so much. They will, however, run most of the Quake series and Unreal Tournament, just because they’re old and modern gamers can’t play them worth a crap (I’ve been playing online a lot. There’s a lot of people who don’t get the fact that if you don’t move your ass, you’ll die) doesn’t mean they aren’t “hardcore”
Just because there are companies like UbiSoft making it difficult for people who do ANY portion of their gaming on the PC side difficult and other companies like Activision just shoveling out the moneymakers like “*Insert name here* Hero” and slowly killing off the Call of Duty franchise by alienating what got the franchise started in the first place while not wanting to bother with games that are actually NEW and DIFFERENT. What do you hear about Brutal Legend anymore. How about that KICK ASS Ghostbusters game they released last year. It doesn’t mean PC gaming is dying like a lot of people seem to think it is. And it doesn’t mean companies are trying to kill it off. If nothing else, Steam is going to HELP PC gaming by a VERY large extent. Consoles are always going to be out there, they’re always going to get console exclusives. PC gamers are pissed about this because they unfortunately limit themselves to the platform they’re the most comfortable with. I know lots of people who will REFUSE to play a first person shooter on the console because the controller isn’t as good as a keyboard and mouse setup. And that is most DEFINITELY a true thing. Try to play Counter-Strike or … well … ANY OTHER competitive shooter on the PC with a controller. You will get slaughtered and/or laughed at or, booted from the game once they find out what you’re using.
But also, you can get, say, an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 for 300 bucks. Name off a $300 PC setup that can run Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 or Fallout 3 as well as either one of those consoles can. I’m sure someone probably COULD, but it would definitely be a custom built machine and most people either don’t know anything about that or they’re like me and just got tired of doing that years ago. And I’ve got something of a physical “disability” on top of it all.
Just GAME people. Whether it be the Xbox 360, Playstation systems, the Wii, PC, Macintosh, the iPhone. WHATEVER. Steam has personally given ME a reason to care about these newer games that are coming out just on the PC because it’s an awesome platform that isn’t restricted to the “hardcore” audience.
And for the record, it’s of my expert opinion as a random blogger on the internet (because we all know how reliable we are) that the ONLY two companies that are capable of “killing PC gaming” like the conspiracy theories suggest are Nvidia and ATI. And even then, gaming would still go on for the PC if they tried. kthx
But hey, by all means, comment on any part of this, leave YOUR feedback. What do you think of PC gaming, console gaming, or … if you’re like me GAMING.