Steam

Cool tool. :D

Cool tool when you prefer to have all games in one place, but you don't like too many stuffs on desktop. i dont use a chat so i can say its not good or bad, but steam is very good platform

steam rules ;)

It's just a headache for old computer users. memory hogging stuff.

Very powerfull game platform.

Cool tool when you prefer to have all games in one place, but you don't like too many stuffs on desktop. Audio quality in messenger isn't good at all :(

Install, buy, download and play. That's steam basic function. It works like a charm. The features for chatting are great (with voice calls) and the main window is well organized. The steam windows can blend with other windows sometimes because it doesn't use the Windows default frame. It could have a much better integration with the system. Performance is good but can break up sometimes.

Steam has always been a bloated piece of software. Nonetheless, it is a very powerful platform. The program features a content distribution method that is unrivaled (download games through the steam store, from many different game studios). Features a nice overlay client so that you can message friends without minimizing your full screen game. Also keeps all of your games up to date with its integrated patcher.

Great software! I love the concept. The fact that I can have one account on multiple machines and have the same games across all machines (as long as I re-download the games) is absolutely awesome. I do some traveling and love the fact that I don't have to buy two copies of the games for my laptop and desktop. I generally prefer to use my desktop but I still want the ability to use my laptop when I travel for gaming.

Cons: it seems like the community groups could be changed a little bit to allow more group-to-group communication and challeges. I would like to be able to (as a group admin) challenge another group to a tournament in a game, and to schedule it, and to be able to look back in tournament history and find out who won, etc. It also seems like I should be able to save my game's save data on steampowered so that I don't have to transfer the save games from my desktop to my laptop whe I want to continue a single-player game on the road.

Good content delivery system, buggy at times, though, and a resource hog.

@henk717 - The ingame chat does indeed work in non-Steam games. You've just got to run them from Steam, and GameOverlayUI will run.

Performance is Steam's weakness, apart from that, everything else is brilliant.

I love it.
Automatic updating for your games.
No searching for the cd or cdkey.
Ingame chat witch is betther than xfire.
What could we want more?
The only think i miss is that the ingame chat doesnt work on non steam games.

Way better than Xfire!

Valve's brilliant job at DRM, while other companies resort to using protection like SecuRom.

In addition to a publishing platform, Steam is a social network for gamers. You may communicate with those you add as friends, join groups, and track your gameplay. Some games, especially Valve games (Portal, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, etc.) have achievements that are tracked on Steam.

The process in which game data is maintained is also great. No longer do you need to download an install file, install it, and then periodically update it. Steam keeps game data intact (warning you when files are fragmented), and ensures everything is up to date.

Works great under linux, the games running in it vary. But Portal, Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and episodes all run great under linux!