![]() I shouldn’t be forced to finish a game on my TV just because I started it there. Now it’s a scenario Valve directly encourages. In the past, having two or more computers was an edge-case. This makes it even more frustrating that Valve hasn’t mandated the use of Steam Cloud, or made it so all Steam Machine saves are uploaded to some cloud repository at the very least. It is, as far as I can tell, impossible to reach the SteamApps folder without root access, and saved games are also (again, as far as I can tell) hidden behind that wall. One issue I find particularly galling: Accessing your files and saved games is needlessly obfuscated. That’s where I’ve hidden most of that information.)Īlso, the machine is surprisingly locked-down, considering Valve built it partially in response to fears of Windows becoming a walled garden. (For more on what playing games is like, please check out my Steam Controller impressions. But we’re sort of stuck in a chicken/egg problem where Steam Machines need to catch on for developers to make more Linux games so that Steam Machines catch on. Hopefully the situation improves if Steam Machines sell well, as there’ll be significant incentive for developers to build a native Linux version. But if you wanted to stream games, you could just go with the much cheaper Steam Link. ![]() The rest can be streamed over your network from a Windows-based gaming PC, preferably from a wired-in PC to your wired-in Steam Machine-that’s where the Gigabit ethernet jack comes in handy. Personally I went from 700+ games down to around 215, despite the strides that Steam for Linux has been making.įurther reading: 32 killer PC games that call Linux and SteamOS home Those of you who already game on Linux/Mac will understand what that means, but uh…how do I put this nicely for Windows gamers? Your beautiful, extensive Steam library? The one you’ve painstakingly put together for years? Expect it to be cut in half when you turn on your Alienware Steam Machine-or any Steam Machine, for that matter. Valve’s significantly updated Big Picture in the past few months, and all the important bits you’d need to play PC games in the living room are here-the store, your library, and community content (mods, broadcasts, et cetera).īringing PC gaming into the living room comes with a few tradeoffs, however.įirst, games. You can use each half of the keyboard individually, and then pull the corresponding Left or Right trigger to input letters. ![]() Valve’s even built possibly the most intuitive controller-based typing interface I’ve seen, taking advantage of the Steam Controller’s two haptic pads. Everything is geared toward the Steam Controller, everything works right out of the box. SteamOS feels like a much more unified environment. But there’s no getting around it: Windows just wasn’t designed for that sort of experience. This is what it looks like:Īlienware did a pretty great job of transforming Windows into a ten-foot UI last year when it released the “It’s-totally-not-the-Steam-Machine” version of this box, the Alienware Alpha. If you haven’t used it, you can still get a pretty good idea of what it’s like by just heading to Steam and booting up Big Picture Mode.
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