In my life, I have had m꧑any lovers. Some were short and fiery passions that consumed everything until there was nothing left but the smolderinꩲg embers of the mattress. Others were longer, more measured affairs that built up both our lives and left the bed sheets tousled rather than disintegrated.
But none of my past loves w✱ill ever compare to the unending devoti💖on I feel for Steam.
S💮team takes everything that is good and pure in this life and manages to distil it into a single incredible application. When I’m feeling down, Steam lifts me up to worlds I had never even dreamed of. When I’m lonely, lost and confused, Steam is there to show me the way. Th🙈e way to games.
Like all lovers, Steam isn’t perfect. Steam can be fickle, finicky, and even cruel at times. On more than one occasion Steam and I have fought to the point where police were called to settle a domestic dispute. But I know with the depth of conviction known only between true lovers (or possibly those afflicted with Stockholm syndrome) that St꧙eam will always be there for me.
Today I share with you the eight bes🐼t, seven worstᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ, and one indifferent thing about Steam. Enjoy.
15 BEST: Early Access
One of the best things about steam is its Early Access program. Early Access allows players to dive into new games before they are fully completed. As a bonus, these players get to take ownership of game's development, by sending feedback to the game’s developer🔯s, helping squash bugs and suggesꦆt improvements. Early Access lets you see, first-hand, the potentially of hot new games, and most importantly, you’ll be giving the developer’s money early on to keep them going. It’s not like pre-ordering a game, but more like taking part in beta testing (or in some cases alpha testing).
Early Access can be 🦹fantastic for games that would otherwise never be built. For small companies looking to release their first game, it’s not always possible for them to produce upfront the thousands or even millions of dollars necessary to develop their game from start to finish and then recoup those costs later when the game is released. Early Access allows those developers to get some money back before the game🎶 is finished while also getting QA support.
14 WORST: Early Access
But there’s a dark side to Early Access, one that Steam would rather you not think too hard about. The idea with Early Access is to give developers your money early to help them complete their game. The problem is, once they have your money, some unscrupulous developers may just decide it’s no longer worth their timဣe to finish and just call it quits, leaving you with a half-baked game and no hope of it ever being done.
For the discerning gamer, there are ways of spotting these bad apples. Every game has a section on their store page that shows how often the developer updates, and more often than not what their plans are for the future. If the store shows,𝐆 the game has been updated regularly since its creation then it’s safe to say they’re probably going to see it through to t👍he end.
13 BEST: Cheaper, Faster
Every gamer knows that for a brand new, blockbuster release from an AAA studio they’ll be handing over♋ $60 to $80 of their hard-earned cashꦇ. Every gamer also knows that if they’re willing to wait a bit, they might eventually pick up that same title for a lot less.
If you’re hell bent on owning a physical copy from a brick and mortar store, you might have to wait years for that price to drop. On Steam, prices can drop way, way sooner, usually mere month🦄s after releꦗase.
And let’s never forget the best thing about Steam: SALES! You’re never more than a few months away from the Summer Sale or the Winter Sale, and in between publishers will discount games independently so that they can b🧸e bought on the cheap. Indie publishers will often have a sale for their game’s initial release, and again for special events, in addition to weekend sales that happen regularly.
There’s a dark side to th📖is too, but w💙e’ll get to that later.
12 WORST: Internet Access Required
I know that nowadays being completely without the internet is like being ဣwithout power or water - something increasingly rare and possibly fatal. But most also know their internet connection isn't nearly as reliable as power or water, and sometimes it goes down. Or sometimes you’re on a laptop, and you don’t have the wifi password. Or you’re in the wilds of Africa or Antarctica, and you just can't seem to get a signal. Or maybe you’re on the moon.
Not all games will requir𝕴e you to have an internet connection to play, and Steam does have an offline mode that will allow you to play most games, but you’ll still need an internet connection to download the game in the first place. No interwebs, no game.
I hear wifi is ♈coming to the moon in 2025 though, so maybe this isn’t such a sore sp🤡ot after all.
11 BEST: Huge Selection
Steam’s big. How big? Well, according to Steamspy as of the time of this writin🐼g, there are 14,381 games currently available on Steam.
To put that into perspective, Xbox Market🥂place has a pathetic total under 5,000. Playstation Store has a similar offering. Even competitors like the Humble Store ranks in the thousands. Steam is the only core gaming platform to break ten thousand gaꦡmes.
Steam has more games than there are species of mammals or birds on Earth. If Steam games were miles, they would be wider than the planet. There are more Steam games than I have had ꦓfailed relationships!
Not by many though. I’m catching up t🎉o you, Steam!
10 WORST: Not Every Game Is On PC
Steam does indeed have one of the largest libraries of games the world has ever seen, but it doesn’t have all of them. There are a few stalwart holdouts that are trying to turn back the new world order, and that 🐽really blows.
It’s not the worst thing about being a PC gamer (that’ll come later in this list), but it does make you feel a lot like the kid that’s left out in the rain. Sta♑ring through a dazzling window at that one, shining title you long for but can never play. I’m lookin’ at you, Horizon Zero Dawn.
I take solace in the fact that, historically, console locked titles have eventually found their way to Steam, and many more games are being mad🐷e with PC in mind. Steam’s hegemony cannot and will🦩 not be stopped.
9 BEST: Steam Workshop
PC gaming has always had one giant advantage over their lesser console brethren: mods. The ability for enterprising game enthusiasts with a little programming knowledge to reach into the guts of a game, tweak a few things (or a lot of things), and then give it away for free to t🐼he wider wor💝ld is something truly magical.
Some games can be made to be something so much more than what the original developers envisioned. Just look at Skyrim - without mods, it’s just regular old Skyrim. Ho-hum. With mods, the world of Skyrim comes alive with adde♊d sounds, sights, and textures. Modders get access to whole new stories and experiences.
The Steam Workshop makes it easy to not only find and install mods to your game, but also to upload mods you’ve created yourself. Many PC games are made with Steam Workshop in mind with the hope their title will become popular enough to have hundred🔴s or even thousands of mods created f๊or it.
8 WORST: A Mountain Of Games I Will Never Play
Steam has a huge selection, and its massive sales mean I can get tons of 🐻games for less than the price of my lunch. I’ve already told you how this is awesome, now let me tell you how this is terrible.
I have a mountain of games I have never played because I♑ bought them on🌠 sale and then promptly forgot about them when a new game came along and caught my eye.
At the rate 💖I am purchasing games, I will die before I ever get to complete them all. Think about that for a moment and then dwell in this cozy pit of desp🌱air with me.
It is my fervent hop๊e that I will one day be uploaded into an immortal robot body so I can play through all the games I’ve bought on Steam but never got around to.
7 BEST: Blazing Download Speeds
I have never been able to download faster than a game I’ve 🥃purchased off Steam. From the time I click “buy” to the time I have an installed game ready to play takes less than the time it taꦫkes for me to cook dinner.
Admittedly, me cooking dinner involves a 🔴lengthy visit from the fire department, but that’s beside the point.
Steam has server farms all over the world, and regularly keeps track of which ISPs del✱iver theirജ products the fastest. The next time you’re in the market for a new ISP, the very first place you should go is the Steam Download Stats page to see which provider gives the best download speeds.
Not only that, but Sꦇteam handles all updates, and everything is fully customizable. You don’t want to update until you’re asleep? You can do that. Sleep at 5:30 AM? Steam can handle that. Actually, an immortal va🐲mpire that never sleeps but is occasionally out at dusk to hunt for the blood of the living? That’s in an upcoming update; Valve is very courteous to undead users.
6 WORST: Steam Peripherals
Steam does a lot of things extremely well. With Steam, you can download nearly any game out there and be playing in minutes. Steam is so good at what it does that Valve thought they could do a few more things that were typically thඣe realm of consoles, like the Steam Controller and Steam Link that allows you to play Steam games on your TV.
The results of Steam’s foray into your living room have been decidedly mixed. The Steam Contꦑroller has some interesting features, such as touchpads replacing the classic directional pads, but by and large, people still prefer the mouse and keyboard for most games (and something like the Xbox or PS4 controller for everything else).
The Steam Link is likewise a neat idea, bu🦋t in practice, a wireless connection to play games on your TV just adds a massive headache, and if you alrea🐻dy have a cord long enough to reach your TV you might as well just skip the Link altogether.
Maybe one-day Steam will take over your living room, but I suspect that wi🌸ll be due to the death of cable TV rather than Steam peripherals.