New Steam Beta Offers Better Friends

Post by trog @ 12:21pm 24/02/10 | 40 Comments

Valve Software have announced a new version of Steam which is currently in beta testing. Boasting improved functionality for Friends, a central news feed, and a stack of other things. Here's the full list of major new features:

* Complete overhaul of Steam client UI design to improve discoverability of features and to better expose all the information related to games in your library
* Complete overhaul of in-game overlay UI design to create a richer in-game experience exposing context sensitive information related to the game you are currently playing
* New game details view, presenting a detailed view of all the information for a single game in your library
* New grid view, presenting a graphical view of your game library
* New news page in the store/client/overlay which aggregates from Valve related news sites, official community groups, and third-party gaming news feeds
* New downloads view in the client, making it easier to track your progress downloading new games or game updates
* New Steam store design, including more integrated community features, improved recommendations, and improved video and screenshots viewing (and much more!)

Their update page includes more information and some visuals. If you have Steam installed you can just click this link, then select "2010 UI Update" under Beta Participation, and you can check out the beta right now.

steam

Latest Comments

Link

ravn0s
Posted 12:30pm 24/2/10

me likey

Link

boba
Posted 12:42pm 24/2/10

looks purdy but had crashed already

Link

$ack
Posted 12:47pm 24/2/10

looks purdy but had crashed already

Link

boba
Posted 12:49pm 24/2/10

oh it's also trying to redownload mw2 mp

Link

konstie
Posted 12:50pm 24/2/10

do any of the changes make it harder for us to buy games cheaper?

Link

ravn0s
Posted 12:54pm 24/2/10

hasnt crashed for me yet

Link

Tremble
Posted 12:58pm 24/2/10

About time. I'm at work at the moment, but can someone please tell me it lets you group friends?

Link

$ack
Posted 12:59pm 24/2/10

About time. I'm at work at the moment, but can someone please tell me it lets you group friends?

negative

Link

re so
Posted 01:08pm 24/2/10

I like it. Hopefully this means they're updating it a little more? Is it silly to hope for download speed limiting or scheduling!?

Link

re so
Posted 01:09pm 24/2/10

Just crashed while switching game library views :(

Link

$ack
Posted 01:20pm 24/2/10

Apparently the new UI uses Webkit now instead of IE

Link

greazy
Posted 01:38pm 24/2/10

Is it silly to hope for download speed limiting or scheduling!?

yep completely silly idea.

Link

Any
Posted 01:40pm 24/2/10

how about the ability to set input & output sound devices for voice chat?

Link

DM
Posted 02:06pm 24/2/10

Oh my... this is pretty. I love it

Link

HERMITech
Posted 03:12pm 24/2/10

FYI - If steam won't start after changing over to new beta, try adding -clearbeta to the end of your shortcut
steam.exe -clearbeta

PS: Epic postcount notify!

Link

HeardY
Posted 04:16pm 24/2/10

looks pretty sex, but I agree with re so, why don't that give speed limiting and/or scheduling options :(

I guess everywhere else in the world doesn't have gay dongs ISP's and bandwidth caps :(

Link

yamahabandit
Posted 04:19pm 24/2/10

"Awesome" new interface woohoo - how bout they fix the resetting of achievements, random behaviour of steam group servers & server browser etc.

Link

trog
Posted 04:20pm 24/2/10

looks pretty sex, but I agree with re so, why don't that give speed limiting and/or scheduling options :(

because since Steam was invented, gamers complain to their ISPs about Steam's deficiencies when it comes to their downloading options, instead of complaining to to Valve

/bitter

Link

HeardY
Posted 04:23pm 24/2/10

ISP's still need to be accountable as well trog, with more and more content delivered online, we need faster internet with larger caps. Though I guess I can handle ADSL2+ speeds for the moment, it's more the bandwidth that is of concern.

Link

Plasma
Posted 04:24pm 24/2/10

I don't like it much right now; its all bloated and horrible.

I use to just dock the games list to the side of my screen, now I can't without it taking up 25% of 1 monitor :(

Link

trog
Posted 04:32pm 24/2/10

ISP's still need to be accountable as well trog, with more and more content delivered online, we need faster internet with larger caps.

ISPs still need to be accountable for you not having functionality that you want in Valve's software so you can manage your download experience?

go sit in the corner and think about what you did, young man

Link

HERMITech
Posted 04:42pm 24/2/10

Trog: Super Nanny

Link

HeardY
Posted 05:42pm 24/2/10

trog: the point I am/was making is that if we had decent caps or NO caps we wouldn't have to 'schedule' downloads.

F***, even Ireland, a country of all of 4m people have true unlimited interwebs.

However, there are ISP's that do provide steam mirrors and hence are helping the situation greatly, alas my ISP doesn't provide this service for me and I am stuck with a game I bought a few weeks back waiting for a 'good time' to download the f***en thing.

Link

greazy
Posted 05:58pm 24/2/10

because since Steam was invented, gamers complain to their ISPs about Steam's deficiencies when it comes to their downloading options, instead of complaining to to Valve

/bitter

I sent valve and email/feedback thingy telling them they should really get off their butts and add a scheduler/speed limiter. Their reply was something on the lines of "we do not discuss future updates". really shat me off.

im giving you advice regarding your software and how you can make it better and you blow me off? all i can say is gg.

Link

whoop
Posted 07:33pm 24/2/10

Does it let you change the theme without restarting the whole application yet?

e: Oh and for the people saying steam crashes, I don't think it's the beta doing it, mine just crashed before and I'm not using the beta version. IMHO valve programmed a timer to make it crash so you'd try the beta to see if it's any better. Sneaky f****.

last edited by whoop at 19:15:03 24/Feb/10

just joined the beta, seems they've taken away the ability to choose a preferred steam mirror? or have they just moved it?

last edited by whoop at 19:33:46 24/Feb/10

Link

koopz
Posted 08:17pm 24/2/10

and some games have to be re-downloaded from scratch now...

giving it a go though, cause I know how to backup my shiz :P

Link

ravn0s
Posted 08:22pm 24/2/10

just joined the beta, seems they've taken away the ability to choose a preferred steam mirror? or have they just moved it?

looks like they go rid of File up the top. just right click the tray icon and go to settings to change download location.

edit: hmm just looked at it then and the download tab is gone. it was there this morning.

last edited by ravn0s at 20:22:44 24/Feb/10

Link

whoop
Posted 08:26pm 24/2/10

yeah f*** downloading 11 gigs of mw2 again so I went back to the old UI, only turns out it broke mw2 so now I have to reinstall it no matter what UI I'm using. F*** you valve software. Lucky I bought it on DVD so I'm installing from that, hopefully it'll just need a couple hundred meg of updates instead of the entire ELEVEN F*****G GIGABYTES.

Seriously? Screw you valve. http://qgl.org/blamegen/ <- knows the truth.

Link

HERMITech
Posted 08:32pm 24/2/10

*sigh*
You do understand the term "beta" and all the inherit risks invulva'd right?

Here's a thought
Before you participate in a "beta" BACK YOUR S*** UP!

It's not hard....
Rename your old Steam directory
THEN run the beta

Link

ctd
Posted 08:33pm 24/2/10

lol yeah it uninstalled my CoH and MW2. Lucky MW2 is for f*****s and paedos so I dun care.

Filter and leave it on overnight.

Looks really nice though.

Link

Tremble
Posted 09:53pm 24/2/10

Tried it, then decided to go back.
Its a bit too bloaty and sluggish for me. Nothing beats steam with the slate colored skin.

Link

eXemplar
Posted 10:04pm 24/2/10

yeah f*** downloading 11 gigs of mw2 again so I went back to the old UI, only turns out it broke mw2 so now I have to reinstall it no matter what UI I'm using. F*** you valve software. Lucky I bought it on DVD so I'm installing from that, hopefully it'll just need a couple hundred meg of updates instead of the entire ELEVEN F*****G GIGABYTES.

^ This.

Link

Mitch
Posted 10:13pm 24/2/10

Nothing beats steam with the slate colored skin.

Using that as of 2 minutes ago. Thx for the link

Link

$ack
Posted 10:13pm 24/2/10

yeah f*** downloading 11 gigs of mw2 again so I went back to the old UI, only turns out it broke mw2 so now I have to reinstall it no matter what UI I'm using. F*** you valve software. Lucky I bought it on DVD so I'm installing from that, hopefully it'll just need a couple hundred meg of updates instead of the entire ELEVEN F*****G GIGABYTES.

Happened to a bloke at work too.

Nothing beats steam with the slate colored skin.

Slate was best.

Link

Winston
Posted 10:40pm 24/2/10

Looks pretty, unresponsive at times, killed my CoH installation.

Link

Midda
Posted 11:02pm 24/2/10

My MW2 only downloaded about 700MB, that was it. A bunch of my other games want to update as well though.

EDIT: That was the multiplayer. Looks like the single player does want to download the whole thing again. Pain in the arse.

Double EDIT: Actually, it seems that all of my games that are reporting 0% are actually just about complete. MW2 downloaded less than 1MB when I clicked resume, and the others I've clicked on have suddenly shown that they're nearly complete as well. I don't know why it did it in the first place, but it seems that just about all my games are fine. Some of them have required a couple hundred MB though.

last edited by Midda at 23:02:36 24/Feb/10

Link

Seven
Posted 11:06pm 24/2/10

killed my CoH installation.

Link

whoop
Posted 01:49am 25/2/10

I don't like the new UI. I figured I'd have to get used to it eventually so nuked my MW2 install, swapped to the new UI and reinstalled MW2.

Issues so far:

In game overlay thing was working at first then just stopped. Restarted steam and it was back

I HATE the new interface for the games list. Grid, details, list? Hello OSX/itunes. I want my tiny text & icons games list back kthx.

Doesn't seem to always remember my settings, the last time I started it, it started in the "store" tab, I have it set to "games" which was still set in the settings but I guess steam just figured it would ignore my settings to try & get me to buy something

The icon looks like its faded, not really an issue but it just looks weird like someone left it out in the sun.

It doesn't remember the games view mode (all, favourites, installed, etc). I just want it to show me what I have installed but every time I start it, it's back to showing me everything.

All in all it just feels all bloaty. I'm all for pretty looking interfaces but this just seems cluttered. It'd be nice if they added the ability to be skinned by windows & have transparent windows so it at least looked like a windows program.

Link

gamer
Posted 12:49pm 25/2/10

anyone got a screeny of the new look?

Link

ravn0s
Posted 12:50pm 25/2/10

read the op

Commenting has been locked for this item.

40 Comments

Show

News

Features

Reviews

Frostpunk: The Board Game