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Steam Online: A breif overveiw

Ok, as breifly as possible, this is your nugget of content for the week.. it only really applies to those who play half-life online.. here goes.

Product Overveiw:
Well, if you've ever played half-life online, then you've probably used Sierra's World-opponant-network or WON, that has become VERY crowded and pretty mucked up lately.

So with the release of the latest version of valve's flagship multiplayer, Counter-strike, They also instituted a new system of networks and servers.

Generally this is a good thing: less lag, less hackers, less everything bad, more everything good. But lately its been an issue of contest over what features should or shouldn't have been changed: everyone who's played counter-strike for more than 4 years will know what I'm talking about.. Steam online is an attempt to make an old game on an outdated engine run like new.

This isnt going to happen, no matter how hard they try.. even if steam does deliever a mass of new features and fresh gameplay, its still the same counter-strike I was playing a few years ago.. and it probably WONT be the same game I'll be playing forever, dispite valve's best efforts.

Gameplay Overveiw:
As I said, alot of features where added, in most games nothing was changed, but the main change is of course, the NETWORKING... it went from poodle to pitbull in that area, WON online cant even put out half of the performance Steam online has already proven itself capable of, with the entire system being used for constant updates for EVERY person off of a fresh install.

Video Overveiw:
Asthetically, steam ain't much to look at.. the BIG video feature is that you can run it windowed and with compatabillity for the latest OpenGL and DirectX drivers, you can play half-life like god intended, sportsmanlike.

The real selling point for me is the windowed option, I'm really tickled by it.. seeing as I'd always alt-tab out anyways, they're just adding in something I've already been doing... but they've made it sooo simple and enjoyable.

Audio Overveiw:
Audio hasnt really gotten a tune-up, although its easier to change your audio settings in-game, and they've made the game less wimpy and vulnerable to audio/video failures from menu pop-ups and alt-tab'ing in and out.

Score:
Out of 5, Steam online scores a solid 4. There isnt much that could've been changed, but its incompatabillity with a few half-life mods is very disappointing for an upgrade of this size.

Features galore:

Steam online features:

Buddylist; you can see your freinds in or out of game, and send text messages, even play chess if you want.

Automatic Updating: Steam can patch itself as you go to join a game in seconds, and since Valve's content servers are dedicated to patching only, you're guaranteed the top-speed without having to move a finger.

Clean running: Did I mention how fast the networking is? Well, the game CPU usage is ever lower, it requires less than minimal CPU usage to idle steam online or even idle a game while you do something else.

"User freindly": It patches itself, it installs its own game files, it does EVERYTHING for you that normally you'd have to do manually or in some dos-made bat. file, the ONLY downside to this self-contained perfection is that the FULL steam install runs a whopping 723mgb on top of your preexisting half-life system files, which brought my grand total up to 8gb of data in three separete directories.

One of the most important 'user freindly' features was the new console, they added an autocomplete function so you dont have to be an expert to type in system commands. Console use used to be some kind of voodoo magic that only shamen and hackers were allowed to practice, now even your momma can figure out what the sv_airaccelleration is by default.

Tis' all. I hope you enjoyed every second of it.

Current Music : BB King and Van Morrison - If you love me