In September, our Weekly Loot host Reina covered a story
about how Steam would one day release their new cloud-gaming service, ?Big
Picture.? That day is today.
Anyone with a Steam account can now hook their computer
devices to their televisions and utilize all the great steam services from the
comfort of their couch. You don?t need to be a Steam fanatic to realize how
much the interface will change gaming experiences. Of course not every game
will adapt from a mouse to a controller with ease, but there are plenty of
options showcased by the company to help jump into a more comfortable area of
your home.
What better time for an announcement like this than when Valve
is having a huge sale, cutting up to 75% off certain products. Valve is
specifically offering over 30 games that can better be utilized with existing
gaming controller. If you are the rare gamer who has missed out on the Portal
series, now is your chance to get an awesome Portal 2 game for less than five bucks. Other games like Counter-strike: Global Offense, Batman 2, and Lego Star Wars (mentioned in our Top 10 Star Wars Games here) are
all currently more than half off.
Games won?t be the only user friendly improvements granted
by the new system. An optimized handheld mode called the ?Daisywheel? truly
helps solve the problem of scrolling back and forth through controller
navigated menus. Big Picture brings a
new style of web browsing and popular social networking that is optimized for
high definition use in your living room. Once you are hooked up to your best
television, it?s as simple as logging into steam and clicking a button.
With the option to utilize both new controller-based
gameplay and the classic mouse style many gamers don?t want to give up; what
more could you ask for out of your favorite PC games?