Since getting an HP Victus, I’ve been enjoying Steam PC gaming more than expected. I haven’t yet put my finger on what, exactly, is different and attractive about it compared to Switch console gaming; maybe it’s more accessible somehow. But there are a few specific nice surprises I’ve discovered or realized more than before.
4th wall breaking
One very cool surprise was a, “Whoa!” moment for me. It happened while playing American Truck Simulator. I was cruising down a highway in my big rig when all of the sudden a police car appeared — sirens blaring and lights flashing. My mind was blown when I noticed that not only were red and blue lights reflecting in my truck mirrors and on the interior cab surfaces, but they were also in the real physical world with my Razer RGB keyboard flashing between red and blue! What a nice touch of immersion — it felt like that 4th wall breaking thing.
SD card and moveable storage
My new laptop has only one internal SSD, fitted with just 512GB. I’d rather have at least 1TB. Thankfully, it also has an SD Card slot, in which I’ve got a 512GB card. And recently when installing Steam games and checking out the settings, I learned that you can specify which drive to place them on.
I tested this out and it totally works: I installed and played a couple of games all on the SD Card. Having this as a viable option helps mitigate any storage space issues. What’s icing on the cake is that Steam lets you easily uninstall or simply move installed games from one drive to another. This is computing awesomeness!
Controller support
I’m happy to say that, so far, I’ve not needed to run out and buy an Xbox controller to play any games on Steam. Most, if not all games, work with just keyboard and mouse, but that’s not always an ideal setup. So I connected my purple Switch retro Gamecube controller via USB to my laptop. Steam recognizes it and has settings to customize it per game.
Some titles work better with it than others. Here’s what I’ve played thus far using this controller:
- American Truck Simulator
- No Man’s Sky
- Ace Combat 7
Sales sales sales
This fact here might be the single best thing about Steam games. There’s always a sale or multiple sales on games and DLC. And often, these sales offer outstanding discounts like 75% off.
From what I’ve seen and heard so far, the general rule of thumb with Steam games is never buy one that’s not on sale. Instead, wait. Soon enough, it will get a big price drop.
DLC
This one is interesting to me. Most console games are all-in-one up front. Generally, what you buy on “day one” is all you get. There are some exceptions of course. But with Steam games, it seems that DLC is common for more titles. The good news is that most base games are great by themselves; they don’t require DLC in order to be completed. Ignoring any gacha type mechanics, base games are not merely “demos” that need DLC to make whole experiences.
DLC is typically a bonus so that if you like the main game, then you’ll probably really like to expand upon it. I’ve been growing to like this aspect of Steam games more and more. Some games technically don’t need DLC but almost seem to. In American Truck Simulator for example, why wouldn’t I want to drive my semi-truck across the whole U.S.A.? Each state is a DLC, and many come in bundles.
Wrap-up
Steam is super great. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to use for previewing, buying, playing, and managing big complex games. It has many more features I could talk about, but those above have stuck out to me recently.
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