Steam is Here

It’s here! Steam for Mac is here! For those of you who know what I’m talking about, stop reading and go download it now. Anyone still here? OK, maybe I should tell you a little about what Steam is and what makes it so awesome.

What is Steam?
Many people have compared Steam favorably to iTunes. It’s like an App Store for your games. You can browse new titles, purchase them, and download them right to your computer. You maintain an account that keeps track of what games you’ve bought and lets you download them onto any computer you want. You can log in and play your games anywhere you can download them. This is why I love Steam. This is DRM that works, that actually adds value for the customer (please pay attention, music and film industries).

The other difference from iTunes is the community. Steam has its own built-in messaging system so you can see what your buddies are playing and message them without leaving your game, a la Xbox Live. You can also share achievements and high scores, if that’s your thing. For games that utilize the built-in tools, it also makes finding games to play with friends a breeze, and Steam will often offer discount multi-packs of games, so you just drop a license in your friends’ laps so they have no excuse not to play with you.

The Games
Up until now, Steam has only been available for Windows. But now Valve has decided to support the Mac as a platform for not only its games delivery system, but also its library of games powered by its awesome Source engine. This means we’ll soon be seeing classics like Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, and of course, Portal. This is fantastic. Not all of these are available yet, but Portal is, and others are soon to follow.

Actually, Valve has made Portal a free download until May 24th. This is one of the best games ever made and it has been running smoothly on my 2-year-old iMac. There is literally no excuse not to go download this right now. If you’ve been running Boot Camp and have a library of steam games already, you’ll be able to start downloading any Mac versions available right away. So far, the list is pretty small with Portal and Torchlight being the shiners, but there are also some gems of indie games up there Ike Braid and World of Goo.

In Action
If you’ve used the Windows client before, you’ll be right at home on Steam for Mac. Though, the cocoa native interface does still feel like something borrowed from a Microsoft platform, it runs smooth as butter. As for the games themselves, this is no joke. These aren’t hastily done third party ports. There’s no emulation, no layers of virtualization. These games run natively and deliver the performance you would expect.

Portal runs as smooth as ever on my iMac, though I did have to turn some of the graphics settings down a bit. Torchlight also is just as fun as the Windows version, though I’m probably more likely to play through it now that I don’t have to reboot to do so. We’re only just seeing the beginning of what this brings to the Mac, so I highly recommend coming along for the ride. It’s what Mac gamers have been waiting for!