So a few days ago Valve announced that Steam for mobiles would be coming soon, and in the meantime there would be a closed beta for which you could apply from within the app itself. If you weren’t one of the lucky few (and there were quite a few) we have compiled a little test drive of the app, and rather snazzy it is too.
We start off with the familiar friends list, with all the usual features such as status notification (online / offline) and active conversations have a wonderful glowy speech bubble.
The Steam friends list
If you are logged into Steam on a PC at the same time as the mobile app, the desktop will greedily gobble any received messages, preventing the phone from getting so much as a whisper. Beta teething problem? I hope so.
It was also unclear as to whether I was receiving all of my replies, but to be fair this could have just been due to the wonky nonsense I was spewing from my fingers.
The profile system doesn’t seem to have been too marginalised by the appification process either, offering most of the information of its desktop counterpart. Game time, screenshots and videos are all present. No trophies as yet, bah! I shed not a tear for their absence.
From the friends list you can casually slide the menu out to wander around to other usual steam services like news, the store and groups.
One of the most useful things I can foresee with this app is making sure I don’t pass on a bargain while I’m skydiving, snowboarding and all the other things I’m too scared to actually do. Let’s check out the store.
Lovely, complete with tabs for featured, new, popular and my personal favourite: specials. After a bit of scurrying around I found our old friend: The games under £7 / £4 filters.
Alright let’s get in depth, because I’m so bloody dedicated to the cause I’m going to buy a game. For a whole £7. That’s right, look impressed.
This is where landscape mode comes in handy. It’s screenshot time, bitches!
Space! Who doesn’t like space? I’m feeling saucy. I think I’m gonna buy it.
Fortunately the purchasing process is well integrated with the steam system and all went nice n’ smoothly. Hurrah! Yet another game I definitely am going to review…
So there we go, Steam Mobile in a nutshell. It’s shiny, it’s slick, and it works (y’know except for that message gobbling thing). Unless you were totally delusional and expecting some sort of remote play function and / or make the tea (it is called Steam): it does everything you’d expect of it.
Well done Valve, jolly well done.
Visit the Steam Mobile app page for more.
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Cor that looks rather handy. If only I had a device capable of such wonders I’d never have to miss out on another multiplayer session again!
It’ll certainly tide us over until we have Steam… IN OUR BRAINS.
This is going to make it even easier for Steam addicts (pointedly does not look at Andrew) to get their fix. Probably a good thing because separating people from fixes makes them super tetchy. I also like the idea of the header picture from this article bringing iPhone users out in a cold sweat. Hehehe.