Since a number of boardgames are available on Steam I’m going to talk about something new just launched on that platform and I’m very excited about (I don’t get out much).  Streaming.

Recently Steam launched a new feature quietly and matter of factly.  Streaming.

There I said it twice so it’s real.  Streaming is remotely playing a game on another PC.  “So what” says you we’ve been able to remotely access PCs for a long time now.  True but it’s never been fast enough to play a game on.  Now it is.  The only caveat is you need to do it over your local area network.  Although I reckon a decent enough internet connection would let you do it remotely remotely too.

It’s all sorts of awesome now that you can open steam on a fairly basic PC/Laptop/Mac and then run a game that you haven’t installed and definitely wouldn’t run on this basic set-up by accessing a kick ass PC somewhere else on the network  (Possibly surrounded by flashing lights and dry ice) .  This is (pardon the pun) a game changer.

The idea has been around for a while, a few companies have tried it via the web with limited results and remote play via a Sony PSP and a PS3 has been done.  So far it’s been limited although a lot of companies have seen the future and tried to make it happen.  I think Steam are really onto something.  I like Steam, always have since the Half Life 2 days. I wish them the best with this and am curious to see where it goes next when they release their own OS.

The whole thing is so simple, you just install Steam on another PC and login to it.  It shows you all the games installed on any machine in the mix and you pick it and hit the stream button, BAM It fires it up on the games machine and you get all the gaming goodness from a safe distance.

If you have Steam installed, try this, believe me you’ll be impressed

Huzzah!

Vic