In order to play games on the Steam Machine which do not use Steam OS, they must be must be loaded onto a nearby PC and then streamed into it. See that green bar in the pic below? It's a caution message that pops up for games that can only be streamed. On the other hand, not every game available on Steam supports Steam OS. For games that support it, no problem – they download and play easy as pie. The biggest thing to be aware of is that the Steam Machine only runs Steam OS. After selecting a game from my library, it was downloaded into the box, and it played with no issue – it was just like a console.Īs great as this all sounds so far, that's not to say there weren't a few hitches. The games in my library were clearly displayed, and everything about the interface is pure efficiency. It's utterly simple, clean, and not cluttered at all. ![]() Once it was up and running, I was quite impressed with the UI. The setup was incredibly simple, and it synced itself with my regular PC Steam account with no problem at all. Wi-Fi is built in, so after it was unboxed, all I had to do was plug it in and enter my Wi-Fi password. First up, the box.Īs the picture shows in comparison to the Xbox One it's perched on top of, the Machine is a very small unit, incredibly compact and with a dainty footprint. So, there are two components to the Alienware Steam Machine: the box and the controller. As such, the Steam Machine is kind of like a dream come true for someone in my position. I've had a Steam account for years and I've got dozens of games there, but I never play them because PC gaming hasn't been a good fit. Furthermore, when it's time to game, sitting in front of a PC is pretty much the last place I want to be. Despite all the advancements in ease-of-use and making things approachable, I've got notoriously bad luck when it comes to computers, and I've got no tolerance for when things don't work. I know some people reading this may be scratching their heads and wondering what is the Machine is good for, or who it's supposed to be serving, but that's simple – It's for somebody like… me.ĭespite my love of games and gaming, I'm no fan of tinkering with computers and trying to get things to work. It runs Steam OS, and comes with the special touchpad controller that's meant to bridge the gap between a regular controller and a mouse & keyboard setup. It doesn't even really look like a PC, and nestles quite comfortably beside a PS4 or an XBO. In case you're not familiar, the Steam Machine is essentially an idiot-proof computer that's built for the living-room. Now, with that out of the way, what do I think of the Steam Machine? Well, first impressions are that it's pretty fabulous. ![]() We didn't pay a dime for this stuff, so take that as you will. In addition, I'm giving away five copies of The Talos Principle for PS4, and all you have to do to win is leave a comment at the end of this post.īut first, before we get to any of that, a disclosure: The review unit and Steam controller discussed in this post were provided free of charge by Alienware for the purposes of evaluation. So, it's been a while since my last blog post, but tonight's is a juicy one - I've had hands-on with an Alienware Steam Machine for the last couple of days, and I've got all sorts of thoughts about it.
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