Some things that Steam COULD bring to the table

[Extreme_One]

Seems that there are a few people that are a little unfamiliar with Steam and it's features other than it's DRM so I thought I'd make a couple of points about some of the features that may (or may not) be included in CloD as a result of Steam integration.

The following list is merely to illustrate what is possible.

Steam Region Censorship

In a few games there are slightly different versions for players in different territories.

The German version of Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 are two games that usie region locking to censor the violence.

In Counter-Strike: Source instead of dead bodies covered in blood you see submissive avatars covered in paint.

In Team Fortress 2 instead of flying body parts you see flying robot pieces to mask the (cartoon) violence.

German players can play with players from other regions, they don't see the violence whereas those in other regions see the uncensored content.

Perhaps in IL2: Cliffs of Dover the German players (and any players in other territories where it's banned) may not see the Hakenkreuz but in other territories it is displayed.

Steam Cloud Synchronising

Steam cloud provisioning has expanded from 1 MB per user to 100 MB per user, per game. The Steam Cloud API allows your game to write and retrieve files for each user. Use it for personalized settings like keyboard, mouse, and gamepad configurations, multiplayer sprays, or even saved games. Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability that Steam affords gamers. Shipped first with Left 4 Dead, Steam Cloud is now a proven resource and is becoming an integral part of the Steam experience.

Perhaps in IL2: Cliffs of Dover our joystick settings, our preferred skin choices, our avatar selections will all be synchronised with the Steam Cloud.

This feature is optional, users can always choose NOT to synchronise with the Steam Cloud for any of the games that support it.

Steam Achievements

For those that care about such things, a great many Steampowered games offer gamers the chance to collect Achievements.

Achievements are rewards for completing game objectives or performing pre-determined actions in a game. The Steam Community Overlay will notify you when you have unlocked an achievement in Steam. Your achievements can be viewed in the game's main menu or through the stats in the Steam Community.

In a game like CloD you might receive an achievement for your first landing, for your first confirmed kill, for flying a certain number of campaign missions etc. etc.



So maybe, just maybe there are a couple of other reasons that this game is coming to Steam.

I'm not expecting those of you that are unhappy that Steam is being utilised to suddenly change heart, but I'm merely informing people of the things that Steampowered games can offer.

Disclaimer: There are plenty of games that are sold through Steam that contain none of the above features.


ps. Steam is now on MAC and coming soon to PS3 with the release of Portal 2.

There are now several games where if you own the game you can play it on MAC or PC with the same Steam account.