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Then several people have to download the game before you can start playing. With my current 16 MBit/s ADSL connection, you have to wait quite some time to. Feb 28, 2018 - Here are some lesser-known Steam features I've come across in my travels. If you search a game's name, it will pull up people playing that game, making it. You can see when friends changed their names. The same menu also allows you to enable and disable downloads while you're playing games,.
Like the thousands upon thousands of games it hosts, Steam has secrets.
[This post originally ran on March 30, 2015. Update 9/18/15: Added more features. Update 2 2/28/2018: Added EVEN MORE features.]
Steam is more feature-rich than just about any other gaming platform on the planet. However, as it’s expanded over the years, it’s become this cacophonous conglomerate of bells and whistles, many of which are buried under other bells and whistles. It’s hard to know everything Steam is capable of. Here are some lesser-known Steam features I’ve come across in my travels:
Do You Have To Wait For Steam To Download Game Before You Play Free
- You can use the search bar on your friends list to find more than just people. If you search a game’s name, it will pull up people playing that game, making it easier for you to jump in with them.
- You can customize the Steam store frontpage. Mouse over the big “featured and recommended” box at the top of the page, and you’ll seen a tiny arrow in the upper-right corner. Click it and select “preferences.” This will allow you to enable or disable certain types of content from appearing on the front page, including violent and/or sexual games. You can even filter out games (or entire genres) based on tags.
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- You see which nicknames people have used in the past. Go into their profiles and click the arrow next to their name, and you’ll get a full list of them. That’s right, Tupac and famed children’s fantasy author Brian Jacques. I know who you really are, and I know that you play Borderlands 2 together every Tuesday, and you call it Borderlands Tuesday, because of course you do.
- You can see when friends changed their names. Use this URL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/[insert user name here, no brackets]/namehistory
- You can look at all sorts of fun info about your graphics card, including exactly how much dedicated video memory it has. Open up Steam Big Picture Mode, then go to settings. From there, select “system.”
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- You can access the dev console. Find your Steam icon and right click it. Go to properties and add “-dev” and “-console” to the text in the field titled “target.” That will add a “Console” tab to the top of Steam alongside things like Steam, Library, Community, and whatnot. It opens a command-line-based developer’s console. Here are a bunch of commands you can use in dev consoles,some with Steam itself, and some in Source games (Half-Life 2, etc).
- You can keep tabs on your favorite game servers. Select the “view” option in Steam’s upper-left corner, and then click on “servers.” This will give you access to a list of every server connected to Steam. From there, you can see servers you’ve played on in the past, which ones your friends are on, and other useful information.
- You can change your download region to up your download speed. By default, Steam downloads games from the closest available server, but sometimes, that server is slammed. If it feels like games are getting piped to your PC in slow motion, open the settings menu, select “downloads,” and then change the region to another nearby city. Sometimes it makes a huge difference. The same menu also allows you to enable and disable downloads while you’re playing games, so it’s just generally useful.
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- You can install or delete games in batches. Tired of installing or deleting games one by one?Do it in bulk. Simply go into your game library, CTRL-click a batch of games to highlight them, and right-click one of them. After that, it’s as simple as picking the install (or uninstall) option.
- You can organize your game list according to size. Want to free up hard drive space quickly and easily? Sort your games so the biggest are at the top, so you know which to delete first. OK, there are a few steps to this one. First, switch your Steam library to list view, the library mode only used by psychopaths. Then click the + button on the upper right portion of the screen and, at the bottom of the drop-down menu, you’ll see an option for “size on disk.” That’ll add another column to your library that shows how much space games take up and which hard drive they’re on. Just click that to sort by biggest-to-smallest or smallest-to-biggest.You can change the default page that Steam displays when you open it.
- You don’t always have to see The Latest Deals when you boot up Steam. Tired of being tempted by low, low prices? You can tell Steam to default to your library, the news feed, the Steam community, or a handful of other pages by opening the settings menu, selecting the “interface” tab, and choosing a new “favorite window.”
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Bonus features, as suggested by readers
- You can hide games in your library, to cut down on clutter and/or shame. Right click a game’s title, go to “set categories,” and check the box marked “hide this game in my library.” (Thanks, Aaronc53.)
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- You can give your friends nicknames on your friends list. Just click the triangle next to their name on your friends list and select “add nickname.” (Thanks, BarreDeFaire.)
- You can make your screenshots not suck. Just select “settings” from the “Steam” drop-down menu in the top left corner, hit the “in-game” tab, and choose “save an uncompressed copy” under screenshots. Goodbye, blurry grossness. (Thanks, Rathorial.)
- You can save your favorite servers from various games. If you want to access them quickly, just select the “view” drop-down menu near the top left corner followed by “servers.” (Thanks, ZexMaxwell.)
- You can open Steam store pages in new windows. Just click your mouse wheel on the link you want to access and—praise the gods of basic goddamn multitasking—a new window will appear. THANK GOODNESS. (Thanks, piccolo113.)
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So there are some lesser known Steam features you might find handy. Are there any others you can think of? Let me know and I’ll add them to the list.
You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s wildly popular PC gaming service. Games, culture, community creations, criticism, guides, videos—everything. If you’ve found anything cool/awful on Steam, send us a message to let us know.
I've purchased a game on Steam and pre-loaded it so that I can play it on the release date. What I want to know is what time can I play my pre-loaded games?
Is it at:
- Midnight (User's time.)
- Midnight (Somewhere else. i.e. Some specific timezone)
- Some set time (If so, is it always the same or different for each game?)
4 Answers
This depends on a whole lot of factors. The unlock time differs based on the game, the region you're in and even who you are.
For example, Deus Ex: Human Revolution unlocks August 23, 2011 in the US, August 25, 2011 in Australia, August 26, 2011 in Europe and September 8, 2011 in Japan. This will also mean that it is usually midnight at those dates in those regions.
Also notable, Portal 2 unlocked earlier for some users than others, namely those who got a Golden Potato. (Approximately 9 hours earlier.)
However, you can always just check the store page on Steam. It will have a bar showing when it will unlock. For example, for me the page for Deus Ex shows this:
That's midnight on Thursday in my timezone.
It's per-game, and I would assume it's up to the publisher.
Do You Have To Wait For Steam To Download Game Before You Play For Windows 7
For example, going by the Steam pages' time estimates (for me in NA):
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution releases at midnight PDT
- Dead Island releases at midnight EDT
- COD: MW3 releases at noon PST
- Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad releases at noon CDT
Do You Have To Wait For Steam To Download Game Before You Play For Computer
As Arda notes it may also be location-dependent.
Matthew ReadMatthew ReadMy guess is that it's probably a set time in a specific time zone (like 10 PM PST, 17 GMT, 18 CET, etc.).
Not sure if this'll help at all, but doesn't it say when It'll approximately unlock? weeks/days/hours?
Do You Have To Wait For Steam To Download Game Before You Play For Pc
As far as i noticed it is set to your computers time. I changed my password and after a week it said i could access the Steam market on 6/27/2015 10:33:27. I looked up my time on google( because my computer's time is off) and it was 12:13. My computer says it was 9:31 and at 10:33 i could go back to the market. So i don't know about pre releases and games and such but i do think it goes by your computer's time.