Steam's "big picture" mode is great

[Steve]

One of the crap things about Steam was that if you wanted to use a PC connected to a TV in your living room, the interface wasn't ideal. They have added a mode to it called "big picture mode" which is designed to be used with a controller and gives you a much better interface for TV use. Here's a few screenshots: -

 

If you have an Xbox 360 controller, you can enter big picture mode by pressing the guide button, which then takes you to this screen: -

 

 

The default games library view shows your recently played games: -

 

 

Or you can view your full library: -

 

 

It also has a built-in web browser that has a speed dial view: -

 

 

And you can access the full store: -

 

 

It's a really nice interface - probably the best I have used when compared with the current consoles - and I use this view even on my PC monitor. Literally my only one small gripe with it is that the maximum resolution is 1,920 x 1,080, so it looks a little blurred on my 2,560 x 1,440 screen, but it's designed with TVs in mind so I can understand that and it doesn't affect the functionality in any way. Obviously, games themselves will run at the full 2,560 x 1,440 so it doesn't affect that.

 

I think this, combined with the upcoming "Steam Box" hardware that Valve are designing, could get quite a lot of people into PC gaming in the living room.

[Jacken]

Yeah, it's good. I do like interface much more than Xbox NLE.

[Tbtf]

Yeah, it is pretty dope I was using it ion beta but there were some bugs, like the mic not working properly in game and such. I havn't really tried it since but I'm going to give it another shot today.