The Home of the Dot Gamer Clan!

Steam is the most popular electronic platform for distributing games. It was created by Valve (Team Fortress, Half-life, Counter Strike) and has expanded to sell thousands of games by hundreds of different publishers, including indie developers. Steam is based off downloading a core, then purchasing and downloading games separately that can only be used while logged into Steam with an account that has bought the game. The Steam core has a built in voice chat, instant messenger, server browser, clan/group system, a store browser, an in-game overlay, and a store browser.

Instant Messenger/Voice chat

The built in instant messenger works fine. It messages people whether they are in game or not, but it will not leave offline messages. The voice chat, on the other hand, is quiet,low quality, and call-based instead of room based, minus clan/group chat rooms (though you can have group conversations and IM conversations). I really dislike it. Even worse, it’s built in to a lot of games, so, though you can set it t push to talk as well as mute yourself, I dislike being obligated into voice when I play with a clan that uses another voice chat software

Game Selection and Sales

The selection on Steam is amazing. All top games (minus those by Blizzard) are on Steam, and usually have sales if you preorder them. Indie games are everywhere and are under constant sales (for example, I just bought a $10 game for $2 because of a sale), and are of very high quality. During Christmas there was a huge sale, most games had a sale on them at least once Christmas week. Steam offers 4 packs of some games that let you and 3 friends save a ton of money, permitting one person buys the game and sends out the other copies. There are also packs of games sold on Steam occasionally that usually save you at least 25%, usually more like 75%.

Almost every month Steam lets all gamers try a game for free for a weekend, and during that time it’s usually on sale. The last few games that had this were Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

There are also many free demos of games, trials of MMOs, free mods, and a few free to play games available.

Community

The community on Steam, though better than Xbox, is worse and more apt to cursing random people out than in most PC communities. The modders and game developers on Steam keep it alive and kicking though, with helpful forum posts and game mods compatible with Steam games. The indie devs actually reply to most support mosts you make!

There are built in achievements if the developer so wishes to include them, as well as leaderboards. Competitions are very easy to come by and usually the best of the best are on Steam.

Overlay

The overlay built into Steam is activated using shift+tab, one of the oddest combinations ever. I accidentally hit the combination every so often when checking stats while running/walking in game. Yes, I bet I can change it, but I shouldn’t have to.

The overlay itself has almost every function steam has out of game (voice chat, instant messenger, store, server browser, friends list and statuses). It’s handy, until it randomly pops up and annoys you. Oh well.

Overall Quality

Overall, Steam is the best for buying new games because of their cheap prices, but there are better options out there for instant messengers and voice chat. It’s handy to see who is playing what games and having the ability to invite them to play, but Steam is bulky and likes to glitch up every so often, especially when it’s updating or downloading games. It’s a shame Steam has such a monopoly on electronic distribution, but maybe I’ll find more luck with Impulse or the future Xfire.

You can get Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/

Step Mania is an Open Source PC version of the popular rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution ( or DDR ) in which you use the directional buttons on the keyboard (or a USB dance pad that Step Mania supports) to push the arrows in the correct order and timing.

Step Mania does a very good job porting the game. Songs must be downloaded from the internet from sites like http://otakusdream.com/ and http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/Download_Songs. They are all user-made using the in-game tools. Song creators have the same options to make songs as the people who make real DDR songs, but user made ones are often of higher quality. Many Step Mania songs are only offered to higher skill levels (just Google it, there are people that are absolutely crazy with their keyboards), but there are still enough songs for newbies to get a hang of the game with and for pad play.

Step Mania is skinable, supports videos in songs, lyrics in songs, easter eggs in songs (they make the directional keys show up in funny ways on screen, or sometimes not at all), a song unlock mode, custom characters that dance to the songs while you play, local multiplayer play, game options including difficulty settings if the song allows it, special settings like unlimited play, slot-machine mode (the game can be used to run an actual DDR arcade system), and online multiplayer play with people who have the same songs as you (note you must have Step Mania version 4 to play online, which is in beta at the time of writing this post).

I really love this game. It has such low system requirements I play it on my higher-end netbook whenever I am bored in the car. The only problem is that the keys are small, so I change up down left right to WASD and it works fine. I get no lag that would effect gameplay, and, as long as the song is in beat, the game is always registering the keys correctly.

The game is so small you can have it and a few songs just to play once in a while on your computer without any hassle at all, and since it’s free there is no reason not to try it! You can get the Mac, Linux, and Windows versions at http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/Downloads

Xfire is an instant messenger, voice chat, and clan/group system that is currently owned by Titan Gaming. Xfire is the ultimate all-in-one system for clan/group-based gaming when you have no budget (all of Xfire’s features are free). It allows you to create a group, invite people to the group, then it tracks your group’s hours played and lets you make a calendar, a forum, an announcements page, and a description all from your own page on Xfire.com.

Instant Messenger/Voice chat

Xfire’s instant messenger has all the standard IM features, but no offline message system. It has compatibility for AIM, MSN, and Twitter connectivity, which is pretty impressing. It’s voice chat is of lower quality than Skype and Mumble, but higher than Steam, TeamSpeak, and Ventrilo. It has support for group chats with up to 50 people.

Game Selection and Sales

Xfire was not originally made to be a platform for selling games, but when Viacom/MTV bought it they tried very hard to sell a few games, but got almost no sales, so they sold it to Titan Gaming. Titan wants to make Xfire more of a platform for selling games, like Steam, but for now they haven’t changed anything (just a note, it looks like Titan will be very indie friendly). With this all being said, at the moment of this post, games on Xfire are all sold for retail price, but the Xfire community heavily embraces free to play games, many of which you can download via Xfire.

Community

The people on Xfire are very fun and exciting. There are always trolls in every community, but even they get hyped up when an event is being planned by the Xfire team. There are often prize events in free to play games for players or groups that play so many hours, as well as live interviews with developers. The forums are always heavily used.

Group are everywhere on Xfire, and starting one is easy. Once you get one friend, there is a friends-of-friends list on your IM list, where you can add friends of friends, then once you add them you can add even more, and you can invite them all to your group. Groups on Xfire aren’t very professional due to the lowest average age (14 seems to be average) I’ve seen on any gaming platform, but they are fun.

Overlay

Xfire’s overlay is simply amazing. With it you can:

• Take screenshots
• Take in-game video
• Message others
• See your FPS
• Browse the internet
• Use voice chat like you would out of game
• Control your media player
• Server browser
• Game Laucher

and probably even more that I don’t know about. All videos and screenshots can be uploaded to Xfire and displayed on your group’s homepage.

Overall Quality

Xfire is a no-budget group’s dream. It has everything a gaming group needs to communicate, function and have fun. It’s overlay allows for in-game group conversations and calls, as well as a way to record your finest moments and show them to your friends. Of course, Xfire’s downfall is that if you use a third part website, voicechat, or forum the point of having Xfire is halfway removed, and that in its near future it will be heavily monotized. Hopefully Titan Gaming knows what they are doing and gives us a ton of cheap games instead of Xfire’s current list of a few expensive games.

You can get Xfire at http://www.xfire.com/

Skype is a voice over internet protocol ( or VOIP for short ) software. It’s original idea is to be an internet phone, and, with that in mind, considered to be the highest quality voice chat currently avilible to normal people like you and me. It also just so happens to be the one that takes up the most bandwidth, CPU, and memory. Skype is the most used VOIP software by people with little or no computer expience because of its simplicity and how similar it is to using a normal phone.

Not many people know that Skype was originally created by Ebay. They have since sold the majoity of their ownership of Skype to focus their attention on other, more Ebay-like things.

Skype’s features include:

• Group chats
• Calling and texting real phones (for money; this is the only feature Skype charges for)
• One-way screen streaming video (only works in a 1 on 1 conversation)
• Video chat with webcams

As a gamer, Skype should not be your first choice for VOIP in games, but it should certainly be your second or third because a) most people have it on their computer, b) it’s free, and c) no one has to set up a server. But, as I said, Skype is the #1 resource hogger among voice chat programs, even if it does a very good job hiding it (if your computer isn’t that good, Skype does give leeway to your games, but you will notice better performance without it running).

Many people find it annoying when people call you while you are in game, as a ring tone plays and a popup appears, sometimes throwing you out of your game. Because of this, and its resource consumption, I tend to shy away from using Skype now, but if you just need a quick VOIP with lots of features and simple to start using and get friends to use, Skype is your best bet (and the streaming your desktop to a single person really helps you give computer assistance!).

Get Skype at http://www.skype.com/

Our clan has been using Mumble (of which the server version is named Murmur) for a few months, and I think it’s time to do a review on it.

Mumble is a low latency (read “doesn’t take much from your computer or internet”) voice over internet protocol (VOIP) client. It is fully open source unlike common alternatives like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak. This means that it’s not only free for you to host your own unlimited slot server, but the hosting is much much cheaper if you don’t want to do it yourself (pay 18c USD every month per slot, no long term and I choose the amount of slots). No, it does not look as good as its competitors (its default skin is grey and white), but it is feature full and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The voice codecs used in Mumble are experimental. They sound as good as Skype (the best quality of internet voice chat), but takes up almost no bandwidth or CPU. There is no echo made in voice trasit, which is amaizngly close to instant. It is literally the best VOIP program I have used, ever.

The layout is very standard and can be changed. There is a type box (where you can post links and small pictures to either a select person, a select channel, or everyone), and a list of rooms you can join. Each room can have a description (as customized by the admin) with pictures and links. Other things admins can do is set up a message that appears when logging on to the server as well as ban, move, and mute users.

There are many options in Mumble, including an in-game overlay that shows who is talking that you can customize the posision of, quality of sound depending on your internet connection, key bindings, and a set-up wizard to guide you through making everything sound as good as possible. You may use custom skins in Mumble, but there are not very many quality ones out at the moment.

Mumble is made for gaming. With that in mind, the Mumble developers do everything they can to make your voice chat a part of your game, not a hassle. With that in mind, the Mumble team has created plugins for certain games that enable you to hear only those around you from the direction they are in relation to you, at a volume relative to how far away others are. Though I have never tried this out, this would add a huge new layer into your favorite games, especially FPSs.

If you would like to try out Mumble, or are looking for people to play with, you can try our public Mumble server.

• Download Mumble at http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Main_Page
• Adress: mumble.dotgamerclan.com
• Port: 31089
• Password: (NONE)
• Slots: 15
• We are NOT on the list! Go to “Add New…” to add our server!