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Steam UI update officially rolling out next week

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On April 21, 2010, 11:28 AM EST

After two months of beta testing and several updates, Valve has announced that the so-called "UI Update" for their Steam client will finally roll out to all users on Monday. Far from being just a visual overhaul, the update ditches Steam's Internet Explorer-based core for a new WebKit-based rending engine, and will bring a few new features like syndicated gaming news feeds, a new in-game overlay with more context sensitive information, and customizable games libraries.


If you are just now finding out about the beta and don't want to wait until Monday, all you need to do is head over to File>Settings, click "change" under Beta participation, and then choose UI Update. The beta should download automatically and will be available after restarting the client.

Valve is also readying a Mac client of Steam, which will offer native Mac OS X versions of Left 4 Dead, L4D2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal and the Half-Life series when it launches before the end of April. However, this is expected to come in separate update, so Apple users might still have to wait just a bit longer.

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User Comments (14)

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Guest
on April 21, 2010
11:47 AM

I don't kinda like this new UI update at all.

Reply

Timonius
on April 21, 2010
12:01 PM

It takes some getting used to but after a while I'm sure you'll like it. You'll have no choice anyway I opted in when the Beta was announced because I really did not like the dependancy on Internet Explorer. It was a bit sluggish at first but now it is pretty slick. I love what they did with the store layout in the area of videos and screenshots. They messed up my games library, but you can tweek how it is displayed pretty much right back to how the old UI is.

Reply

Matthew
on April 21, 2010
12:13 PM

I opted into the beta early on, and although it was a bit confusing at first, I'd say it's a much-needed improvement over the previous Steam interface. Far from perfect, but an improvement nonetheless.

What exactly is it that you dislike about the change, Guest?

Reply

Guest
on April 21, 2010
12:25 PM

I bought like 30 games on Steam, and now they just says, you have to get used to this new UI. If you don't like it, we won't refund you.

I liked it of it's simplicity. And now everything goes shiny and gay.

Reply

Per Hansson
on April 21, 2010
12:28 PM

Bit OT but Wow, launched up the client and there is a mid week sale of Deus Ex; 2.5?!

And it's follow up Invisible War you get for the same price, so total 5? (IW sucks really but can't beat the price :P)

I'm buying it even tho I already have a copy on CD

Best game ever!

Reply

Docnoq
on April 21, 2010
1:14 PM

There was a midweek madness sale for the Commandos pack last week for $5. It had all 4 Commandos games

Reply

Guest
on April 21, 2010
1:21 PM

I wonder how technically feasible it is for Valve to release some sort of set of open standards that would allow other developers to write their own Steam clients that could work with the Steam protocols, kind of like how you have the Jabber IM protocol but numerous clients made by different people. That would solve a lot of the issues that come up with people's criticisms of the Steam client - you're never going to be able to please everyone with only one choice available.

Reply

Relic
on April 21, 2010
2:19 PM

Curious to know if they fixed the major issues with the beta. I tried the beta for a week when it came out and while it looked nice the performance from it was dreadful. Being unresponsive and sluggish most of the time turned me so off I had to revert back to the latest release. Going to have to check it out again and hopefully see huge improvements in performance.

Reply

gwailo247
on April 21, 2010
6:27 PM

Oh no. The beta works horribly for me. I first tried it when it came out, couldn't buy anything on the site, so I switched back.

Then when they had the free multiplayer weekend for MW2, for some reason it only worked when I when I upgraded back to beta, would not launch the game in the regular version. I switched back to regular when I once again tried to buy something and couldn't.

So it looks if this thing will become permanent I'll stop buying games at Steam...

Reply

ET3D
on April 22, 2010
2:03 AM

I like the beta except for the news on the storefront moving to the bottom, which means I simply don't read it.

Reply

gobbybobby
on April 22, 2010
3:46 AM

I also dislike it. Don't like the way it looks. Its light while the old one was dark and black. I don't like the new downloads tab. Don't like that it autoplays Videos. (BTW is there a way to disable that)

Reply

Guest
on April 23, 2010
10:02 AM

It wont download on windows 7

Reply

Guest
on April 23, 2010
1:05 PM

It is not that it won't download on windows 7, it is that YOU can't download it on windows 7. I had no trouble downloading it on windows 7.

Reply

Guest
on April 23, 2010
9:10 PM

gwailo247:

I also tried the beta when it first came out. There were some pretty serious bugs, but they have all been ironed out.

Reply

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