Alienware Steam Machine

Hands-On: Well, the Alienware Steam Machine is a surprisingly competent gaming machine for not-that-much money. It’s definitely a better investment than a gaming laptop, considering the internals are mostly identical.

Hands-On: Here's the solution for people who want to play anything, even Windows-only products, on their Steam Machine. I didn't actually get a chance to test this much, so I can't speak to the quality and fidelity of streaming games from a PC to your Steam Machine or from your Steam Machine to another computer.

Hands-On: For Valve it’s a completely different approach. You want to keep playing on your PC? That’s fine. Want to move Steam to the living room? Up to you. Any one of the three pieces of Valve’s hardware isn’t necessary to enhance your Steam experience. Some prefer booting up Steam on the PC and using a mouse and keyboard. Using the Steam controller is a unique experience, but it’s not necessary for every game.

Hands-On: Will it become my go-to gamepad? I’m not sure. Will it replace my mouse-and-keyboard altogether? Hell no. But that was never its intended purpose. At the very least, I’m gonna keep playing with it for the next few weeks, and I’ll have a review for you when it officially launches early next month.