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Steam is the biggest digital PC gaming market in the world, and over its 20 years of service, Valve has added some fantastic features to it. However, not everyone knows about these features, which makes it saddening when I hear that people haven’t used them as much as I love them. So, here are the best features I wish every Steam user knew about.
1Using Cloud Saves to Back Up Your Save Data
Veteran Steam users may roll their eyes at this inclusion, but after you use other PC gaming storefronts or do some console gaming for a bit, you really do miss cloud saves. As such, if anyone is getting started with Steam, the first thing I’d show them is how good the cloud save feature is.
Cloud saves automatically upload your game’s save data onto the Steam cloud. Every time you close the game, Steam will compare the saves on your PC to the files on the cloud, then update the cloud saves if the one on your system is more recent.
Once your save file is updated, it’s shared between all of your devices. It doesn’t matter if you uninstall the game, suffer a hard disk crash, or you just want to play your games on another PC; Steam will automatically fetch the most recent save on the cloud and let you continue where you left off.
The system does have some nuances though. For instance, not every game on Steam comes with cloud saves enabled. As such, be sure tocheck out how to use Steam Cloud to store your game data onlinefor a full rundown of this feature.
2Moving Your Game’s Files to Another Disk
I’ll be honest with you; I didn’t know this was a feature for a long time. Every time I wanted to move a game from my C: drive to my D: drive or vice versa, I would uninstall it and then re-install it on the other drive. Then I learned you may simply tell Steam to move the game and I felt like an idiot.
If you’re shuffling around which games go on which drive, don’t do what I did. Instead, use Steam’s built-in disk migration tool. This will move any game from one drive to another and save the headache of having to reinstall everything. Check outhow to move Steam games to another drivefor more information on this handy feature.
3Setting Up Controller Profiles for Your Favorite Games (or Using Someone Else’s)
While gamers are always embroiled in the debate ofcontrollers vs. keyboards and mice, PC gamers have the luxury of using either depending on the game. In fact, they’re spoiled for choice, given how you’re able to use console controllers on a PC. But with the wide range of controllers available, it’s difficult for developers to cater to every single option.
Fortunately, Steam has controller profiles. These let you set up special controller profiles for each of your games, allowing you to remap the buttons the game uses to your controller’s own. Best of all, Steam has a community controller profile feature where people can upload their custom remaps for popular controllers for others to use.
Check out ourguide to the Steam Controller Configuratorto learn more about this tool.
4Using Remote Play Together to Play Local Co-Op Games Online
Some games on Steam will have local co-op without having an online mode. This is usually because the game is quite old, or the developers decided against coding an online service for their game. The problem is, what if you wanted to play these local co-op games with someone over the internet?
Fortunately, Steam has a service for that. It’s called Remote Play Together, and its name says it all; it’s a way to play local co-op games with your friends over the internet. Not all games will work with Remote Play Together, but if your favorite game supports it, you may get a remote play session set up quickly and easily.
Check outhow to use Steam Remote Play Togetherfor full instructions on how to invite your friends to play local co-op games with you.
5Taking Screenshots In-Game and Uploading Them to the Steam Community
If something amazing or funny happened in your game, why not take a screenshot? Steam lets you take screenshots of any game that supports the Steam Overlay; all you need to do is hit the F12 key. You should hear a digital camera sound and a small notification stating that you took a screenshot.
Steam also lets you do a lot of cool things with your screenshots. For instance, they’re automatically assigned to the game you took them in, and viewable in the game’s activity feed. You can share screenshots that you like with friends or with the Steam community as a whole, and there’s a button that automatically opens the game’s screenshot folder for quick and easy access.
If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to readhow to capture and manage Steam screenshotsfor the full details.
6Using Steam Filters to Find Free Games
Finally, we come to the best feature I wish more people knew about Steam. Hidden within the PC marketplace are a ton of free games, which you can download and play without paying a cent. The thing is, it can be a little tricky to find these games if you don’t know how.
Fortunately, Steam comes with a powerful filter system that can sniff out these free games for your perusal. They take a little getting used to, but once you get to grips with them, you can make Steam list every free game, excluding DLC, that fits your preferred genres.
You can even tell Steam to omit games with poor review ratings, leaving you with only the cream of the crop to pick from. Intrigued? Check outhow I find great free games on Steamand save yourself some money.
With over two decades of experience under its belt, Valve has made an excellent store with Steam. It’s packed with a ton of great features; so much so that a lot of them end up getting overlooked. Now you know my favorite Steam features and how to use them.
