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Valve Corporation has released a Beta version of the next major update for the Steam client. While the current client is quite competent at performing it core tasks, there is lot of room for improvement with the interface and the way in which information can be located and displayed. With the new update, the Steam client gets a contemporary look and there is vast improvement with the way relevant information is displayed. In addition, some of the features of the Steam network are more easily accessible as they are better exposed to the user.
Changes to the user interface
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The new Steam store page gives better access to information
– With the new update, Steam has abandoned Internet Explorer in favor of WebKit to render its UI, making the fonts render with far more clarity
– Overall, the UI looks very slick and layout of information is closer to some of the other online distribution systems like PSN Store, Marketplace and GOG
– Navigation has been infinitely improved, the interface is much more responsive and pages load much faster
– While the current version of the client is heavily dependent on the context menus, the new interface has the most common tasks available with a single click
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The new games library grid view
– The client status bar now only displays shortcut to the friend’s list, status of current download and another shortcut to add a new game to the library
– The games library window now supports details, list and grid view
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Download management window
– Download management has been significantly improved and some long overdue features have been introduced
– Just the like client UI, the in-game overlay navigation has been improved and things happen faster
Community and Steam network features
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In-game overlay menu
– Friends list is more easily accessible and related features like managing invites is more efficient
– While browsing the store for games, the client displays if anyone on the friend’s list owns the game you are currently looking at
– You can now view the most recent achievement and likely next achievement in the client game details view and also in the in-game overlay
– The game details page displays list of friends who own the game, if they are currently playing the game and how many minutes have they spent playing it
For a complete list of changes, including some technical mumbo-jumbo, follow this link and to download the beta client click on this link. Take heed that this is the beta version and that means there are likely to be multiple issues with the client. Some users have reported issues on the Beta discussion board that makes the client unusable. You can find a complete list of reported bugs on this forum.