Steam is getting a new update, bringing some pretty handy features to your PC games so you can do more without leaving your game.
The full update is not live yet but is available for testing via the Steam client beta. The biggest change is that Valve is revamping the in-game overlay, which now allows you to use multiple features without having to close your game. There’s now a toolbar that gives you access to several features as pop-ups, including chat with friends, achievement progress, guides, discussions, and your browser. There will also be customization options so you can choose which of these features you actually want to use. Don’t you really care about your achievements? Save that screen space by removing it entirely from the toolbar.
While the toolbar can be customized for as much or little information as you like, there’s also a game overview, which Valve describes as a “one-stop shop” for every game in your library. It shows you things like achievements, which friends are also playing the game, and directs you to news and guides about the game in question, all accessible from a pop-up window. The most exciting thing for me is the Notes app, which sounds exactly like it sounds. This is an in-app place to jot down notes and to-do lists for a game, which is sure to come in handy for the latest open-world hotness. You can also pin these to be visible while playing, with opacity and position adjustment options.
A console booklet
Since the Xbox Series S is $30 off, you can use that $30 for storage, an extra controller, or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
While most of these updates revert to accessing features without having to minimize your game, there are also some general changes for Steam as part of the update. This includes minor things like tweaking the notifications menu to only notify you when something new is queued and resizing thumbnails in the screenshot manager. At the moment there is no date when this update will be available for general users. If you’re using Steam on Mac or Linux, Valve also says it’s enabled hardware acceleration for the launcher on those operating systems. The new client is now available for Linux users, although Mac users will have to wait “a couple of weeks” before this update is available.
