For years, console gamers have stayed away from PC games because they prefer sitting on a couch and playing games with a controller on their TV sets. Thanks to the advent of HDTV, the future is now. With each day that passes, the line between console gaming and PC gaming is blurred even further. And while "next gen" consoles are now current gen, some of us have opted to just stick with PC's as our consoles of choice. The industry has recognized this trend and Valve has announced the living room friendly Steam Machine line of consoles which aim to tackle this exact niche. Unfortunately, official Steam Machines have been postponed to next year - or at least this holiday season, depending how you look at it. In the meantime, you can still have a console-like experience using your PC, and in this article, we'll talk about how to do so.




Before we get started, let's take a look at what the official Valve-licensed Steam Machines are intended to be. The Machine itself is nothing but a branded PC. There's no set specs, and they'll be available in many configurations at many price points. What makes them Steam Machines is two things. First, the SteamOS. This is an operating system that will boot straight into a console-style dashboard and is intended to be controlled without keyboard and mouse, just like a console. Second, the Steam Controller. The controller is why the Machines are currently delayed, as Valve is working on perfecting them.

What we're going to look at here is an alternative that comes close to an official Steam Machine, that if you have the right parts, you can set up today. There are two ways you can attack this project. You can either build or buy a brand new gaming PC, or if you've already got a gaming PC in your game room, then you can go the cheaper route and just build a box that Steam will stream games from your gaming PC to your cheapo Steam Box.

Obviously, building a PC from scratch is out of the scope of this article. But if you're not intimidated by the process, then I'd suggest doing it for several reasons. First off, you get to have full control over the components you want in your build. If you're thrifty, you can get the most bang for your buck by buying your parts separately. It's also one of the most rewarding feelings to turn on a PC for the first time and watch it boot up knowing that you built it yourself. If you want to go this route, I have several resources to recommend and will offer links to each at the end of the article. First off, Lifehacker offers a wonderful guide called "How To Build A Computer From Scratch," which is even available in PDF format for you to print out and reference while building. The same guide also offers a walkthrough of what to look for while shopping for each component. While picking out parts, you'll also want to consult PC Part Picker, where you can add parts to a custom build and it will tell you if there are any potential incompatibility problems. As far as where to purchase parts, you can't go wrong with New Egg who offers amazing sales daily, including bundles that can save you considerably. Even better, New Egg's user reviews are always impressively detailed and helpful.

Now if building your new PC has you trembling and clutching your consoles like a security blanket, you can always buy one prebuilt. There are several companies such as Digital Storm and Cyber Power that deal specifically with prebuilt gaming PC's. Of course the trade off here will be less customization, but this option may save some of you some sanity.

The last option is simply getting a streaming box and this is what I did. It works is like this: If you already have a gaming PC and don't want to spend the money to build another one, then you can simply use your more powerful gaming PC to stream a game to a less powerful computer on your home network. This works a lot better than you'd imagine. Obviously the speed of your home network is going to matter, but I can say I've been very impressed. For my setup, I've simply got a very low-end off-the-shelf desktop. Considering that its only real purpose is to have video streamed to it, it works just fine.


Ok, so now that you've got some kind of a PC in your living room, let's talk about how to make everything a lot more couch-friendly. The first thing to consider is what operating system you're going to want to use. At this point, I can't recommend SteamOS itself, as it is still in beta. If you're buying a new PC (or using an old one you have lying around) then most likely you'll be using some flavor of Windows. This is fine, and in fact this is what I've done. You can even tweak it to make it feel more like a console. For instance, once you install Steam on your new box, you can simply go into "Settings" and then "Interface" and check the boxes next to "Run Steam when my computer starts" and "Start Steam in Big Picture Mode." These two steps will instantly make things feel so much more like a console. When you turn on the computer, Steam launches and takes up the entire screen with an interface that is meant to be controlled via controller rather than keyboard and mouse. It's great!

Speaking of controllers, as I mentioned earlier, the actual Steam controller isn't released yet, but you've got plenty of options for controllers on the PC. That said, it's become a pretty defacto standard nowadays that the Xbox 360 pad is basically what everyone's using. You'll notice that any game released with a controller in mind is going to use the same buttons and colors as the 360 pad. With this in mind, the best advice I can give you is to find the 360 pad that Microsoft released specifically with PC gaming in mind. This controller comes bundled with a wireless USB dongle, which will be perfect for the living room.

I'd also like to point out that not every game is made with a controller in mind, but don't let that stop you. There are several programs out there that will convert keyboard and mouse input into controller input; I'm a fan of Pinnacle Game Profiler myself. I've found it to be the easiest to use because of the ability to search for pre-made profiles within the program itself. Instead of having to make my own profile for each game, I can simply search for the game, select it, and let the program take care of the rest for me. It is very convenient.


I'd also recommend getting yourself a wireless keypad/trackpad. I found the particular one above pictured on Amazon, and it works great. It's about the same size a 360 pad, though a lot thinner of course. This is perfect for games where you might need to use a mouse to navigate menus or type out chat messages. Another advantage is that with something like this, you can easily use this new Steam box of yours to access Netflix streaming or Youtube.

But of course, who cares about videos when we've got games to play? Now you've spent all of your money on this new PC, why don't we see what you can fill up your hard drive with for free? Of course, there's a vast world of free indie games all over the internet. Interesting stuff like Street Fighter X, Mega Man, Spelunky, and Cave Story. Non-Steam games can also easily be added to your Steam library by simply selecting "Add a Non-Steam game" within your Library. This is a great feature because no matter where you obtain your games from, you can make them accessible from your Steam front-end. If you want to stick with free games via Steam to get started, there's a whole section of Free-To-Play games as well.


Resources:

Lifehacker's "How To Build A Computer From Scratch: The Complete Guide" http://lifehacker.com/582...cratch-the-complete-guide

PC Part Picker
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

SteamOS photo from Wikipedia.
iClever IC-RF02 photo from Amazon.

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