Steam or Xfire?

[Soap Mactavish]

I was wondering, is steam better than xfire? from what i have heard it is, but everyone here seems to use either GR of xfire. anyone care to clarify?

[aeria.]

Russell, you are very misinformed.

Steam allows you to download games directly to buy games online and download them immediately. Gameranger allows you to host and join multiplayer games online. Xfire allows you to take screenshots, videos, do live broastcasts, and chat ingame.

They are all different programs. All of them have instant messaging implemented however. It doesn't mean you have to be dependent on only one of them. Both Steam and xfire allow you to message people while you are ingame, which is neat feature. Gameranger on the other hand, sucks. It's a bad program but SWBF Mac users rely on it.

That's pretty much all there is to it.

[quik]

Steam is overall prefered because xfire lags a bit.

[Rexy]

I have never noticed Xfire making me lag.

[Droideka]

I think I've noticed Xfire lagging a bit in the past, but mostly it was when I was in a clan match and was trying to cut down on lag, so I was probably a bit too critical of it. I don't think it lags much, if at all, now.

[quik]

It does affect ping and connection, but by such a small bit no one even notices.

[Droideka]

If it lags by such a small amount, why would it even matter? Xfire would still be preferred.

[Jedikiller]

Xfire and Steam are two very different applications. The only similarity is that they both allow you to browse the web ingame and chat with people ingame.

Xfire is more social-networking focused. Steam is more buying-games focused. Just get both. If your computer is powerful enough to run games, then you won't notice any decline in performance. If you don't have good internet, then Steam won't be of any use to you since its primary purpose needs a good internet connection. Plus Steam is limited to games you tell it to be in, or else it just runs as a background process for all games except the ones you buy off of it or add to it.

I doubt any of the people on this site are "hardcore' enough to worry about 1-2 extra MS on their ping or slight decreases in available memory. I don't think hardcore gamers worry about that either, tbh.

[MjrNuT]

Russell, you are very misinformed.

Steam allows you to download games directly to buy games online and download them immediately. Gameranger allows you to host and join multiplayer games online. Xfire allows you to take screenshots, videos, do live broastcasts, and chat ingame.

They are all different programs. All of them have instant messaging implemented however. It doesn't mean you have to be dependent on only one of them. Both Steam and xfire allow you to message people while you are ingame, which is neat feature. Gameranger on the other hand, sucks. It's a bad program but SWBF Mac users rely on it.

That's pretty much all there is to it.

I concur with what ag has posted.  Except I've zilch experience with Gameranger. 

Xfire and Steam are two very different applications. The only similarity is that they both allow you to browse the web ingame and chat with people ingame.

Xfire is more social-networking focused. Steam is more buying-games focused. Just get both. If your computer is powerful enough to run games, then you won't notice any decline in performance. If you don't have good internet, then Steam won't be of any use to you since its primary purpose needs a good internet connection. Plus Steam is limited to games you tell it to be in, or else it just runs as a background process for all games except the ones you buy off of it or add to it.

I doubt any of the people on this site are "hardcore' enough to worry about 1-2 extra MS on their ping or slight decreases in available memory. I don't think hardcore gamers worry about that either, tbh.

I would toss in some other slight differences though.

Steam and Xfire both are for networking, no matter what.  Both allow for creation of groups, however, I think the SteamGroups are much more accessible.  This is only b/c the Steam UI you regularly have to go to, as opposed to the Xfire Client running and on occassion you go to a web browser to do the activity desired.  The Steam UI is different in that respect, more contained.

Both programs have to go through adding compatibility for games.  However, Steam Games are already available.  Non-steam games CAN be added to steam though.  For the most part, like adding SWBF1, your game time is tracked, you can launch it via Steam.  Some games like this have almost same features available as a Steam Game, others not.  For instance, when you are playing a non-steam game that is registered, other people might see it show up as you are playing, sometimes not.  Just a bit glitchy.

Another feature I'd like to point out about Steam is that you can change your Screen Name very easily (yes like Xfire), however, with Steam you can view all the previous Alias' (Screen Names) that person has used.  It's a simple feature and not major compared to Xfire.  But comes in handy when you are looking for someone and like...errr, where'd they go?

I can't remember in Xfire w/ the groups, but SteamGroups you can post up Announcements and Events and other things that get broadcast to ALL members of the group.  Meaning a notification.  With Xfire, i don't every recall, for instance getting a reminder of something put on the calendar.  You had to actively go browse to the group.

No matter what, if you're going to use Steam, it will be for a certain playerbase that you have connection with, which still remains true for Xfire.  I do think Steam is more powerful given its integration w/ the store, security, VAC, game download (which you own for life), and other available free tools (servers), etc.

Hope that helps as both are still valuable to a Community such as this.


Speaking of which, JK have you made the MPC SG yet?  LOL 

[Soap Mactavish]

from what i hear steam also supports games that xfire doesnt. Also when i had bought mw2 for pc the only way to install it was through steam, does that mean i can only play Online through steam if i wanna go through a gaming community?

[Jedikiller]

Speaking of which, JK have you made the MPC SG yet?  LOL 

yup! http://steamcommunity.com/groups/mpcgamers

[Soap Mactavish]

so (final conclusion hopefully) xfire is the better gaming community as long as it carries the game you want to play. correct?

Still excited about steam for mac

joined the group btw.

[mod]Please refrain from double-posting. You've been doing it a bit too much. The edit button is there for a reason.
-Red[/mod]