Steam Client Beta Available

[jasonr]

There's a new Steam Beta client available. To access the Beta, go to File -> Settings, and on the Account tab will be a drop down. Select Steam Client Candidate, and then allow Steam to restart itself. Here are the specific changes:

10/29/2008

Additions:
- Added shopping cart, recommendations & purchasing directly on the web
- Added backend support for Left 4 Dead matchmaking
- Added backend support for Steam Cloud
- Fixed steam re-applying command line parameters (like -install) across 'change user' or 'change language' restarts
- Fixed steam refreshing the games list, refreshing the server browser if open, and reloading server brower filter settings
- Fixed the friends list placeholder for large clans disappearing when "view online friends only" was turned on
- Fixed games list not always refreshing after receiving license updates
- Fixed embedded IE control not scrolling or responding to key presses correctly
- Improved IE control perf

10/30/2008

- More perf improvements for embedded IE control
- Fixed sometimes being unable to install newly released videos without first restarting Steam
- Fixed Unicode input in the in-game overlay for some games


10/31/2008

- Fixed memory leak in the embedded IE control
- Fixed rare crash when the filesystem returns a bad file timestamp


11/03/2008

- Fixed Paypal checkout process on Windows Vista when UAC is enabled
- Fixed the BrowseFile dialog when creating a Backup

[jmccaskey]

A little more detail on the Store related changes:

We've done a pretty big overhaul to the store and our purchasing process so that you can now purchase online over the web without even using the Steam client, and when you purchase in the client the entire payment/checkout path is in the web control, instead of in a client wizard dialog.

We've also added shopping carts, online account creation, account history, and recommendations to the store.

If you were planning to buy a game, please try it with the new system and give us feedback on how the purchase path works for you.

If you'd like to checkout the new store outside of the client you can use this URL to opt into the new store while in a web browser:

http://store.steampowered.com/?webbasedpurchasing=1

Also, if you are outside the US you'll notice we haven't translated all the new strings yet and they show in English. We should be able to update with translated strings soon (before the beta is set live for everyone).

Thanks!

[Yoshiro]

Grabbing to test. Need us to do anything like buy from the store?

[somebody]

Thanks a million for the shopping cart! Really love you guys

EDIT: Where can I see my recommendations?

[TeeKae421]

I have just logged into the store via Firefox and found a list of transactions (including gifts) for the past year (including 7 failed purchases of RO a couple of weeks back).
Great addition.

[jmccaskey]

Originally Posted by somebody

Thanks a million for the shopping cart! Really love you guys

EDIT: Where can I see my recommendations?

Right now you only see recommendations after adding a game to your cart, we then show recommendations for other games based off what other people who buy the game you just added also buy.

[BurtonJ]

We have added two new FAQs for web-based purchasing:

Buying Games through Steam (Beta)

and

Steam Purchase Gifts and Guest Passes (Beta)

[AciD]

Yay! SteamCloud! I am in!

[jmccaskey]

Originally Posted by Yoshiro

Grabbing to test. Need us to do anything like buy from the store?

Sure, we'd love to have lots of people buy stuff and test the new purchasing path.

Of course we don't expect users to go buy games they don't actually want or didn't plan on buying just for the sake of testing for us, so don't feel obligated to buy if you weren't planning on it. Hopefully you are all eager to buy a bunch of the new games we've released recently anyway though

[somebody]

It's a shame that I already have all the games that I wanted, but there are going to be new releases in the near future right?

[tsaG]

very nice beta

[Kailieann]

With regards to the new web-based store capabilities:
I don't imagine you could turn the links to each game into actual links?

I only ask because I'm an avid tab-browser, and am disappointed by the fact that I cannot middle-click on a game to open its page in a new tab automatically, or even right-click to open it in a new tab manually.

[Xeeber]

There seems to be a minor problem with the client side store, if I move the Steam window everything flicker between green and the store content. I can maybe give a screenshot, if you need it.

[jmccaskey]

Originally Posted by Xeeber

There seems to be a minor problem with the client side store, if I move the Steam window everything flicker between green and the store content. I can maybe give a screenshot, if you need it.

I don't see that happen, what version of Windows are you running and what version of IE is installed?

[FISKER_Q]

Some feedback:
* An indication of Ownership when browsing in the store would be nice, the "purchase" button would change to gift as well. (Edit: Seems to be a bug)
* VAT price in the cart, and even on the storepage itself would be nice.

Bugs:
* Recommendations also recommend games you already own.
* You can purchase games (Or atleast the purchase button isn't greyed out) on games not yet released, though already owned.
* May be possible to use ?cc=lang to get past regional pricing/restrictions(In any case it probably should grey out the purchase button and note that the game can't be bought from another region)