Steam Overlay enhances your gaming experience with streamlined communication, in-game purchases, web access, and more. Let's take a look at how the overlay works, how to turn it on, and talk about some of the features that can improve your gaming experience.
An Overview of Steam Overlay
Integrated into Valve's Steam client, Steam Overlay allows users to access various Steam features without having to exit the game they're playing. You can see messages from your friends, invite them to play a game, browse the web, check out community content, change Steam settings, and do much more.
With the feature enabled, you can summon the overlay on top of your game screen by pressing a designated hotkey. The default hotkey for activating Steam Overlay is Shift+Tab, but you can customize this in the Steam settings if you wish.
What Can You Do With Steam Overlay?
Steam Overlay lets you access many of Steam's standout features in a flash.
Game Overview
Denoted by the "i" information symbol, the Game Overview offers some at-a-glance information like playtime for the current session, the total playtime for the last two weeks, recent announcements or updates, direct links to the game's community hub, discussions, guides, and additional related content.
Achievements
Use the medal icon to view and track your achievements in the game. You can check the list of achievements you've already unlocked, monitor those in progress, compare your achievements with your friends, check details about rewards for those achievements, and more.
Notes
Indicated by a pencil icon, jot down notes during gameplay to keep track of thoughts, strategies, and more. You can create as many notes as you'd like and format them using a range of rich text options. The notes are stored separately for each game and synced across other PCs where you are logged into Steam.
Timer
The timer feature in Steam Overlay, represented by a clock symbol, can help you manage your gaming session by setting predefined time limits. It remains visible in the overlay, making it simple to see how much time you have left. This feature lets you set small goals during streaming, take breaks to stay productive, and schedule reminders for other activities.
Guides
Look for the book symbol to access fan-created manuals. These guides can help you figure out what to do next in a game, find answers to common questions, troubleshoot specific problems, and more. To make things easier, Steam lets you use the search feature to reach your desired guide.
Discussions
Discussions offer swift entry into informal community conversations about the current game. You can participate in discussions, ask questions, exchange tips, and connect with other players. This feature is represented by a
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
A unique structure called a Statue of Power may be built in to give a permanent stat boost to Pals on your team. This statue can also increase your overall capture rate, allowing you to obtain Pals that would normally be very difficult to catch. However, you have to reach a certain level before you can research the technology necessary to have a Statue of Power.
Tekken 8 is off to a solid start on Steam, as it has surpassed the previous game's concurrent player count on the platform. Tekken 8 is the eighth mainline game in the long-running fighting game franchise, being touted as the grand finale of the Mishima Family storyline. A number of impressive fighting games were released in 2023, with major releases like Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 being praised by fans and critics alike. With that in mind, Tekken 8 had a lot to live up to, and fortunately it seems to be doing just that.
Few phrases in video games send chills down one’s spine like, “It gets good after eight hours.” With that much time, you could beat Bowser in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, watch most of The Bear, or read The Great Gatsby — twice. It should be no surprise, then, that those six cruel words hang like an albatross around the necks of countless role-playing games collecting dust in my backlog.
Nintendo has revealed a new set of Pastel Pink Joy-Con controllers for the Nintendo Switch that will be released to coincide with the arrival of the upcoming Princess Peach Showtime.
By far, the biggest reveal at the second Xbox Developer Direct was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The new first-person action/adventure game in development at MachineGames looked great in its first presentation and isn't too far off, either, since it is slated to launch later this year on PC and Xbox Series S|X.
Overwatch 2players can redeem the epic Rosewood Moira skin for free until February 15 through Amazon Prime Gaming. One of the benefits for Amazon Prime subscribers is Prime Gaming, which offers free games and in-game content for titles like Overwatch 2.
To celebrate the first trailer of Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones game, executive producer Todd Howard stole a Golden Idol from the developer working on it.
Microsoft’s second (hopefully annual?) Xbox Developer Direct went, like the first, exceptionally well. While we didn’t get a shadow-dropped killer exclusive – and let’s be honest, that’s not an expectation that Team Xbox probably wants to set – we did still get the surprise of a behind-the-scenes look at Square Enix’s upcoming Visions of Mana. Better yet, we got a good look at gameplay from Obsidian’s upcoming first-person RPG Avowed, we got the Hellblade 2 release date we’ve been waiting for, and best of all, we got the proper reveal of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the new first-person (!) action/adventure/puzzler/whip-simulator that’s being executive produced by Elder Scrolls and Fallout director Todd Howard. I’m extremely pleased with Microsoft’s showing, and it helps set the tone for what should be a very good year of Xbox exclusives.
Barely containing his inner nerd as he lifted the curtain on the gameplay reveal for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Todd Howard explains that he's had almost everything about the game, down to granular plot points, planned out for years.