Let's face it - the day of the disc is over for PCs. It's true, you can always go to a store to pick up a disc, bring it back home, wrestle with the shrink wrap, and then install the game...but wouldn't it just be easier to download the game while you eat lunch or finish up another game?

There are a number of downloadable game sites out there on the Internet, but none of them really excel as well as Steam. Steam is developed by Valve, the studio responsible for the Half Life series, the breakout hit game Portal, the zombie-fest of Left4Dead and the multiplayer Team Fortress. While Steam started as a way to accomplish digital rights management on Half-Life 2, the service quickly expanded to include a number of third party releases from other developers.

Steam is digital distribution, digital rights management and multiplayer platform. It's a download in and of itself, allowing PC players to connect to the Steam server that houses a vast amount and number of games - both casual and otherwise. The service, much like Amazon.com, has you create an account so that you can purchase games and take full advantage of all the features that Steam offers. Steam sets users up with a payment option, like credit card or PayPal, to pay for their purchases, and then you're ready to go.

When you first open the Steam program, it takes you directly to the Steam store. Here, you can purchase any game in the Steam library for immediate download - without the hassle of entering in your payment information every time. The game goes to your download queue to activate whenever you see fit and goes permanently into your Steam games library for download at any time. The best part is, your library and your game saves follow you anywhere. Yep, anywhere. Your downloads and saves are linked to your Steam account and stored on the central Steam server as well as the computer that the software is installed on. So, as long as your Steam account is active, you can retrieve your games and saves in the event of a system crash or if you get a new computer through a service known as Steam Cloud. There are over 1000 games in the Steam catalogue including recent hardcore hits like Mass Effect 2 and older casual favorites like Peggle and Gyromancer. Even companies that have their own websites and distribution channels have begun to sell through steam, like TellTale Games, the studio responsible for the new Sam and Max series. But Steam would just be a lesser version of XBox Live or PlayStation Network if it wasn't for the massive amount of time and thought put into the system and execution. The client features a friend-list feature that allows users to keep a list of people they enjoy playing with and see which games they're playing with a click of the mouse.

If that wasn't enough, Steam is known for its promotions and saving specials. At the end of the week, Steam will commonly offer a temporary Weekend Deal that will heavily discount a title from anywhere from 50% to 75% off. This is nothing compared to their first end of the year sale in December 2009 where heavily discounted titles rotated every single day to excellent effect. Steam also occasionally has sales for holidays and special occasions.

Digital downloading is the future of gaming and Steam seems to be the most convenient and fair way of attempting to control digital rights management for games. (In fact, all Valve games require a Steam account to install on PCs from a disc. Once the game is installed, the game is linked to your Steam account permanently as if you had downloaded it. Another incredibly popular game to do this was Modern Warfare 2.) The ease with which you can navigate the user interface and the amount of time and thought that has been put into making the process convenient and enjoyable for the user is clear. No more icons cluttering the desktop - it's all there in Steam in a nice alphabetical list that can be sorted by favorites.

Although Steam started off as a PC exclusive, Mac users will be getting Steam this April - and if you've been holding off on getting a Mac because your Steam account won't transfer over, Valve has gone on record saying that users will be able to re-download Mac versions of games at no cost if they've already purchased the PC version. Multiplayer games will also be cross-platform compatible so that Mac users can finally play with PCs. Steam is a big step in the right direction for digital download and hopefully, more players will be able to embrace it for all their gaming needs.