Confession time. I used to not care much for Steam. Although I would consider myself to primarily be a console gamer, GOG has consistently been my go-to site when it comes to downloadable PC titles. And why not? There's no DRM, they offer exclusive goodies and extras like free soundtracks, artwork, and guides, also there's no DRM (that's kind of an important one). That's not to say I never used Steam. It's hard to say no to a game on any service when you can find it on sale for just 99¢ or a couple of bucks. Even more so when they happen to be really good games. Well, it just so happened that I had taken advantage of one such sale recently over at the Humble Store. I had acquired an inordinate amount of ridiculously priced (in a good way) Steam games, and as I was engaged in the lengthy process of installing all of them, I began to take notice of everything that Steam had to offer, and suddenly the service started to click for me.

I realized that I really appreciate having the ability to organize a large portion of my games all together in one place, as well as being able to categorize them as I see fit. Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that many of the games available on Steam, both offer, and clearly display important features like achievements (something that I fell in love with on the Xbox 360), and controller support (for my 360 controller). With Steam, I've found that not only can I catch up on oftentimes better looking versions of the same excellent games I never finished on the 360, but also great games that appeared on other platforms such as PSP, and PS3 (and PC of course), all brought to one easily accessible location.

I still appreciate everything that GOG brings to the table, and I will definitely continue to purchase games there as well, but I think it's safe to say that for the reasons I've listed above (as well as others), Steam has finally made a convert out of me. Since I now have a new-found appreciation for their service, I've decided I should start keeping track of the weekly Steam releases, as I currently do for the PlayStation Store and Nintendo eShop. So, without further ado, I present the new Steam Store releases from this past week (after the break). (FYI, the highlights are the quite excellent, and previously-PlayStation 4-only, Axiom Verge, the stealth/strategy mash-up, Invisible, Inc, and the Final Fantasy IV follow-up, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.)

• Axiom Verge (Thomas Happ Games, Single-player, $19.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
• Invisible, Inc (Klei Entertainment, Single-player, $19.99) (Steam Achievements)
• Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (Square Enix, Single-player, $15.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
• Virtual Pool 4 (Celeris, Single & Multi-player, $24.99) (Steam Achievements)
• Action Henk (RageSquid, Single & Multi-player, $14.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
• Windward (Tasharen Entertainment, Single & Multi-player, $14.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
• Interplanetary (Team Jolly Roger, Single & Multi-player, $14.99) (Steam Achievements)
• NOT A HERO (Devolver Digital, Single-player, $12.99) (Controller Support)
• Galactic Civilizations II (Stardock Entertainment, Single & Multi-player, $49.99) (Steam Achievements)

[Image: Thomas Happ Games]