Today Valve announced their latest big project, Big Picture which allows you to do what you’ve pretty much always been able to do with a PC: hook it up to a TV.

Sound pointless? Not for everyone. Using a mouse and keyboard on the couch isn’t exactly the most convenient method to couch out for a night of gaming, but Big Picture adds some clever interfacing for controllers. What kind of controllers you can use hasn’t been specified but it’s assumed you can use any generic PC controller and perhaps an Xbox 360 controller.

The new Daisywheel style of typing is certainly innovative, but it seems like it will take some getting used to. I personally still wouldn’t use a controller with this and if I were to still use a mouse and keyboard then it seems like there isn’t much purpose in using this anyway. Especially since you still need to relocate your PC to your living room so you can hook it up to your TV via an HDMI cable (which are known for being fairly short and fairly expensive.) There are options for hooking up your PC wirelessly to your TV but that requires external hardware and Big Picture provides none of those functions.

Those are just my thoughts so far. Big Picture lacks practicality and purpose for most people but perhaps to some people who prefer everything about console gaming over their PC except for the console part, this might be their dream software.

Big Picture

Jesse Leigh (199 Posts)

If you want a GOTY award, it's as simple as parkour + augments + Turok style dinosaur hunting.

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