Steam is one of the most relaxed game platforms when it comes to refunds, for better and worse. After purchasing a title, you can play for two hours, decide you don't like it, and ask for your money back. However, that means you can't dip into a lot of games at once before deciding which one to spend your money on. Unless you have a few hundred quid you don't mind waiting five days to get back. But Steam has an age-old solution - trials.
As reported by PCGamesN, Steam is rolling out trials ahead of the Summer sales, starting with the Dead Space remake. If you open the store page, under "Add to your wishlist", there's the option to "Try Dead Space" with a timer telling you how long you have left. You can't play for two hours like in the refund window, but you still get a lengthy 90 minutes to find out if it's your thing.
After clicking "Play Now" in the trial tab, you'll install the game as though you own it. That means if you buy it, you'll be able to pick up right where you left off without the hassle of finishing the installation. You can test this feature right now as it's already live on Steam, and if you do like the Dead Space remake, it's also on sale for £39.99.
Currently, Steam is only offering a trial for the Dead Space remake, and we don't know what other games might join it. Given that Dead Space comes from publisher giant EA, it's likely that other games such as Battlefield, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Mass Effect will join it, but we'll have to wait and see.
Dead Space has been out for a few months, so it's unclear if future trials will be offered for brand-new games. The Dead Space remake trial also expires on May 29, coinciding with its sale, so it's possible that this will be a feature held for events such as the upcoming Summer sales.
This isn't the only update we've seen to Steam in the past couple of months. In April, its client beta completely overhauled the in-game overlay, letting you pin notes, guides, and even the web browser so you can see aspects of the overlay while gaming. This even means that you can, in theory, watch films while you game, but I'm not sure that's the best idea.
Steam also finally added the Deck UI to its Big Picture mode, giving it a long-overdue overhaul. 2023 is clearly a big year for Steam improvements, but we'll have to wait and see what other games try out trials in future.