Steam, though it got off to a very rocky start for some has gone from strength to strength in recent years, growing from a buggy and slow-delivering mess of enforced updates and accidental bannings to an appreciated platform full of regularly updated titles with an extensive community function and penchant for indie games. Don't believe us? Sign up to the bit-tech community and we'll talk you through it between matches on our Intel-hosted server.

Now, the folks at Valve have added a brand new feature to Steam - gifting.

If you've got some geeky pals who you haven't yet sorted presents or want to wager a copy of BioShock over a match of Team Fortress 2 then you could do a lot worse than to take advantage of the new gift-giving function.

The process is fairly simple. You select the game you want to give away, pay for it and then indicate who you want to get the present. If they have Steam then they'll get a notification next time they come online. If they don't have Steam then they'll get an email nicely informing them how to sign up to the free service.

Valve is hosting a full FAQ on the new service, just in case you do have some quibbles and worries, but it's all rather straightforward. We're not sure how much the service will get used, but it certainly can't hurt Steams popularity at all, can it? What do you think? Let us know your opinions on Steam in the forums.