Steam fails for life but it does have an easier-to-get-working in-game overlay. I do use XFire, I've been using it for years lol. Although the standard has gone down since another management took over. I mean the updates are usually 1 or 2 weeks after the game release...
I use both Xfire and steam. Xfire is quite useful but annoying in some games (As it doesn't properly detect them and I am forced to alt tab to talk) I prefer steam since a majority of my games require it. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]