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Steam lets you be a critic

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Nobodywatchedthis

For those of you who prefer the opinions of your fellow gamers over those of professional game critics up in their ivory towers, user reviews are where its at. For many gamers, those often illegible, barely constructed sentences filled with caps and racial epithets offer greater insights in to games’ worth than those of the people who’re paid to critique. And now, those will be available on Steam.

Today Valve launched a new Steam beta feature that will allow users to rate and review games. Called Steam Reviews, it’s essentially what you’d see n retail sites like Amazon or on Metacritic’s user reviews, where gamers will be able to read and write reviews, and then vote vote on ones you like or dislike. You’ll also be able to follow and filter by authors you agree with – which should make finding games you like quite a bit easier.

"Once a user has played a game or used a software title on Steam, they are able to write a review of that product and share their experience with everyone on Steam," the company explains, noting that it’ll also show how much time said user has spent playing the game – so you can see if people are trolling.

Steam reviews won’t replace the Metacritic reviews that are already shown on games, but will supplement them. the difference here is that developers will be able to respond to user reviews directly.

You can read about the whole thing here.

Last Updated: November 26, 2013

26 Comments

  1. That Tall Twit

    November 26, 2013 at 11:03

    Sounds like a good idea to me. Having the option to filter out reviews from people who write utter rubbish grammar-wise, would be a great feature.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Duke

      November 26, 2013 at 11:08

      Indeed.

      Reply

    • John's (JJ's) finest excuse

      November 26, 2013 at 11:37

      I’ve found more honest and helpful reviews on sites by random people than I have from the big companies reviewing games (who are often clearly influenced by $omething).

      Reply

      • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

        November 26, 2013 at 11:41

        I hear there is $omething fishy about $ome critic review$. It’s almost as if they’re trying to say $omething that $omeone else has asked them to say.

        Reply

        • John's (JJ's) finest excuse

          November 26, 2013 at 11:43

          It’$ ju$t $o clear $ometimes. Like they don’t even try to hide it (wow, really no S’s in that last sentence?)

          Reply

          • That Tall Twit

            November 26, 2013 at 11:59

            Out$tanding work $ir!

          • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

            November 26, 2013 at 14:30

            I can’t help but read these comments with a li$p

  2. Admiral Chief Duke

    November 26, 2013 at 11:09

    I like it, but also, not just time spent playing it, but actual game progress and completion

    Reply

    • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

      November 26, 2013 at 11:33

      This would be useful. I’d like age as well. I’d like to know how old the reviewer is. I’m just not going to take the word of a 14 year old very seriously. 😛

      Reply

  3. Rags

    November 26, 2013 at 11:17

    Going to be a nice feature for the Steambox too.

    Reply

  4. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    November 26, 2013 at 11:22

    I think Meta Critic Integration combined with this is an excellent way of doing things. I know I rarely buy a game with a meta critic score under 80 so reviews do matter a lot.

    Reply

  5. SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

    November 26, 2013 at 11:31

    “For many gamers, those often illegible, barely constructed sentences filled with caps and racial epithets offer greater insights in to games’ worth than those of the people who’re paid to critique.”

    Hahaha. This sentence. I see where you stand, Geoff. I do think, though, that your website is certainly one of the few that reviews games fairly (from what I’ve seen). I’ve come across metacritic scores for broken games as high as 90 which don’t even mention game breaking bugs (especially for games from large publishers). The review scores by gamers, however, tell a different story and can often be very informative as they’re also written by intelligent people who pay to play the games. For Rome II Total War the user reviews balance the blatant nonsense you find in many of the higher critic reviews (who were all probably threatened by an Onager during writing). I suppose it was why I was looking for you all to do a review on Rome II! *insert sad panda face here

    In any respect. Not all professional reviews are all that grand. Instead of racial epithets and barely constructed sentences, they’re full of bloated and vainglorious nonsense which borders on outright deception. So…. pick your poison I guess. I try to use both.

    However, after the DotA diretide fiasco, user reviews need to be used on a case by case basis. Because sometimes the community just ******* sucks. I suppose the same is still true for all reviews, pro or amateur.

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      November 26, 2013 at 11:49

      It was a bit tongue in cheek. I actually rely more on word of mouth for my own game purchases. It’s an expensive hobby – and getting as much informed opinion as possible is a great thing.

      Reply

      • ToshZA

        November 26, 2013 at 11:52

        Personally I miss the days where demo versions came out all the time. Those, plus reviews and friend’s opinions together gave you a perfect picture (usually) of a whether or not you’d want to lay down your cash for the game.

        Games were also cheaper, and I had fewer other, responsible things to spend my money on, so a bad game didn’t really make me as upset.

        Reply

        • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

          November 26, 2013 at 11:53

          I used to pirate as a teenager. And I had no qualms about it. Bad games really didn’t bother me then. I suppose because I was so spoilt with choice back then, now when I fork out so much money on a really disappointing game I’m extra upset.

          If only I had pirated it..

          I would have known in one hour that it wasn’t worth the effort..

          😛

          Reply

          • ToshZA

            November 26, 2013 at 11:56

            I don’t pirate on principle (I can afford not to, so why should I?)

            But yeah. Back then it didn’t matter if a game sucked because you didn’t pay for it. But I’ve been paying for games for 12 or 13 years now, so while not as long as some ou toppies on this site, its still been a while. And every time I buy a bad game (looking at you C&C4) I feel it.

      • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

        November 26, 2013 at 12:03

        Yeah. I figured it was pretty tongue in cheek. But it was well said, nonetheless. I just find spending so much money and time on games certainly makes you somewhat of an ‘expert’ as well. Why we rely on word of mouth from other gamers, I suspect. 🙂

        Reply

  6. John's (JJ's) finest excuse

    November 26, 2013 at 11:35

    I’d find this quite handy

    Reply

  7. JS

    November 26, 2013 at 11:39

    Iwatchedit 😀

    Reply

  8. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    November 26, 2013 at 12:37

    I like this idea actually.

    I generally try to read a few professional reviews on a game and then go and look at user reviews. That way you get the best of both worlds.

    From professional writers you get the more nitty-gritty stuff (talking about bugs and flaws etc) and is, to a large degree, less personal because they know they need to judge the game by its pro’s and con’s.

    Then with user reviews, it’s all 100% personal and you can see what kind of joy the normal “everyday” gamer got out of a game. This way one generally finds the best balance on what’s good and what really isn’t. Because let’s face it. Sometimes professional reviewers are wrong and sometimes the normal everyday players are wrong.

    So it’ts good to have a variety of inputs for game choices

    Reply

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