Steam reviews now show when the writer played primarily on Steam Deck

By Carli Velocci Published August 22, 2024

The Heroic Games Launcher for Steam Deck. — Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Steam is continuing to refresh its customer review system with a small but potentially impactful new feature. Reviews will now note if the user had primarily played the game on the Steam Deck.

Valve announced the update on X (formerly Twitter) Thursday, showcasing a new Steam Deck icon that appears in the top right of a Steam review, next to the star icon that mentions a player played the game on Steam and, therefore, their thoughts will be counted in the overall score. Seems like an appropriate place to put it.

Recommended Videos

Good morning! We’ve just shipped a new feature on Steam that shows when a customer review was written by someone who played primarily on Steam Deck. Keep an eye out for the Deck icon to see how these players reviewed the game, and let us know what you think! pic.twitter.com/RYVa9wVGYi

— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) August 22, 2024

This might not seem like a big deal, but the gaming experience can vary wildly between your regular ol’ PC and the Steam Deck. There’s a reason why the Steam Deck verification system exists, after all. Some games just haven’t been optimized for it and controllers, and while users can do a lot of heavy lifting to get games to work, it’s often not a complete solution. Despite Steam Deck verification, a game also just might not be pleasant to play on the handheld console (looking at you, Baldur’s Gate 3).

Steam has been working on its review system for years, but has been implementing some changes lately to make top reviews more useful. It began testing a new system that would improve the “helpfulness” of user reviews by pushing ones that just have jokes or ASCII art down through user reporting and machine learning.

Valve also recently updated the platform to improve demo discoverability and the information on Steam store pages by removing links to third-party websites in the description.

Former Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

Topics

Gaming

Sony’s new PS5 Prism Collection gives a beautiful retro makeover to your console and controller

The new collection lets you peek inside your PS5 and DualSense controller with a glossy transparent design.

sony-prism-collection-ps5

Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19

Gaming

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more

I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Computing

The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out

Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.

Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.