One of my favorite tabs to check when I’m looking at new PC games on Steam is “Popular Upcoming,” but over the years, it’s become much less useful. While it’s supposed to show me in advance what the next big game is, the reality is that there are just too many games and too many types of players out there to keep up with anymore. My tastes are probably not the same as yours, and limiting highlights to a small group of popular picks may bury smaller titles that some players might care more about. That’s why I’m so excited The new personal calendar page in Steam.
Released last night, it’s technically an experiment, but it actually looks great. Essentially, instead of showing you a general list of ten games like the Popular Upcoming tab (I have no idea how Valve chooses these games, by the way), this instead shows you a selection of recently released and upcoming games, organized according to a daily calendar, up to the next eight weeks. The details depend on how you customize it, but it’s actually more useful to me than the Upcoming Popular tab.
To check that too Click here For the web version or open the Steam desktop client, and next to the search bar, go to Special Sections > Steam Labs > 016 Personal Calendar.
When you first open the calendar, you’ll see 100 games, divided into titles released last month, titles released in the last seven days, and titles that haven’t been released yet. At the time of writing, I’m currently seeing suggested games through December 12, which gives me a pretty good window into what to look forward to. If you’re extra careful, you may notice that your personal calendar excludes weekends, which Valve says is because most games aren’t released on weekends. If a game Valve wants to suggest releases on a weekend, it will instead appear the following Monday.
Credit: Michelle Erhardt
As for the organization, I am satisfied. Unlike the Popular Upcoming tab, Personal Calendar uses a combination of your wishlist and your playtime in specific games to decide what to show you, creating a list that caters to your tastes. Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of platformers and RPGs, and my personal calendar has been open to suggestions like… Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. These are bigger titles, but there are smaller options that I probably would have overlooked, and it actually seems like a great way to make sure I don’t miss out on a game I want. I also appreciate the alerts about recently released games, which are easy to think about once and then forget.
What do you think so far?
The only criticism I have is that the default setting of 100 games seems a bit cramped to me. Fortunately, you can narrow down your suggestions to between ten and fifty games (at the top of the page, bottom… Game number), which also has the advantage of narrowing down the algorithm to only show you what it thinks you’ll enjoy the most. Or, if you want to see as many options as possible, you can also make the calendar show 250 or 500 games. There are also controls to only display tagged games, as well as to exclude games you’ve favorited or already own.
Essentially, Personal Calendar feels like a personalized, easy-to-check version of the “biggest game releases of the month” videos, except you don’t need to constantly rewind or pull the video back when you’re looking for what you want to play next. Valve says its calendar algorithm is retrained daily, so don’t expect to always see the same games on it every time you check it. If you see a game that interests you but you’re not ready to play it yet, wishlisting it is still your best bet.