OCTOBER 2019 PCWorld 27DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
And while I’m most excited about what
Valve’s adding with this update, there’s also a
lot that’s been streamlined.
Select a game from your library and you’ll
be treated to the new Details page, which puts
forth a lot of info that’s been heretofore buried.
No need to go to the store to see whether a
game is Steam Cloud compatible, for instance.
That info’s right near the top. There’s also a list
of friend activity on the left-hand side, while the
right belongs to the info you’re already familiar
with from the current pages, including your
achievements and screenshots.
Keep scrolling down and you’ll see
community activity, which under the existing
template is segregated into its own page. And
there are quick-access tabs for the Workshop,
Discussions, and other features Valve’s added
to Steam over the
years and stashed
into sidebars as they
went. Now all those
secondary
community
elements—arguably
Steam’s strongest
advantage over the
competition—are
easier to find.
Another neat
feature: Developers
can add a Major
Update banner to
the top of the Details page, so even if you
never go to the store you’ll be able to find out
about the No Man’s Sky Beyond update, or
new seasons of Destiny 2, and so forth.
Previously this information was either buried
in the news feed or highlighted only on the
store page, where it wasn’t very useful to
existing owners.
But I’m honestly most excited for the new
Post-Game Summary page. Close out of a
game and Steam will now transition from the
Details page to one that lists how long you
played in your last session, the achievements
you unlocked, and screenshots you took.
It sounds banal, and it is. Uplay has had a
similar feature for years. As someone who
takes a lot of screenshots though, I’ve grown
so damn tired of closing out of that pop-up
box Steam currently uses when you’re doneWhen you select a game, you’ll be taken to the new Details page.