Watch Out GameFAQs: Valve Releases Steam Guides

By Catherine Cai
published

No more ALT + TABbing for you!

Valve is continuing its efforts to expand its initiative in transforming Steam to be not only a storefront for developers and publishers, but also a place for community-driven content. Recently, the digital distribution service added a Steam Guides section under the Community tab, allowing gamers to submit guides for games they've been playing.

For gamers who need to check up on a walkthrough on GameFAQs (and find the Steam browser clumsy for browsing the Internet) need not ALT + TAB any longer. Steam Guides are easily accessible in the Steam overlay. Guides are broken down into helpful categories, which can be used as filters when using the search bar. Unfortunately, Steam Guide's filtering ability is still fairly primitive, as users cannot filter for language.

Since Steam Guides is still relatively new, there are only a few guides, even for the most popular of games. Still, that's bound to change with time and an improvement in filtering options.

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Catherine Cai
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nolarrow
    Does gamefaqs have the rights to any of the material thats posted by its users?

    Otherwise there is going to be a massive copy pasta fest from gamefaqs to steam guides. To be honest I wouldn't mind, haven't used a gamefaqs in forever but if I needed to it would be nice to just access directly from steam. Can't see gamefaqs being pleased with this though.
    Reply
  • xenol
    Generally contributors to Gamefaqs.com retain the copyright of their work and who gets to use it At least, that's what I gathered anyway.

    But I feel that this is redundant anyway considering:
    - The overlay has a web browser. Sure it's has no history so if you quit the game you have to go back to it, but I never really had to Alt+Tab out to look at a walkthrough in the first place.
    - For a lot of high-profile games, there already exists a detailed wiki.
    Reply
  • cewhidx
    Somehow I doubt that Gamefaqs is going anywhere anytime soon...
    Reply
  • keczapifrytki
    I do find this easier. A lot of times if you ALT + TAB out of a game it changes to windowed mode and you have to go to settings to reset it to full-screen. It is kind of annoying. The Steam overlay is helpful and adding game guides to it is also helpful. Nothing wrong here.
    Reply
  • upgrade_1977
    Thats pretty cool. :D
    Reply
  • lpedraja2002
    I haven't used alt tab in a steam game for a long time. FYI you have a web browser available on the Steam overlay, of course ever since the last update my steam overlay disappears after being opened for a couple of seconds and I need to keep alt+tabbing to mozilla while playing Dar Souls.
    Reply
  • Would be nice if the guide somehow automatically scrolls to where you currently are in the game. Of course this would be a feature which you could either turn off or on.
    Reply
  • ttcboy
    If u don't want to ALT+Tab , u can always use ur smart phone or tablet.
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    or a second monitor
    Reply