One of my favorite tabs to check when I’m looking at new PC Games on the Steam Store is “Popular Upcoming,” but over the years, it’s gotten far less useful. While it’s supposed to show me what the next big game is ahead of time, the truth is, there are just too many games and too many types of players out there for it to keep up anymore. My tastes probably aren’t the same as yours, and limiting the highlights to a small selection of popular picks could bury smaller titles some players might be more interested in. That’s why I’m so excited about Steam’s new Personal Calendar page.
Released last night, it’s technically an experiment, but it’s already looking great. Essentially, rather than showing you a generic list of ten games like the Popular Upcoming tab (I have no idea how Valve picks those games, by the way), this instead shows you a personally curated selection of recently released and upcoming games, organized on a daily calendar, and up through the next eight weeks. The specifics depend on how you customize it, but already, it’s far more useful for me than the Popular Upcoming tab.
To check it out, either click here for the web version or open your Steam desktop client, and next to the search bar, navigate to Special Sections > Steam Labs > 016 Personal Calendar.
When you first open the calendar, you’ll see 100 games, split across titles released last month, titles released in the last seven days, and titles that aren’t out yet. At time of writing, I currently see suggested games through Dec. 12, which gives me a pretty good window of what to look forward to. If you’re eagle-eyed, you might notice that the Personal Calendar excludes weekends, which Valve says is because most games don’t release on weekends. If a game Valve wants to suggest does release on a weekend, it’ll instead show up on the following Monday.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
As for the curation, I’m satisfied. Unlike the Popular Upcoming tab, the Personal Calendar uses a combination of your wishlist and your playtime in certain games to decide what to show you, making for a list that’s catered to your tastes. Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of platformers and RPGs, and low and behold, my Personal Calendar opened right up to suggestions like Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. These are bigger titles, but there are smaller choices I might have otherwise overlooked peppered in, and it already seems like a great way to make sure I don’t miss out on a game I’d like. I even appreciate the heads-up about recently released games, which are easy to think about once and then forget.
What do you think so far?
The one criticism I have is that the default of 100 games looks a little overstuffed to me. Luckily, you can slim down your suggestions to anywhere from ten to fifty games (at the top of the page, under Game Count), which also has the benefit of narrowing down the algorithm to only show you what it thinks you’d enjoy most. Or, if you want to see as many options as possible, you can also have the calendar display 250 or 500 games. There are also controls to only show games with specific tags, and also to exclude games you’ve wishlisted or already own.
Essentially, the Personal Calendar feels like a personalized and easy-to-check version of those “Biggest Game Releases of the Month” videos, except you don’t need to constantly rewind or pull up the video again whenever you’re looking for what to play next. Valve says your Calendar’s algorithm gets re-trained daily, though, so don’t expect to always see the same games on it every time you check it. If you see a game you’re interested in but aren’t ready to pull the trigger on yet, wishlisting it is still your best bet.
