Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Steam In Psychic Powers Shocker

By Alec Meer on November 22nd, 2010 at 5:50 pm.

Steam knows your innermost thoughts. It knows the nasty little images that flit across your mind when you see a bit of ankle. It knows about that unnecessarily rude thing you said in Comments and then tried to edit out. It knows what John Carmack really did to that cat. It even knows what games you want to play. OR DOES IT?

The latest update, if you hadn’t noticed already, adds “Recommended For You” tech-o-cleverness. As the name suggests, it recommends stuff it thinks you might like, based on what you’ve bought and played – and on what your friends own and have jibber-jabbered about. While it’s more fuel to the fire of the ‘Steam eats babies’ crowd , hopefully it’s also a shot in the arm for indie games. A little bit more promotion outside of the news updates and best-seller charts could do a lot of games a lot of good.

So I’m interested in hearing what the service has recommended to you creatures and creaturettes thus far. Surprises, relevant games, totally useless stuff, what? For my part, I’ve had Killing Floor DLC suggested, and a bunch of big hits such as Arkham Asylum and Team Fortress 2, based on my friends lists’ experimentation with pressing the ‘Favourite’ button.

Is indie and/or lesser-known stuff coming up for anyone, or is it Steam mainstays? Genuinely curious as to what the dice are throwing up. I would imagine this will be an evolving service, perhaps ultimately taking Steam closer to an App Store model.

__________________

« | »

.

134 Comments »

  1. Dean says:

    Isn’t it:

    “Or is it? Or Is It? OR IS IT?”

    Or is it?

    report

  2. Unaco says:

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with this excellent recommendation… “Literally the worst shooter in existence.”

    report

    • dethtoll says:

      If you think MW2 is the worst shooter in existence then you’ve led a charmed fucking life.

      report

    • Scautura says:

      Well, I have FNV recommended with “It’s good. So buy it. If you want. I dunno I was just testing this ” – it really works well when people put recommendations like that.

      report

  3. SAeN says:

    I’m getting a lot of DLC recommended to me. Also Poker night, which I already bought…

    report

  4. I got suggested:
    Clones, Diamond Dan, Planet Busters, ProtoGalaxy and Power of Defense.

    I’ve not heard of any of them before, they are all tagged as “indie”, (and the first 3 as “casual”).

    Edit: Oh, there are 8 more I didn’t see. All indie, and not one I’d heard of before except for puzzle bots (which I already have on Steam).

    Edit2: Perhaps if I log in it will be able to tailor them to me better…

    report

    • Actual selection now I have logged in:
      Civ5 DLC, Borderlands DLC, Red Faction: Gorilla, Diamond Dan and Red Faction 2.

      Eh, I’m not bothered about Civ5 or Borderlands DLC, played and loved RFG on the console toy, dunno about Diamond Dan and disliked RF2.

      report

  5. My wonderfully diverse range of titles on Steam has led to recommendations anywhere from TF2 (which I own, of course) to Diamond Dan and Planet Busters… both of which are of zero interest. Guess that’s what buying everything in the Steam sales does for you, eh?

    report

  6. Flameberge says:

    let’s see…..

    I had the first Red Faction recommended to me… which I don’t want to play. Also, and apparently based on my purchase of Titan Quest: Gold, Red Faction II (?) – which is the big main recommendation as well.

    Why is it recommending rubbish games?

    Aside that, Nation Red – which makes sense, I love Killing Floor and recently bought L4D2.

    report

  7. MrMud says:

    For me it managed to recommend Divinity 2: Ego Draconis after my purchase of Divinity 2: The dragon knight saga, you know the game that contains Ego Draconis and more but costs 10 euro less…
    Great work steam.

    report

  8. Mana_Garmr says:

    The first 5 or 6 games recommended were all based on “your time in Team Fortress 2″. Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, L4D and the like. The last two were VVVVVV and Amnesia, both based on my owning Zeno Clash which I still haven’t got around to playing..

    report

  9. olemars says:

    The “top recommendation” is Red Faction 2. Half of the rest is DLC for Empire: TW. The remainder is Dogfighter, Metro 2033, Bioshock, Nation Red and some other DLC

    report

  10. Similar to games you play:

    Divinity II
    Bloody Good Time
    Shank
    Dead Rising 2
    Blade Kitten
    Fallout: New Vegas

    DO NOT KNOW IF WANT

    report

  11. Drew says:

    So far, the thing seems pretty bad at gauging my overall tastes. It just spits out games that are similar to what I’ve bought most recently, and DLC for game I own. As an engine for telling me what I might like if I previously enjoyed Mass Effect 2, Osmos, Machinarium, AND Left 4 Dead 2, it could use some work.

    report

  12. Saiko Kila says:

    I don’t understand why it lists DLC for Defence Grid – four times. There has to be 12 proposals and they could pull out of their… I mean find only 9, so repeated the last one or what? Also, I’ve got half of the proposed titles already.

    report

    • Wahngrok says:

      There are four mappacks as DLC for Defense Grid. Maybe it was suggesting all of them?

      report

  13. Mark says:

    First game it recommended for me was The Polynomial, which looked so interesting that I bought it. Didn’t expect what I got, but it actually seems like it’ll be a fun time.

    report

  14. Skull says:

    I don’t think this recommendation thingy is really needed. I don’t need Steam to throw out random games at me just because I play games belonging to the same genre. At the moment, it is telling me I would enjoy Black Ops when I have no intreast at all in that game. I think it chose that game because alot of people in my friends list are playing it alot, but that dosn’t mean I will like it. Mark my words, this recommendation system is gonna be as useless as Amazons.

    I also dont have any indie games recomended to me, only the big hitters like Vegas and Bioshock. This is surprising seeing as I play alot of indie games and althogh multiplayer and larger games get more time out of me, that dosnt mean I don’t enjoy indie games any less.

    To imprive this I think Steam needs to integrate some sort of user rating system into their program so it actually knows how much you enjoy a game rather than basing it on how much you have been playing it. I have recived some truely abysmal games from my girlfriend on Steam, but I play them to keep her happy even though despising every minute of it (*ahem* Rainbow Six: Lockdown)

    report

    • Archonsod says:

      There’s the recommendation from friends system. Dunno why they don’t just swipe GG’s user reviews though.

      report

  15. mlaskus says:

    So far none of my friends took the effort to recommend something.
    The automatic recommendations are terrible, I sat for half an hour clicking “Don’t recommend me this game” to sift through all the crap that was showing up, until finally giving up.

    I recommended AI War and VVVVVV so far. I wrote a bit about them myself and linked to Wot I Thinks here. ;)

    report

  16. Osbo says:

    I’m getting indie games on mine quite a bit – In Plain Sight and Lost Horizon in particular.

    report

  17. Linfosoma says:

    I recomended the Riddick game. Assault in Dark Arthena might be rubish, but Escape from Butcher’s Bay is one of the best FPS made. You can jam a screwdiver into someone’s neck, you can’t go wrong with that.

    report

  18. Rond says:

    It gives me DOW:Soulstorm, Disciples 3 and Supreme Commander 2 (probably because I play DOW2), Plain Sight and Nation Red, because I have Dogfighter. Well, this machine kinda works.

    report

    • bob_d says:

      It seems to like to recommend Nation Red and DogFighter, regardless of context. It’s telling me that DogFighter is just like “Garry’s Mod,” due to my recently poking around in that. I fail to see the connection.

      report

  19. Man Raised By Puffins says:

    I mostly had recommendations for Empire and Napoleon DLC until I told it to sod off. Now it has taken a shine to suggesting indie and/or zombie-themed games because I played Plants vs Zombies for half an hour two weeks ago, so not terribly useful in the grand scheme of things.

    The friend recommendation thing is quite nice though.

    report

  20. mpk says:

    “Based on your purchase of Grand Theft Auto Classics we recommend Red Faction 1 & 2 and Dogfighter”

    Riiiiiight

    report

    • bob_d says:

      It’s recommending DogFighter at the top, due to it being “Similar to games you play; based on your recent playtime in Garry’s Mod.” It’s also not impressing me with the recommendation system.

      report

  21. Sup says:

    It recomends :

    - “Strong Bad’s cool game for attractive people” “Based on your purchase of Monkey Island 2 SE…”
    - “Amnesia – The Dark Descent”
    - “Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse” (which I already own)
    - some MW2 Mappack
    - And a bunch of other Adventures

    report

  22. Meneth says:

    It apparently thinks I’m a huge fan of zombie games (guess it counts STALKER as a zombie game, or something):
    Nation Red (apparently because I “bought” Alien vs. Predator (I got it with my GPU, and still haven’t played it))
    Dead Rising 2
    Metro 2033
    Burn Zombie Burn
    AI War: Children of Neinzul (didn’t really play AI War much, 8 hours according to Steam)
    Dead Space
    Call of Duty: Black Ops (why is it recommending a game I despise?)
    Delve Deeper
    Resident Evil
    Blaclight: Tango Down (never heard of)
    Ghostbusters: The Video Game
    Bloody Good Time
    Square Logic (never heard of)

    So, at least 5 games featuring zombies…
    Edit: now that I told it to not recommend CoD, it’s recommending Amnesia instead.

    report

    • DrGonzo says:

      I would recommend trying out Aliens vs Predator. It’s not brilliant, but the Predator and Alien campaign are different enough to be worth a play through I think.

      report

    • Jhoosier says:

      I got zombies too: Left4Dead2, Killing Floor & Nation Red (though that was based on my purchase of World of Goo, of all things). STALKER: CoP was at the top, based on me buying Clear Sky. Could do with some tweaking so it recommends games I maybe haven’t heard of, but would be interested in buying. But please, no more zombies.

      report

    • Meneth says:

      @DrGonzo: I’ll probably try it eventually.
      @Jhoosier: Call of Pripyat is great, much better than Clear Sky, so I strongly recommend buying it. Not all that many zombies in CoP, either.

      report

    • Meneth says:

      Hmm… looking closer, all but 3 of the 13 recommendations are because I “bought” Alien vs. Predator.
      All I did was type in the CD-key that was included with my GPU. I haven’t even installed it, though I plan to do so some time.

      report

  23. DarkNoghri says:

    Nation Red, Bloody Good Time, Red Faction Guerrilla (already owned, just not on Steam), Red Faction, Bioshock (already owned), Red Faction 2, SW: Battlefront 2. And a bunch of DLC. And a friend recommending The Polynomial.

    *shrug* I’d rather not see so much of the same series on there (Red Faction, Red Faction!), but it’s not bad. It’s almost all stuff I’m well aware of, which I think defeats the point.

    report

    • Saiko Kila says:

      I have three Redfactions too. Maybe that’s a bundle recommendation.

      report

    • Jad says:

      My list is also heavily Red Faction-focused. After that comes the two MW2 mappacks, some Borderlands DLC, Bloody Good Time, Nation Red (more red stuff!), Batman (which I own a physical copy of already), and Defense Grid DLC. Also my topmost game is Supreme Commander DLC, I suppose because I bought the game for a couple of bucks in a recent sale. Still haven’t even played it yet. So not a particularly great list.

      Red Faction!

      report

  24. Atic Atac says:

    They recommended me Spore Galactic Adventures…I removed it from the “recommend me” list. 1 Game later they recommend me ….Spore Galactic Adventures

    Why are you recommending me a game that got 70 on Metacritic steam?

    report

  25. egg says:

    Recommeded Killing Floor for me. Which I don’t really know if it’s that good. Is it?

    It also recommended Metro 2033. B-b-b-b-b-but I just reinstalled Stalker Oblivion Lost with that lovely Complete Mod. Metro 2033 surely can’t be anything anywhere as good as Stalker.

    report

    • Polysynchronicity says:

      Metro 2033 is not very much like STALKER, but very lovely in its own right and definitely one of my favorites.

      report

    • DrGonzo says:

      The atmosphere is quite Stalker-ish I think, but not the actual game itself. I really enjoyed it. Killing Floor is a co op zombie game. You fight off waves of zombies and level up while you do it. If thats your kinda thing its a brilliant game.

      report

  26. Ed says:

    Recommender algorithms rarely get it right to begin with.

    I guess that their recommendation data is a bit sparsely populated. It will be chock-ful of TF2 data and Codblops variants but after the usual suspects have had associations built for them, any usable contextual data will tail off very quickly.

    Market basket analysis in such a comparatively narrow market very rarely yields the same meaningful data as Amazon or your trip round the supermarket.

    report

  27. westyfield says:

    “Based on your purchase of Empire: Total War, we recommend you cry.”

    report

  28. Slow Dog says:

    “2KSports NBA 2K11″ is similar to “F1 2010″.

    Yep. Both strings of letters and numbers.

    report

  29. HexagonalBolts says:

    haha, Moonbase alpha was recommended to me, with the words ‘If you like to very slowly bounce around a depressing grey landscape endlessly searching for a toolshed, so you can then fix something very boring that broke in a very boring way, this is the game for you.’

    report

  30. RobF says:

    I tend to break all these recommendation systems, from LastFM to Genius and now Steam. At least this one isn’t recommending I buy some Paul McCartney though ;)

    So I get:

    Diamond Dan – if it were Dynamite Dan, we’d talk. It’s not, so no thanks.
    The Polynomial – sorry, I like games with my games.
    Clones – oh, what a hideous looking piece of work. I’ll pass on your 2001 shareware graphics, thanks.
    Borderlands DLC – DLC for a game I detest at the most fundamental level. Umm, no.
    Civ V Babylonian pack – Actually, I’ll probably end up picking this up anyway so fair do’s.

    The rest is a load of casual tat that I’d sooner remove limbs than purchase.

    I guess these things just aren’t for me but I took 2 minutes out to recommend everyone buy Windosill whilst I was there ;)

    report

  31. frags says:

    Based on your play time for TF2 and your shameless item trading, Steam recommends Day of Defeat Source.

    report

  32. DrugCrazed says:

    I know Craig got recommended TF2.

    Even though he has a TF2 avatar.

    report

    • DJ Phantoon says:

      Yeah, I thought it was weird Team Fortress 2 would be suggested when Alec should already own it.

      report

  33. Nero says:

    It’s currently recommending Bloody Good Time and under that Killing Floor DLC, Undergarden, Bit Trip Beat and Nation Red. Steam knows I like indie games :D

    report

  34. LimEJET says:

    I got recommended Nation Red and Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood… Based on my time in Garry’s Mod. Way to go, Steamworks.

    report

  35. Frosty says:

    Credit where credit is due it’s recommended Amnesia to me, probably due to owning all three Penumbra games though.

    report

  36. Tusque D'Ivoire says:

    atm it is mainly recommending bit trip beat and some mini-zombie and puzzle games based on my recent playtime of PvZ and VVVVV(V?), completely ignoring the 12+ hours i poured into Arkham Asylum last week.

    The rest is just what my friends played and what i recently looked at. I know that.

    I find most recommendation services to be underwhelming, even the supposedly most sophisticated (and diverse) service. I use last.fm only for my beautiful Lastgraph: http://lastgraph.aeracode.org/

    report

    • Thants says:

      I find lastfm does quite a good job.

      Edit: That lastgraph site is very cool, thanks for the link.

      report

  37. Heliosicle says:

    9/10 of my reccomendations I own outside steam, so its reasonably good I guess.

    report

  38. Philip L says:

    It recommended me a lot of games that I instantly removed from it – casual games and some FPS games that I wasn’t at all interested in. Upon seeing VVVVVV I decided to give it a go… and well, I ended up buying it! In finding this little gem I think it has definitely been worth it – without it I would never have given this game a go.

    report

  39. Whiskey Jak says:

    Well to be honest, it changes every time you press the button. I got it all blockbuster RPG’s, sports games, shooters, etc. and also a bunch of indie games like audio surf and and zen bound 2.

    report

  40. Tei says:

    I have recomended GTA4 has “dull and boring”…

    Maybe was not created to spur venon on the games you hate, but I am going to use it that way anyway.

    I think the “recomend pack of games” of GOG is better than this system.

    report

  41. man-eater chimp says:

    I have Football Manager 2011 on my steam.

    So I have recommended to me Fifa Manager 11 (pfff), World Basketball Manager 2010, Championship Manager 2010, Out of the Park Baseball 9 and Left 4 Dead 2.

    Cheers steam.

    report

  42. noobnob says:

    Based on my purchase of the STALKER bundle a couple weeks ago, it recommends me Bioshock. Oh, if only Rapture was a sprawling underwater city that you could actually explore…I already had my eyes on this, but as a linear FPS game.

    As for the other recommendations, they’re all games that I had my eyes on before, but not exactly priorities. Plants vs Zombies, Risen, KOTOR, M&B Warband (have the first M&B game already).

    report

  43. MrTambourineMan says:

    For me it is: Killing Floor DLC, Monkey Island 2 SE, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, Big Brain Wolf and Batman AA

    report

    • MrTambourineMan says:

      All 5 of which are recommended due to my purchase of Monkey Island episodes (ALL – including Batman?!?!).

      report

  44. skalpadda says:

    Stalker: Call of Pripyat
    Borderlands DLC
    Amnesia: The Dark Descent
    Plain Sight
    Stalker: Clear Sky
    Dogfighter
    Bloody Good Time
    Star Wars: Battlefront
    Mount & Blade: Warband
    Fallout 3 DLC

    All in all I think that list is pretty well on the mark for me, a few titles I’ve considered buying but am waiting for sales, and DLC for games I already own. I wonder why Amnesia is there though, no friends have recommended it and I don’t have any other games like it in my Steam list, but it’s on my mental “to buy soon” list, so I guess yes, Steam can read my mind.

    Edit: Oh never mind, it seems Amnesia was recommended due to playing a bunch of Stalker: SoC. Don’t see that they have very much in common except I suppose they’re both.. scary?

    report

  45. Christopher M. says:

    I’ve got pretty much all indies.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the recommendations are weighted by cost somewhat, though.

    report

    • bob_d says:

      It’s recommending all indies to me, except for DLCs for games I already own. This is odd, since most of the games I’ve bought through Steam aren’t indies. There may be a price issue, as not one recommendation is over $10. I don’t know if it recognizes that I only buy deeply discounted games on Steam, or the assumption is that people are more likely to make impulse purchases below a certain amount.

      report

  46. Endo says:

    Yes, it recommends some indie games to me. Jolly Rover and Amnesia (which I was most likely buying anyways)

    report

  47. goatmonkey says:

    It recommends me game I have from retail maybe an option to say owned would be good

    report

    • westyfield says:

      If you hover your mouse over a title a few buttons appear, one is a cross that removes it from your recommendations list.

      report

  48. Òscar says:

    I’ll let you know once it stops recommending me all the obnoxiously pointless Magic DotP deck unlocks.

    report

  49. squareking says:

    Now if only Valve would update Steam with Half Life 3.

    report

  50. Ateius says:

    Well, it recommended a bunch of GTA things (I own a few of the games, that’s fair), the Borderlands DLC (own that game too, another good association) and then … Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dead Rising 2, and Resident Evil 5. “Similar to games I play.”

    Pretty sure I’ve never played anything like any of those three.

    It also tossed in Amnesia and Plain Sight, I’m guessing because I’ve bought other indie titles through Steam.

    Basically … nothing I really want (well, maybe Batman, but I’m sure I can find it cheaper elsewhere). Time to prune the list and see if it learns.

    report

  51. patricij says:

    I get lots of indies – bit trip, Puzzle Dimension, Turba…and also lots of Mafia part deux DLCs…sneaky

    report

  52. Janek says:

    Dead Rising 2, Nation Red and Burn Zombie Burn.

    I guess it thinks I like zombies? I mean, I do, but that’s pushing it a bit far. Also some DLC for Civ 5 and Mafia 2. No thanks!

    Edit: Oh hey look it scrolls. Codblops. Ghostbusters. Metro 2033. Kane & Lynch 2. More DLC. Hmm.

    report

    • Meneth says:

      That’s nothing, I got Dead Rising 2, Dead Space 1 and 2, Nation Red, Burn Zombie Burn and Resident Evil…
      I’m pretty sure Dead Rising 2 wasn’t on my recommended list earlier today, though, and I haven’t really done anything on Steam except look at the recommendation list.

      report

  53. Carra says:

    Civ 4 dlc. And for some reason Red Faction 1, 2 & guerilla.

    report

  54. Vinraith says:

    Square Logic 2, Numen, Red Faction 2, Zombie Bowl-o-rama, Dracula Origin, Frontline Fuel of War, NBA 2k10 and Dogfighter, none of which is interesting. The only relevant 2 would be Star Ruler and Delve Deeper (the one’s marked “similar to games you play” as opposed to “similar to recent purchases), which I own on Gamersgate.

    In other words, for me at least, it’s pretty useless and inaccurate right now. Then again, recommendation systems usually are, especially without 1) a rating system for stuff you’ve bought (partly covered by playtime data in this case, but there IS a difference) and 2) an ability to inform the system of your owning the item on a different service. I expect those will be along shortly, because Valve loves their marketing data.

    report

  55. Zwebbie says:

    All the ones based on my playtime base it on me playing Victoria II; it recommends me half of Paradox’s catalogue.

    The truth is that by the time I’m done with Vicky II, the last thing I want is to play a game that’s much like it. Before this I played The Void and before that Team Fortress 2… so recommending me games that are like the ones I already play is a bit useless. That said, I realise that I’m one of only few people who don’t buy sequels because I already played the first game through and through, and that most people are content to play a similar thing year after year.

    report

  56. Hydro says:

    Steam has recommended these to me,

    Call of Duty Black Ops
    NBA 2K 2
    Killing Floor DLC
    Hawx 2
    Fallout New Vegas
    Dead Rising 2
    Need for Speed Shift
    Race On
    Moto GP 08
    Virtua Tennis 2009
    Strategy guide: Medal of Honor

    report

  57. Eclipse says:

    I got VVVVVV (that i own but not on steam), Ben there Dan that, Puzzle Agent, Ai War… and a bunch of games directly from my wishlist.
    I think it works

    report

  58. Mahkia says:

    I’ve been getting recommended a lot of indie titles, including ones I’ve been interested in but hadn’t yet checked out. It probably helps that I’m a big indie buff, and co-run an indie gaming website.. but still. I’m very pleased with the Steam recommendations thus far.

    report

  59. terry says:

    It has noted I am playing Mount and Blade, and recommends I buy Warband. No shit, Steam :(

    report

  60. Tonamel says:

    It’s done a fantastic job of ignoring everything I own, play, and have wishlisted and provides me recommendations based solely on Plants vs Zombies.

    report

  61. user@example.com says:

    After spending five minutes killing all the M:tG DLC and some junk I really don’t care about… it just spams me with the one game on my wishlist, that I don’t really fancy buying any more but forgot to take off the list.

    Still, I’ll check back – I’ve been checking the Genius thingy on my iPhone’s app store pretty often to see if anything neat shows up, and it’s pointed me at a few good games.

    report

  62. Edawan says:

    It recommends Amnesia…
    yeah why not.

    …based on my time with Mirror’s Edge.
    what ?

    report

  63. Bassism says:

    My recommendations seem kind of not bad to begin with. VVVVVV is the main reccomendation, which little does steam know I already own. Also Amnesia, Bloody Good Time, a few arena games, the entire red faction series, and a few more shooters I care nothing about.

    But then I thought about it. These days I’m playing IL-2, X-COM, and Terran Conflict. With perhaps a little bit of Altitude. Though that was the last game I bought.

    Every recommendation comes because of the games I’ve bought recently. As near as I can tell, that just means it gave me a whole list based on me buying Altitude a few months ago. That explains the 2d arena games, the indie games, and the other multiplayer shooters.

    Oh wait, I just discovered you can mouse over them to find out exactly why they were recommended. Which means that the other half are because I bought the Deus Ex collection once upon a time to have it on Steam. I don’t think I’ve even played the steam version yet. Which is where all the shooters came from.

    So, in conclusion, Altitude means I like arena games (this is fairly accurate, it would seem, since I have a few in Steam), as well as indie games (who doesn’t?), and zombies (I don’t.) And Deus Ex means I like… scripted corridor shooters?

    If they had more data points it might be worth while. Say, if they could look at the 100 hours I’ve poured into TC in the last few weeks, and recommend something to do with that. But as long as it bases its list off of two purchases I made in a genre that I treat as a diversion from playing games and otherwise have no real interest in, and a genre I really have no interest in aside from the very rare exception, while throwing in a few token indie and zombie games, it’s not going to work.

    The data at the bottom is somewhat interesting and/or amusing, however. I’ve found out that most of my friends are hopelessly addicted to Eve, and Eve is by far the most played game in the world, and that one of my friends spends nearly as much time playing modern blockbuster rpgs as the rest of us spend playing Eve.

    report

  64. Freud says:

    Seems to me this is more a way to hawk strategy guides, DLCs and new (*gasp* fully priced) releases than anything.

    It’s recommendations was that I buy Dead Rising 2, Divine Diviny , CoD Black Ops because I played Fallout New Vegas. C’mon.

    report

  65. Joshua says:

    Red Faction Geurilla: Based on Metro 2033

    Seems nice actually.

    report

  66. James G says:

    Clearly Valve think I suck at Fallout New Vegas, as it recommended the guide to it when it first flashed up recommendations. Now it appears to be suggesting Divinity 2 instead.

    It also asked me to recommend some games my friends might like. Was torn between going evangelical of some of my more obscure Steam titles, but didn’t want to cause additional pop-ups on any friends computers.

    report

  67. Popish Frenzy says:

    Puzzle Dimension and a whole bunch of other indie head scratchers after it espied me playing Chime. Will probably end up buying; looks neat. DAMN YOU STEAM!

    report

  68. Bassism says:

    As a side-note, I’m thoroughly surprised that strategy guides still exist in this age of gamefaqs and fora.

    report

  69. manveruppd says:

    When it installs malware that crawls through my hard drive and then recommends games based on what I have installed that I HAVEN’T bought through them, THEN I’ll be worried! :)

    report

  70. kwyjibo says:

    While a welcome development, right now, its not particularly interesting. When they ramp it up to Amazon levels with personalised pricing is when it gets interesting.

    Special weekend deals just for you? Dynamically generated bundles? Amazon built itself on its recommendation engine, whether or not the infinites of the Amazon stock room will shrink down to Steam’s more modest catalogue is to be seen.

    report

  71. Horza says:

    First it recommended me R.U.S.E and Recettear among others. And I though it’s actually pretty good.

    Then I noticed I wasn’t logged in.

    Now it recommends me MoW : Red Tide, Red Faction and a bunch of useless DLC. I think it’s pretty rubbish.

    report

  72. VelvetFistIronGlove says:

    I don’t give a shit about the automated recommendations.

    I do like the fact you can write recommendations, and see those your friends have written. That makes this valuable.

    report

  73. John Peat says:

    So this is really the “games you’re likely to buy in the next mad sale” then? :)

    report

  74. Lambchops says:

    Hmm. It suggested.

    GTA III (already own it)
    GTA San Andreas (guess what I bought in a deal recently – that’s right, the vastly superior Vice City. I don’t want your stinking San Andreas)
    Plain Sight (I was kinda interested in it but would probably never play it)
    Garry’s Mod (not interested)
    Recettear (fair enough, I know a lot of people like it and it gets the indie and RPG link – but it sounds like much of the game is too dungeon crawler-ey for my taste)
    VVVVVV (bought it directly from the lovely Terry because I wanted it straight away)
    Turba (might buy in a sale)
    Dogfighter (does look like it might be fun)
    Rhythm Zone (presumably not as good as Audiosurf, which is presumably the cause of this reccommendation)
    The Maw and AI war DLC (not much of a DLC man)

    So overally pretty sensible reccomendations but didn’t flag anything I wasn’t already aware of.

    report

    • Vinraith says:

      AI War “DLC” are fully-featured expansion packs. If you enjoy the game you’re cheating yourself out of some great strategic options, factions and the like by ignoring them. They’re also comically cheap for the amount of content in them.

      report

    • Lambchops says:

      To be honest I still haven’t had time to get round to trying AI War. Might give it a whirl this weekend.

      report

    • Vinraith says:

      Gotcha. If you run into any trouble, the wiki and the forum are both exceedingly helpful. Hope you enjoy it!

      report

  75. jonfitt says:

    Top recommendation is Bloody Good Time. Based on Poker Night ATI.

    report

  76. Ranneko says:

    For me it is recommending Shank (based on buying Deathspank)
    Bit.Trip Beat (Purchases)
    The Third DLC expansion for Duels of the Planewalkers (content for your game)
    Day of Defeat Source (Games I play)
    Borderlands DLC (Content for your game)
    Puzzle Dimension (Purchases)
    Pound of Ground (Purchases)
    Madballs Skins DLC (Content)
    Recettear (Purchases)
    Turba (Games I play)
    Swarm Arena (Games I play)
    Defense Grid DLC (Content)
    The Maw DLC (content)

    report

  77. dadioflex says:

    It keeps recommending zombie games to me.

    So it’s working.

    report

  78. UW says:

    I got…
    Divinity II, Dead Rising 2, Burn Zombie Burn, Fallout: New Vegas, Doom Rails, Borderlands DLC, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, Mafia II, Pound of Ground, Kane and Lynch 2, ArcaniA: Gothic IV, Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood and Lost Planet 2.

    I’m interested in DR2 and Fallout: New Vegas but not at the current prices.

    Other than that, not really… kiiinda intrigued by Divinity II and Gothic IV but would need to research ‘em more. The three games I’ve never heard of, Doom Rails, Foreign Legion and Pound of Ground, actually look kinda fun.

    All of my recommendations (Save the DLC one) were apparently “based on recent purchases”. I think I’m an anomaly though since my Steam titles number nearly 400(Yes, I do intend to one day play most of these games).

    Of course if it truly was good at recommending games for me it would only bother suggesting titles that are heavily discounted.

    report

  79. Ergonomic Cat says:

    Borderlands DLC, Metro 2033 (Which I do want to try), Space Siege, Nation Red, Plain Sight, Mount & Blade, Star Wars Battlefront II, Batman AA, Red Faction Guerilla, Bioshock, Fallout 3, FO:NV, Dead Rising 2,

    So a mix. I’d play the majority of those, or already have. So not bad.

    report

  80. Mr Wednesday says:

    is a ok game is got some bug and glitch but some class is noob

    some wepon are beter than others and un balanced the game and is not good

    retinbg: 4//10

    wepon: 2/5
    story: 0/2
    gemplaye: much

    report

  81. hellboy says:

    Dear Steam, stop recommending me Kane & Lynch 2!

    report

  82. malkav11 says:

    It has recommended literally nothing to me. I assume this is because I already own everything on Steam. Or at least it feels that way sometimes.

    report

  83. Navagon says:

    I get indie stuff. But that’s not surprising given my current Steam games list. I also get a lot of DLC. Some of which I’m interested in but I know better than to pay full price for these things with Christmas coming.

    Generally I’d say my results aren’t as bad as some people’s. I’ve seen one poor sod get Force Unleashed 2 recommended to him. Another got a MW2 map pack.

    It can be cruel sometimes.

    report

  84. Quxxy says:

    Let’s see here…

    Swarm Arena based on my purchase of… Eufloria. So, the same game with fluorescent graphics? Meh.

    What else… well, it’s recommended Defense Grid Resurgence. FOUR TIMES. Steam, I never finished the original; what makes you think I care about additional content? Oh, and content for Majesty 2… a game I bloody despise.

    Right, thanks for that, Steam. I’m just going to go back to Minecraft, now. Let me know when SMB is released, k?

    report

  85. Trayder says:

    I’m pretty sure it recommends everything based on amazingly descriptive tags like ‘Action’ and ‘Strategy’

    It has recommended me every single $1 shiny card conversion for MTG and the most horrible looking indie family games (tommy tronic!?) based on my playtime of L4D2.

    Apparently they share an action tag.

    Unless they’re gonna add better tags (they really should’ve by now), a people who purchased this also purchased system would be a lot better.

    report

  86. Olivaw says:

    It recommended a bunch of games I want but can’t afford. So it’s accurate, but the library isn’t quite Netflix-large yet, so I’m not seeing a bunch of stuff I’ve never heard of before.

    It did give me Burn, Zombie, Burn, though! But I had that on my wishlist, so maybe it tracks that stuff too. Or it tracked my time in Plants v. Zombies.

    report

  87. Lars Westergren says:

    The problem with most of these recommendation algorithms is that the most popular things get weighed too heavily in my opinion. On Facebook and Amazon, I always get Dan Brown and Twilight books recommended to me, no matter how many times I click “not interested” on different editions. Same with games, I used to always get Doom and Unreal recommended, as well as the most popular console titles, now its page after page of Call of Moderns Warfare Honor Medal War-is-Awesome Patriot.

    I wish they could detect that “This guy already know about all mainstream titles and is a snooty bastard who won’t buy them, let’s find more obscure titles to recommend.”

    So anyway, Steam: Jolly Rover, Divinity 2, Shank, Square Logic. Pretty good recommendations. CODBLOPS and 4 Magic the Gathering packs – less good.

    report

  88. Hmm-Hmm. says:

    Given the fact that I only have Borderlands and DOW 2 (plus the expansion).. I fear for my recommended list. Then again, I don’t much care about Steam. If I can get a game without it, I’m likely to do so.

    report

  89. Junior says:

    My first impression is horrible, because Steam assumes that I don’t DEEPLY REGRET buying the new AvP, and is attempting to suggest both overpriced mappacks for it.

    Methinks it would make more sense if it looked also at how much you play the games you have.

    report

  90. drewski says:

    Currently recommending:

    Grotesque Tactics
    Delve Deeper
    Avencast: Rise of the Mage
    Numen: Contest of Heroes
    Disciples III

    I have heard of Disciples, but the other four mean nothing to me.

    report

  91. sfox says:

    It recommended DogFighter… based on my purchase of Trine. I don’t see the connection. Not the kind of game I have any interest in and I’m not in the habit of buying that kind of game, nor is it anywhere near the same kind of game as Trine.

    report

  92. Pepelusky says:

    Just waiting for my recomendation based on The graveyard and The Void

    report

  93. Thermal Ions says:

    Well based upon my purchase of Bloody Good Time it’s recommending every zombie game there is – I’m guessing it’s simply keying off the word “bloody”

    I looked at the HAWX 2 page tonight and now it’s recommending similar games, such as Pacific Fighters, Emergency 2012, Top Gun, Petz Dogz 2, Battlestations Pacific, … Huh, yes it’s recommending Petz Dogz 2 as similar to HAWX 2 – maybe it’s the “No animals were harmed in the making of this game” line in the credits.

    report

  94. gryffinp says:

    Reccetear: An Item Shop’s Tale

    Based on your recent playtime in Dragon Age: Origins

    Wait, what?

    report

Comment on this story

XHTML: Allowed code: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Search

Respond to our gibber

Browse the archive