Steam Game Guides Launch As Part Of Community Beta

If you get stuck on a game, there are resources everywhere you can use to get back on track. You could hunt down a walkthrough on the Internet, visit YouTube to see if someone has posted a video that can help, or you can even head out to your local game store and pick up a physical guide if you want. Valve has decided to tackle this realm of the gaming universe as well, launching a Steam Game Guides beta as part of the Steam Community beta.

Yes, that means we've got a beta within a beta on our hands folks. Starting today, those who are in the Steam Community Beta can whip up a game guide of their own, which other Steam users can use as a resource to get through particularly tricky parts of a game. It seems pretty straightforward in that you can upload your own images or use screenshots you already have saved to Steam Cloud. You can also place YouTube videos in your guide if you happen to be one of those YouTube Gamemasters we mentioned earlier.

When your guide is done, all you need to do is hit the publish button and it will go live for the entire Steam Community to see. Game Guide tabs can be found in a title's Game Hub, with guides for some of Steam's more popular games already live. A word of warning though: the community can comment on game guides, so if you post one that's sub-par, don't be surprised if you get a little bit of backlash for some users.

It's an interesting idea, but since some other websites like GameFAQs have this whole walkthrough thing on lock down, it doesn't really seem all that necessary. We'll have to see what Valve does with Game Guides as the beta rolls on, and what the feature looks like when it launches for everyone at a yet-undetermined date. Do you think this is a good idea, or will you go somewhere else for your tips and tricks?

[via Steam]