Steam has just launched Steam Reviews, a system for users to rate the games they've played, much like Amazon's review system for products. Users can review any game that they've played in Steam, even if not purchased through the Steam Store. Included in your review will be the amount of time that you've played the game, which Steam hopes will work as a deterrent for people who would otherwise leave malicious reviews of games they haven't played for more than 2 minutes.

Users can then upvote or downvote specific reviews, allowing for the more helpful reviews to rise to the top and the least helpful reviews to sink to the bottom. At the moment, there is no generalized ratings system, i.e., this game has an average 4-star rating, but Steam hopes to add this feature in the future.

Any recommendations that users have made in the past have now been converted into Steam Reviews, but are still set to only be seen by the friends you initially sent them to. You can look at your reviews by visiting Steam's website and change them to public if you wish to.

You are also able to select the language which you are writing the review in so that when looking at reviews, you see the reviews in your language listed first. Plus, if you like a particular user's reviews, you can view a list of every game they've reviewed, which may be a good avenue for finding games that you would like.

Metacritic scores will continue to be posted as well, so that users can see both what critics and other users thought of the game.

Will you be taking advantage of Steam's new user reviews? Do you think it's a necessary addition to the service? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Steam