As Steam becomes a more open, self-publishing platform ( as Gabe Newell called it ), it's going to need more tools that allow the community to sort through its catalog and raise the cream to the top. User reviews are one of the most useful tools that help you determine if you should bother with a game or not, and today they got a little bit more helpful.

Steam user reviews now indicate whether the review is of an Early Access build of the game or not. If you've been reading PC Gamer lately and paying attention to games like Day Z , Rust , or anything that pops up in our Early Access Reports , you've probably noticed that more games than ever now are constantly evolving. From very Early Access builds to multiple free content updates after a game's official release date.

Being able to tell if a review is of a “feature complete” game or of an Early Access build sounds tremendously helpful. At the moment, however, it doesn't seem like the new feature works perfectly. User reviews of games that are currently in Early access are marked as such, but reviews of games that were in Early Access and have since been released are not.

Hopefully this is something that Valve will work out soon. It'd be even better if user reviews indicated which specific version of the game they referred to. It'd also be nice if Steam Tags weren't used primarily to troll users , but I expect Valve is working on all of this. Baby steps.