New year, new recaps about stuff from last year. I’m still working on my usual posts reviewing Billboard and what I finished in games myself. For now though to wrap up the winter sale, there’s Steam’s community-voted award things. I’m just taking a quick look at these so nothing too fancy with formatting or whatever.
Game of the Year: Hollow Knight Silksong (My Vote: Dispatch)
Silksong had to win Game of the Year somewhere, and I guess this is one that the juggernaut of Expedition 33 isn’t getting this time. From what I hear I bet fixing the Chinese translation probably helped in favor of Silksong, otherwise 33 might have swept this too. As for my pick, I pretty much picked the one I didn’t see getting much for Game of the Year anywhere. Even Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 got one somewhere else. I haven’t played Dispatch though, I don’t know if I’d rather watch it or pick it up myself sometime.
VR Game of the Year: The Midnight Walk (Also My Vote)
I just picked the most interesting-looking one. It can be done in VR or desktop mode, but looking at some reviews the VR mode might be a bit basic apparently. So yeah I haven’t played it but I might sometime. The other choices were two racing games, a shoot game, and some kinda space astronaut thing which would probably be my second arbitrary choice. Honestly most of what I do in VR is VRChat at the moment.
Labor of Love: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Also My Vote)
Mainly because I think No Man’s Sky has gotten this before. Which that’s also quite qualified and has been for years since they pulled a No Man’s Sky on their game. That example doesn’t work as well when it’s the same game. I guess adjacently there’s Cyberpunk 2077. I also still haven’t played this game but someday I hope to. I just have a lot going on and I’d kinda like to play with others but I can’t seem to find a group so far.
Best on Steam Deck: Hades II (My Vote: Digimon Story Time Stranger)
Go figure most of the other options are roguelikes because I guess most Steam Deck owners who actually play games on the thing are stuck in playing that oversaturated genre. Instead I went with anime RPG, a slightly less saturated thing. I did play the demo though and found it fun. I’ll get the full thing sometime. As for what I do play on my Steam Deck, a bunch of random little indie things that aren’t roguelikes.
Better With Friends: Peak (My Vote: REPO)
Fuck this game. I played it, I didn’t like it, I refunded it, end of story. I find REPO at least makes an attempt to fix what I see issues with in the usual co-op flavor-of-the-month “friendslop” survival experience, plus the robots are funny and cute. Maybe sometime I’ll get to play that again with folks. I do also have Schedule I from a random bundle but haven’t played it, and Split Fiction is yet another co-op exclusive story experience I’d like to play but again haven’t gotten someone to play with yet.
Outstanding Visual Style: Silent Hill F (My Vote: ENA Dream BBQ)
I guess the monster and scenery designs might be interesting, but in my personal taste the one that stands out most is definitely ENA with its collision of visual styles and designs in something utterly abstract yet understandable in its own way. I do need to watch the other episodes, but I did end up watching a playthrough of this FREE game. Yes, that one is free. It has a paid supporter option too of course.
Most Innovative Gameplay: ARC Raiders (My Vote: Blue Prince)
Go figure an extraction shooter, which there’s like at least 100 of now, gets “most innovative”. I don’t know what it is people see in this, does it just fix what’s wrong with a lot of those? I’d heard something about how the design of it tends to insist more on co-op than competitive but I don’t know. The fact I picked what’s essentially a roguelike puzzler I think over something of that genre, not only considering that I’ve never played either game but also this is for “most innovative” kinda says what I think of the extraction shooter genre. Mage Arena at least has voice-to-spell features. The other options are I think another extraction shooter kinda thing and some grand strategy deal. Again stuff I’ve seen before. I try to keep an eye on the weird indie scene when I can.
Best Game You Suck At: Hollow Knight Silksong (Also My Vote)
Yeah, no shit. The other option is the Elden Ring standalone expansion thing, a Marvel hero shooter/brawler/something, and a couple other things. I do not want to play Soulslikes or anything like them really. The closest I came was Another Crab’s Treasure on Game Pass, and that was with several “assists” on including GUN which was more just to see how that game worked in such a way. Same developer behind Peak of course. I wonder if they’ll ever make a game I’m truly interested in.
Best Soundtrack: Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (My Vote: Deltarune)
Sure, the winner of just about every other award this time around has a nice soundtrack that I’ve kinda heard in places, but I just kinda have a thing for the memetic jams that come from the works of Toby Fox. And it’s still not done. More bangers await. I wonder if more Toby Fox compositions will show up in Pokémon games again later on. Scarlet/Violet did have some cool tracks in there. And an Ed Sheeran jumpscare.
Outstanding Story-Rich Game: Dispatch (Also My Vote)
Obviously the game that comes from former Telltale people. While I did get tired of those at one point, this one seems fresh, and it’s not based on a licensed property either so this is just all their own doing. Also again I figure I’d like to watch this if not play it. I can at least say I’m definitely not interested in the story of Last of Us 2 though, or even 1. Outside of the memes that happened from it.
Sit Back and Relax: RV There Yet? (My Vote: Slime Rancher 2)
Another “friendslop” thing on here, apparently pretty Peak-inspired so no thank you. I do not find that relaxing. For me it was a toss-up between Slime Rancher 2 and PowerWash Simulator 2, two sequels to games I enjoyed the previous ones of. I just felt like Slime Rancher 2 has a bit more going on in it while PowerWash Simulator 2 is just pure job-doing, and yet I still enjoy doing that a bit to unwind. Maybe in that sense that would fit the category more but still.
So for a set of games I haven’t played most of, I picked things I felt seemed neat at least or at least fit the category enough. And naturally I’m not fully aligned with the tastes of most people. That’s just business as usual. Now back to working on my personal finished game picks and also yelling at music.