Category: steam awards

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Half-Life: Alyx Wins VR Game Of The Year In 2020 Steam Awards

Valve announced winners of the fan-voted Steam Awards for 2020 today, including VR Game of the Year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Steam users voted for Half-Life: Alyx, one of the year’s biggest releases and Valve’s own title, as VR Game of the Year. Alyx came out back in March for SteamVR headsets and is regarded almost universally as one of the best VR games of 2020.

The Steam Awards take place annually and both the nominees and the winners are decided solely by the Steam community and its users. Users can cast votes for any game towards any of the pre-determined categories, except this year users could only nominate a game for one category each, not multiple. Half-Life: Alyx was one of five games that were nominated for best VR game. The other nominees that fell short were Phasmophobia, The Room VR: A Dark Mater, Thief Simulator VR and Star Wars: Squadrons.

The list also included several other non-VR categories, including a general Game of the Year category which was taken home by Red Dead Redemption 2 (which was technically eligible as it released on Steam for PC in December 2019, despite releasing on consoles in 2018).

Many of the VR games featured in this year’s Steam Awards were also featured in UploadVR’s VR Game of the Year category, which was also taken home by Half-Life: Alyx. Somewhat notably, the Steam Awards didn’t feature The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, which was one of our favorite VR games from last year. We had it nominated on our Game of the Year list, alongside Alyx, Squadrons, The Room VR, Population: One and Until You Fall.

You can view the full Steam Awards list here and UploadVR’s list here.

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR Scoops Steam’s Game of the Year

Steam recently announced the winners for its 2018 Steam Awards, with users of the platform having complete control over which videogames won – unlike other awards events no judges were needed. As such the Steam Awards didn’t nominate any particular titles, either virtual reality (VR) or non-VR based, it was purely on the votes the experiences received. And it was none other than Bethesda’s monster role-playing game (RPG) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR that scooped the top honour for the VR category.

Steam Awards BestVRgameWallpaper

Actual figures haven’t been released but PC VR owners have certainly enjoyed playing the open world adventure all over again in VR – and VRFocus did to giving it a full five-stars in our review which said: “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR’s level of immersion is simply fantastic,” whilst adding “for those who dreamed of a truly immersive role-playing experience, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VRis simply the best opportunity available today.”

There were four other VR titles in the running, social app VRChat, the highly addictive rhythm action experience Beat Saber, Bethesda’s other big open-world RPG Fallout 4 VR and time-bending shooter SUPERHOT VR. With the exception of VRChat, the other three are regular award stalwarts with Beat Saber most recently picking up PlayStation.Blog’s ‘Best PS VR Experience’ 2018 and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s most downloaded VR title for PlayStation VR in Europe during.

Beat Games’ Beat Saber is also up for ‘Best VR/AR Game’ in the 19th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) as part of the 2019 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March.

Skyrim VR: VRFocus' Adventuring Life screenshot

As for the other categories, none of them featured any VR experiences, with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds securing the top Game of the Year award. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto V, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin’s Creed Odyessy and Rocket League.

There are going to be plenty more awards as the year rolls on. To keep up with all the VR nominations and winners keep reading VRFocus.

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Steam Awards 2018 Finds Its VR Game Of The Year

Steam Awards 2018 Finds Its VR Game Of The Year

After months of user-voting, Valve finally announced its Steam Awards 2018 winners this month. It was Bethesda’s Skyrim VR that took home the award for VR Game of the Year.

Skyrim VR fought off some stiff competition in this year’s category although, sadly, most other entries were from other years. VR Chat, Superhot VR and Bethesda’s own Fallout 4 VR all made their debuts before 2018. Skyrim VR and Beat Saber were the only two truly ‘new’ games on the list. Even then, Skyrim’s launch on PC last April came off of the back of the PSVR version from late 2017. Beat Saber, meanwhile, is yet to leave Early Access on PC.

It’s a deserving win all the same. Skyrim VR packs in all of Bethesda’s beloved open-world RPG will full support for hand controllers. It’s undoubtedly one of VR’s meatiest and deepest games with hundreds of hours worth of content. The PC VR version also goes above and beyond with mod support that turns the game into an unending ocean of VR content. Indeed, the game scored in the top three of our best games lists for both Vive and Rift last year.

Steam’s awards were entirely user-voted so there’s not much disputing the win. Still, we’d have liked to have seen a few more of 2018’s best VR games on the list including the stunning port of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Transpose and The Exorcist: Legion VR. Hopefully there will be enough big new VR games releasing in the next 11 months to topple some of these mainstays by next year.

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The post Steam Awards 2018 Finds Its VR Game Of The Year appeared first on UploadVR.

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Nominate Your Favourite Game in the 2018 Steam Awards

Have you been endlessly playing a role-playing game (RPG) to the exclusion of all others? Or perhaps duking it out online in some multiplayer free-for-all. However you’ve been spending your gaming time there’s surely a favourite amongst your collection that you feel should be given an award to let the developers know how well they’ve done. Well now’s your chance as Steam has now opened nominations for its 2018 Steam Awards.

The Steam Awards will take place in February with nominations open until Tuesday 27th November. There are seven categories to choose from:

  • Game of the Year
    • “Maybe it was its immersive gameplay, or its gripping story… its well-crafted characters, immaculate design, or addictive multiplayer. Whatever the reason, the winner of 2018’s Game of the Year Award is an instant classic.”
  • VR Game of the Year
    • “VR is the Wild West of game design. It’s a lawless land of emerging standards where pretty much anything goes. The winner of this award is not only hugely fun, but helps chart a course for the future of the medium.”
  • Labor of Love
    • “This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the first unveiling of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.”
  • Best Developer
    • “Whether it was by listening to their fans, creating something genuinely unexpected, or just delivering on the promise of a truly great game, this studio absolutely crushed it in 2018.”
  • Best Environment
    • “All those chatty cutscenes, all those reminders that they need a health pack again. Let’s face it, characters are overrated. As this winner illustrates, sometimes breathtaking scenery tells a better story than a thousand big-mouthed heroes.”
  • Better with Friends
    • “There are some games out there that just aren’t the same when you play by yourself. Maybe you need to have a friend to watch your back. Maybe you need to have a friend that you can stab in their back. Either way, mirth is awaiting those who gather friends to play these games.”
  • Best Alternate History
    • “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Those who remember it just fine, but prefer to reinvent it, are doomed to get this award for 2018’s most entertaining tinkering with the history books.”
  • Most Fun with a Machine
    • “Whether it’s a car, truck, robot, or other mechanized contraption, the winner of this award fired on all cylinders, engineering an unforgettable gameplay experience made possible by machines.”

Steam Awards BestAltHistoryWallpaper

Steam has also put together four tasks for gamers to complete which will earn them some special badges. When Steam reveals the nomination list, VRFocus will let you know.

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First Ever Steam Awards Finalists Include Two VR-enabled Games

Tabletop Simulator (2015) and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (2015) are the two virtual reality-enabled games nominated for the very first Steam Awards. The winners will be announced on New Year’s Eve after a period of public voting.

Introduced during the Steam Autumn Sale, Valve invited the community to nominate their favourite games for the first ever Steam Awards, a rather eccentric initiative that seems to be more about keeping Steam Sales fresh than being a serious new award program, with categories such as the “I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award” Award, and the “Best Use Of A Farm Animal” Award.

The full list of finalists were recently announced on Steam. As the entries weren’t limited to this year’s releases, it’s pleasing to see two VR-enabled titles make the shortlist, alongside classics such as Age of Empires II (1999) HD (2013).

Tabletop Simulator Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

It’s fairly self-explanatory why Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is nominated for the “Boom Boom” Award—which aims to recognize the game that makes the best use of explosions—and with a vast number of tabletop games available via Steam Workshop, from the thousands of board and card games through to traditional role playing games, Tabletop Simulator is a worthy nominee for the “Game Within A Game” Award. Neither are VR-only games, but both support the HTC Vive, while Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes also lists Oculus Rift and OSVR support.

Public voting begins on December 22nd and continues until the 29th, with each category open for 24 hours. The four community-titled categories open together on the 30th, with the winners announced on New Year’s Eve.

The post First Ever Steam Awards Finalists Include Two VR-enabled Games appeared first on Road to VR.