"Labor of Love"...
Because of all that new RDR2 content that keeps rolling out...
Why was Cyberpunk not even a finalist? They released a massive update this year and have pretty much fixed the game and added lots of new content through the DLC.
Cyberpunk legitimately turned itself around and won back the public after a disastrous launch, just like NMS did.
Starfield is the one of the least innovative games I've ever played. How the fuck did it win that?
Probably ironically, just as Red Dead winning it despite the shennanigans behind it.
Steam Awards, like any publicly-voted award, is a name recognition contest.
The innovations in menu UI is out of this world!
Starfield won the innovative gameplay award? RDR2 won labor of love award? Some of these winners are extremely strange.
The problem with the Steam Awards is that they try to get as many people to vote as possible, even if people haven't actually played the games in question.
People will see a bunch of games they haven't played, be like "oh hey I at least know the name of that one" and vote for it even though they have no idea if the others are more deserving or not.
Starfield for most innovative gameplsy? Am I missing something or do people on Steam ride that Bethesda cock hard?
At the time I'm writing this, recent reviews reached mostly negative (29%), and all-time reviews are mixed (64%). Which is honestly a lot more than it deserves, but I would hardly call that "riding Bethesda's cock".
It's probably just a matter of big games getting more votes, because of name recognition. This is just a popularity contest, after all.
Honestly wouldn't be surprised if most people chose it as a joke.
Best guess is people voted it because they didn't know any of the other games and didn't bother to check.
The steam awards were never anything but a contest about which game is the most known. I really dislike them due to that, but at least one title (BG3 deserved it this year)
As any proper award ceremenoy, useless popularity garbage. Rdr2 a labor of love? After they abandoned the multiplayer cause they coudnt give it money printing shark cards?
And starfield is innovative? In what? Being the laziest pile of poo that people still bought?
What a bunch of drivel
After they abandoned the multiplayer cause they coudnt give it money printing shark cards?
At least the multiplayer got attention, the single-player game never got anything after the initial release.
It's almost as if all this was only a marketing ploy with no deeper significance...
There is no way they actually gave "Most innovative gameplay" to Starfield. And on top of that Best Soundtrack to Last of Us Part 1? Did they change the soundtrack for the remaster? How is it even nominated in 2023?
Steam users voted for those titles.
I've come to accept my tastes are beyond most gamers.
Anyone who didn't expect BG3 to win Game of the Year has been under a rock since it launched O.o Anyone who expected Starfield to win Most Innovative Gameplay, are you offering divination services to the public?
Damn, I know some people are dead-set on insisting that Starfield isn't that bad but... innovative?? Really??? Most innovative?!?? Baffling!
Anyone who expected Starfield to win Most Innovative Gameplay, are you offering divination services to the public?
It was an easy call to make. Steam Awards are voted by the public, so it's all about name recognition.
The other finalists in that category were Shadow of Doubt, Contraband Police, Remnant II, and Your Only Move Is Hustle. Of all these, I had heard about Starfield and Remnant II.
I'm sure some of these games are awesome and I want to check them out by virtue of being finalists, but it was pretty clear Starfield was gonna win on brand recognition alone.
Like someone else said it's gotta be a result of the voting for the awards being awful. I wanted to like Starfield and (ducks down) even got it early at the higher price.*
But yeah lol innovation is a joke. Makes me feel bad for the devs who really made innovative stuff this year.
*To be fair I had a shitty week before that and needed a new Bethesda game to make my life less awful so it...worked? It was my comfort food ok?????
I'm shocked Pizza Tower lost soundtrack though.
Most Innovative Gameplay Award - Starfield
ahahahahahahahahahaahah ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐๐๐๐คฃ๐คฃ๐น๐คฃ๐คฃ๐นno fucking way
Hi Fi Rush was a great contender for sound track, I would have liked either of those winning it. Last of Us winning is fucking wonky though.
I'm hoping it was just a bunch of kids trolling bc they thought it was funny
Starfield, innovative? They took fallout 4 mixed it with no man's sky and made it bad.
Idunno if it's what you meant but this comment could read like "They took a dumpster fire, poured it into a septic tank, and then added something unpleasant" ๐ Seems Fallout 4 isn't much-loved, and at least in my mind NMS is never gonna escape the shitstorm it caused at launch (though even I've bought a copy by now) so... owch!
Either way, I fully agree that possibly the most despised-for-being-dull game of the year getting called "innovative" is asinine. Maybe it's sarcastic? The only other option that makes any sense is that a lot of people just voted for it because they knew the name and had no real opinion. Kinda gross if that's the case :-\
I'm upset that HiFi Rush didn't win anything at all
Maybe it should have had an amazing soundtrack like The last of Us
TLOU does have an amazing soundtrack but come on it was released eons ago. Justice for Chai
BG3 winning GOTY and LC winning BWF awards make sense. what doesn't make sense is Starfield being innovative, RDR2 having constant dev support and Pizza Tower being robbed for the second time.
Steam has once again shown us the flaws of a direct democracy, in that idiots get an equal vote to informed people. Really the only winner that makes sense is Baldur's Gate 3. Even discounting the obviously silly ones, like a game that hasn't been updated in three years winning Labor of Love, something like Hogwarts Legacy is a generic by-the-numbers open world collectathon that's nowhere near the best thing you can play on the Deck. Atomic Heart's visual style is a 2008 shooter with a sprinkle of Sovietpunk. Neither the Last of Us Part 1 or SIFU even came out in 2023.
On the one hand, you can make a clear argument that 2023 was a pretty shitty year for games, and say "sure the awards look stupid, but nothing good came out." That's a pretty fair take for AAA, but a ton of incredible games came out in the AA and indie space. Some of them, like Lethal Company and Dave the Diver, were mentioned, but tons of great games weren't even nominated. I think Valve needs to do a better job of policing the nominations if they want to show off more of the creative and original titles that go to Steam. Otherwise, we'll just keep recognizing derivative garbage, since it usually has the most money behind it.
BG3 plays so damn well on the steam deck, too. I don't see how it wasn't an option.
Wow I'm embarrassed by the choices of steam users. Lethal company and BG3 make sense but the rest don't.
Sifu does since it just got released on steam this year.
RDR2 and Starfield though are just idiotic
RDR2 beating DRG and DOTA 2 for Labor of Love is a fucking joke. Even RUST and APEX still get regular updates.
Outstanding visual style for Atomic Heart?! Are you shitting me? Only unique visuals in that is the faceless sex bots and it's a terrible game overall. Wholly undeserved.
Most Innovative Gameplay for STARFIELD?! OF ALL GAMES?! Yikes. Just.. fucking yikes.
I had a similar reaction on these titles...honestly I felt that the results were rigged. Is it just me?
Probably just the fact that it's a popularity contest. Doubt it's rigged, it's just poorly moderated and fabricated.
I don't know but it would be very like Valve to put zero effort into ensuring it's not manipulated.
That said, most large polls trend much more mainstream than people expect.
Starfield may have been a bold new frontier in mediocrity but it nevertheless had about 2 million more chances to be someomes favorite game compared to some indie title.
Such nonsensical results. It really is a popularity contest.
At this point, I think it's clear that voting restrictions of some sort are necessary. My first thought: players can only vote in a category if they've got at least 5 hours of total gameplay distributed amongst at least 25% of the games in that category, with a minimum of 30 minutes of gameplay per game.
I was forced to vote in some categories because they promised me a chat emoji.
I did, however, not vote by popularity, but I imagine many did.
This is... A weird spread of awards...
Like BG3 winning GOTY and story rich makes total sense.
But RDR2 won labor of love? What? Lol. Have they been putting out massive updates lately or something?
Atomic heart won visual style... Sure? I mean I guess it's atmospheric but I wouldn't call it particularly stylized.
Lethal company getting better with friends is a solid pick
Hogwarts Legacy is best on deck? The fuck? Lol I suppose i haven't played this one but I was under the impression the game was like... Fine? Kinda boring after a while but still playable? It's not horribly offensive but how does a game like that win an award for being the most beloved steam deck game lol
STARFIELD WON FUCKING WHAT??? Okay, I was not as big a starfield hater as some. I thought it was boring as shit for sure but I don't think it's completely without merit on the whole... But Innovative? Fucking LOL! Starfield innovated exactly 0 things, hell it retroactively made things from 2011 seem new by comparison. I don't think theres a single fresh idea in that entire game. Starfield winning most innovative game paints a very uncomfortable picture of the steam awards. There is CLEAR tampering going on here, either by bots vote spamming, or just a behind the curtain dealings with Bethesda. To be honest every single other award here feels tenuous at best just by Starfield winning that specific award. If that boring ass rehash of 2007 gameplay can be called the most innovative game on steam then I'm not sure I can trust any of these games actually got nominated by real players for any of their respective awards. What a fucking joke
The fact that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk didn't make any of the lists, especially for the soundtrack category, was disappointing. The fact that a fucking remake won the best soundtrack category is straight-up gross. Valve should honestly disqualify remakes from the steam awards. There are a few exceptions, like I think Halo's MCC is worthy of standing by itself, but they've gotta do something more than remaster some textures and throw in a few new models.
Did RDR2 get an update that freshens the game up? I thought Labor of Love was for things like Terraria where the devs keep updating the game over time. I would think that NMS of all titles would be more deserving, unless they have a rags-to-riches sort of award
Cyberpunk wins something similar in TGA and while it's somewhat controversial, it still makes sense. RDR2 is just plain incomprehensible.
Starfield continuing the tradition of Stray's "Really? You're Calling THAT Innovative?" award.
The Last of Us is a goddamn masterpiece I will never shut up about, but I don't even remember the soundtrack. If it deserves as award in 2023 (a questionable premise to begin with), it should be for the story, acting, or gameplay.
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