Tuesday, December 31st 2024

Black Myth: Wukong Sweeps 2024 Steam Awards As Narrative Gaming Makes Strong Showing Overall

Tuesday, 19:24 Discuss (48 Comments)

Every year, Valve holds The Steam Game Awards, a community-driven initiative to recognize the best games that were launched in that year. Valve has just released the results for the 2024 Steam Game Awards, which are determined by community vote—as opposed to events like The Game Awards, which feature a jury selection—and split into individual categories. This year, though, the overall winner for Game of the Year was Black Myth Wukong, which beat out other finalists: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Balatro, and Helldivers 2 for top spot. Game of the Year wasn't Wukong's only victory, either, with the game also taking home the "Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award," which seems logical given its overall victory, and the cleverly named "Best Game You Suck At Award," which is meant to highlight the best difficult game of the year. In this category, Black Myth Wukong was up against Dragon Ball Z Sparkling Zero, The Finals, Ghost of Tsushima, and Tekken 8, which is again a very diverse mix of games and genres, so it's somewhat interesting to see a narrative-driven game like Wukong come out ahead here.

The rest of the Steam Game Awards 2024 was less of a one-man show, with Metro Awakening VR taking Best VR Game of the Year, Elden Ring nabbing the Labor of Love Award, and God of War Ragnarök taking the Best Game on Steam Deck Award. Helldivers 2 won Better with Friends, while Silent Hill 2 took home the Outstanding Visual Style Award, Liar's Bar won Most Innovative Gameplay, Red Dead Redemption won Best Soundtrack Award, and Farming Simulator 25 was crowned with the Sit Back and Relax award, beating out the likes or Webfishing, House Flipper 2, and Tiny Glade. One of the more surprising "minor" awards winners here is God of War Ragnarök taking home Best Game on Steam Deck, since you often hear in discourse around the Steam Deck that it's not suitable for AAA gaming, and God of War is only two years old at the time of writing, meaning it is still very demanding, with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 6 GB quoted as the minimum recommended GPU to play the game.

Source: Steam

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48 Comments on Black Myth: Wukong Sweeps 2024 Steam Awards As Narrative Gaming Makes Strong Showing Overall

#26

ZoneDymo

Prima.VeraWell, the game is mediocre at best, I have refunded it after 10 mins of playing.
The awards are due to massive voting by biased Chinese players and influences, just so it can win those fake awards. Seriously, there were so much better games out there like GOW, Dragon Age, Indiana Jones, Fristpunk 2, Avatar the game, etc, etc

10 minutes and you feel you can judge the game? I'm sorry but this is not the smartest comment you ever made.

#27

Prima.Vera

ZoneDymo10 minutes and you feel you can judge the game? I'm sorry but this is not the smartest comment you ever made.

It was actually more than half hour, but I said 10 mins since that was the time I got enough of it, and the rest of time trying to give it a 2nd and a 3rd chance, especially it costs so much...

#28

RadeonProVega

I never bother to play it for the simple fact, I'm not interested in playing half male half monkey characters. Just like with some MMO's where you can you choose to be an elf lol, no thanks. If its not a person, i passed.

#29

theouto

GuckyAnd nobody mentions Factorio: Space Age.

Well, factorio is niche when you consider the gaming landscape as a whole, it's great, but niche. Space Age is a dlc, so I don't know if it should be in the talks for any game of the year related awards, maybe labour of love.

#30

Vayra86

Prima.VeraWell, the game is mediocre at best, I have refunded it after 10 mins of playing.
The awards are due to massive voting by biased Chinese players and influences, just so it can win those fake awards. Seriously, there were so much better games out there like GOW, Dragon Age, Indiana Jones, Fristpunk 2, Avatar the game, etc, etc

Dragon Age is nothing special or new; Frostpunk 2 is burned out after a couple of games if you have half a brain. Avatar and Indiana jones never even appeared on my radar to be honest.

They do not compare in the slightest imho
Not saying BMW is a goty to me... but its certainly not a poor game and does do some new and original things.

#31

kapone32

FreedomEclipseJust a FYI or PSA. The reason why BMW is mainly played by a lot of Chinese players is not just because it was made by a chinese dev/publisher based off a story/novel called 'Journey To The West' that was written by a guy called 'Wu Cheng'en' from back in the Tang dynasty.

Even as a UK born Chinese myself I know about Journey to the west and have watched movies and tv shows based on the story. So it has an huge cultural significance to Chinese people in general as it gets read to them a lot while they are growing up. They'll also have Chinese Opera's/Theatre shows, TV shows and movies that are produced every few years to celebrate the anniversary of the writer/story as well as the keep the legacy alive among the people. Its a pretty huge deal.

So if anyone is wondering why there are a tonne of chinese people voting for the game in the steam awards. This is why.

Maybe @Fourstaff can confirm, although he may have a different take on it since I believe he is from TW whereas my lineage originates from HK. Im not sure how culturally significant JTTW is in TW. In theory it should be the same as we are still the same people but w Mosith a big swimming pool that separates us.

When Total War 3 Kingdoms launched it was the best Selling Total War of all time (to that point) and increased Steam users by the tune of 15-17 Million before that Steam was in the 3-4 Million user range. Most of them went to Dota2 as well.

#32

Prima.Vera

RadeonProVegaI never bother to play it for the simple fact, I'm not interested in playing half male half monkey characters. Just like with some MMO's where you can you choose to be an elf lol, no thanks. If its not a person, i passed.

I can only play other race characters in WOW, SWTOR and Baldur's Gate, due to their good writings and good background stories. The other games almost offers no such things, so there is no way to identify with the protagonist.
Probably I am too mature to enjoy cartoons characters and cartoon like stories in BMW...
But everybody with its own taste and preference I guess.

My point was that the game was massively voted by Chinese players, not because it was something revolutionary, but because it was...well, Chinese.
So, patriotism above all. :)

#33

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

"Elden Ring nabbing the Labor of Love Award"

People don't know what things mean, obviously.

Dr. DroRegarding awards, Steam's are probably the most trustworthy, considered that it is voted for by the people, unlike on The Game Awards show (which is decided by "industry insiders", to put it as mildly as I can).

I mean it depends on what you mean by "trustworthy". Most of my views differ from most other peoples, so to me "as voted by the people" is just meaningless and I wouldn't trust it at all (case in point, Elden Ring getting a Labor of Love Award). Much more interesting to me are lists made by people I respect (if not agree with, I can respect people I disagree with) with loose formating. Ten million people telling me something is great just means I will likely not understand what they're on about, but five weirdos ranting about what they like? I'm on board.

#34

leonavis

FreedomEclipseJust a FYI or PSA. The reason why BMW is mainly played by a lot of Chinese players is not just because it was made by a chinese dev/publisher based off a story/novel called 'Journey To The West' that was written by a guy called 'Wu Cheng'en' from back in the Tang dynasty.

Even as a UK born Chinese myself I know about Journey to the west and have watched movies and tv shows based on the story. So it has an huge cultural significance to Chinese people in general as it gets read to them a lot while they are growing up. They'll also have Chinese Opera's/Theatre shows, TV shows and movies that are produced every few years to celebrate the anniversary of the writer/story as well as the keep the legacy alive among the people. Its a pretty huge deal.

So if anyone is wondering why there are a tonne of chinese people voting for the game in the steam awards. This is why.

Maybe @Fourstaff can confirm, although he may have a different take on it since I believe he is from TW whereas my lineage originates from HK. Im not sure how culturally significant JTTW is in TW. In theory it should be the same as we are still the same people but with a big swimming pool that separates us.

Well, DragonBall. Doesn't seem to be significant just in Mainland China.

Dota2&LOL also have Wukong-characters.

#35

FreedomEclipse

~Technological Technocrat~

leonavisWell, DragonBall. Doesn't seem to be significant just in Mainland China.

Im not sure if this was to be intended as an hella racist comment but im not too sure what you are trying to say. Dragonball is also Japanese and wasnt written in the 16th century.

Are you culturally misappropriating Dragonball to Chinese people? because thats what it sounds like.

::EDIT::

Ok - He wasnt being hella racist :roll:

#36

leonavis

FreedomEclipseIm not sure if this was to be intended as an hella racist comment but im not too sure what you are trying to say. Dragonball is also Japanese and wasnt written in the 16th century.

Are you culturally misappropriating Dragonball to Chinese people? because thats what it sounds like.

No, my point was that Dragonball is also based on The Journey to the West, highlighting its cultural significance all over the region; more than that, since the character of monkeyking Sun Wukong regularly is depicted in various games and other media all over the world, it even has international signifcance.

#37

FreedomEclipse

~Technological Technocrat~

leonavisNo, my point was that Dragonball is also based on The Journey to the West, highlighting its cultural significance all over the region; more than that, since the character of monkeyking Sun Wukong regularly is depicted in various games and other media all over the world, it even has international signifcance.

Actually yes. You are very right. There was actually a youtube video ive seen about this a while back. But you are very very very extremely very correct.

Because Goku rides on a cloud and carry big stick. Im going to have to find that video.

(ngl - I was about to throw hands :laugh: )

::EDIT::

Im not sure if it was this video I watched but there are other videos explaining more of the same.

I must apologise to you. I got the wrong end of the stick there and thought you were being malicious.

#38

leonavis

FreedomEclipseActually yes. You are very right. There was actually a youtube video ive seen about this a while back. But you are very very very extremely very correct.

Because Goku rides on a cloud and carry big stick. Im going to have to find that video.

(ngl - I was about to throw hands :laugh: )

Well it's loosely based on it. From DragonBall Z on, the similarities vanish rapidly. But the original DragonBall is a very cute homage to the original story. But, of course, not in the slightest bit true to the story. But lets be honest, Black Myth doesn't really depict the original story either.

I really like Chinese folklore and philosophy, especially from the warring state period. There are plenty similarities between emerging Greek and Chinese philosophies in that time, very fascinating. The idea of the monkey king as a rebel king apparantly also comes from that time-period.

#39

AcE

If a game (or really anything in life) has wide success it tells you one thing and one thing only: it’s well made. And that’s it. Doesn’t mean it’s for your taste or great for you, just that whatever it is, it is well made.

#40

ShiBDiB

lexluthermiesterThat's what I thought too. It doesn't live up to the hype at all. And award worthy? Hell no. Of course, look at what it was competing against..

I think what you said at the end is key, it was a very weak year in terms of video games. Wukong is a decent enough game, but it won by being the best mediocre game in a year full of them.

#41

Vincero

Wukong didn't bring anything new that I hadn't already seen in terms of gameplay in Hellblade a few years ago... also using Unreal engine.

It doesn't help that I don't like the character from League Of Legends either (yeah, I know different game / vision of it) - but either way I see a 'Wukong' and immediate reaction is "f*** that guy".
A shame as the folk lore its based on seems to be pretty deep.

Will wait until its on a steep discount before I get it. Will probably have upgraded to whatever the next next generation of GPUs will be by then also, so it'll probably be playable on good settings.

#42

kurosagi01

Here is my take on Black myth wukong.
1. It's GOTY for me
2. If you grew up or like Journey to the west then you will appreciate this game a lot more
3. If you see it as an action RPG like the modern God of war and not a soulsborne game then you will probably like BMW
4. The storytelling isn't super clear but neither are soulsborne game but yet people praise it
5. The game runs a lot better than other games released in 2023 and 2024 if you ask me

#43

Dr. Dro

FrickI mean it depends on what you mean by "trustworthy". Most of my views differ from most other peoples, so to me "as voted by the people" is just meaningless and I wouldn't trust it at all (case in point, Elden Ring getting a Labor of Love Award). Much more interesting to me are lists made by people I respect (if not agree with, I can respect people I disagree with) with loose formating. Ten million people telling me something is great just means I will likely not understand what they're on about, but five weirdos ranting about what they like? I'm on board.

Labor of Love's problem is that it's the only category you can shoehorn in a game from a previous year, so its purpose of showing a game that has been nurtured and maintained well over time gets abused. It's more of a problem with the award system than the trustworthiness of the data, Valve needed to add something like "Timeless Classic" category, although the result would likely be pretty predictable.

#44

RogueSix

Dr. DroRegarding awards, Steam's are probably the most trustworthy, considered that it is voted for by the people, unlike on The Game Awards show (which is decided by "industry insiders", to put it as mildly as I can).

Most "trustworthy"? LOL

You mean "trustworthy" as in Starfield winning the 'Most Innovative' category last year? :D

That was obviously a troll vote. Sure, Steam awards as a vox populi might not be driven as much by commercial or political interests as Geoff Keighley's 'The Game Awards' (which, yes, are a complete joke) but Steam awards are driven by other ... um, interests or motivations instead (like trolling/mocking as in Starfield's case).

The end result is the same. None of these awards are "trustworthy". To me, they are only lol-worthy (it's fun to make fun of some awards) but otherwise meaningless. I do not need the validation from a game I enjoyed winning an award. I play what I want and I like what I like and I dislike what I dislike, no matter how many awards get thrown at a game or not.

#45

Dr. Dro

RogueSixMost "trustworthy"? LOL

You mean "trustworthy" as in Starfield winning the 'Most Innovative' category last year? :D

That was obviously a troll vote. Sure, Steam awards as a vox populi might not be driven as much by commercial or political interests as Geoff Keighley's 'The Game Awards' (which, yes, are a complete joke) but Steam awards are driven by other ... um, interests or motivations instead (like trolling/mocking as in Starfield's case).

The end result is the same. None of these awards are "trustworthy". To me, they are only lol-worthy (it's fun to make fun of some awards) but otherwise meaningless. I do not need the validation from a game I enjoyed winning an award. I play what I want and I like what I like and I dislike what I dislike, no matter how many awards get thrown at a game or not.

A statement made by players in the condition of fans and more importantly, customers can be interpreted in many ways, all of which are much better than statements made with commercial interests in mind. You can see mockery for what it is and that's priceless.

#46

MCJAxolotl7

theoutoI cannot believe that tiny glade got beaten by farming simulator 25. The world has gone mad, mad I say!

I can't believe that it beat House Flipper 2!

#47

Crackong

the54thvoidI've never put stock in awards or glory competitions. Whether it's a panel of out-of-touch critics or a populist vote, awards can't tell you a damn thing about a game. If it comes down to a public vote. it's not a surprise a country with 1.4 billion people votes for a game made by them, and some would say, for them (culturally).

As has been referenced in this thread by the differing opinions on games (even within families), it's pretty clear you buy what you want to buy, play what you enjoy, and ignore the prats 'telling' you what's good or bad.

100%
We all know the how it happens and it is so obvious.
When it comes down to a populist vote, the group held together by some sort of ideas wins, no matter it is actually good, or not.

#48

lexluthermiester

bencrutza lot of people liked it, got voted, and yall mad :roll:

Oh, that was mature...

bencrutzjust because the majority who voted it most likely chinese people you think it shouldn't count? we shouldn't considered them as gamers who have can vote for the game they fond of? :laugh:

Popular vote is one thing. However, such a vote does NEVER make a title "Game Of The Year" worthy. A GOTY awards need to be based on actual merits of quality from industry experts.

Zazigalkabut saying it's that bad is just ridiculous.

Not if one doesn't like it and would refund it swiftly. Subjective? True. Invalid as an opinion to purchase? Untrue.

the54thvoidI've never put stock in awards or glory competitions. Whether it's a panel of out-of-touch critics or a populist vote, awards can't tell you a damn thing about a game. If it comes down to a public vote. it's not a surprise a country with 1.4 billion people votes for a game made by them, and some would say, for them (culturally).

As has been referenced in this thread by the differing opinions on games (even within families), it's pretty clear you buy what you want to buy, play what you enjoy, and ignore the prats 'telling' you what's good or bad.

I don't think anyone could have stated these points better.

ShiBDiBI think what you said at the end is key, it was a very weak year in terms of video games.

Agreed. Of course even then it doesn't compete well. Stalker2 is an entirely better offering. Indiana Jone was very good, Terminator Dark Fate Defiance was excellent, StarWars DarkForces Remaster was sheer mastery, Horizon Forbidden West was great, Visions Of Mana was wonderful too and even Final Fantasy 16 ranks higher.

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Black Myth: Wukong Sweeps 2024 Steam Awards As Narrative Gaming Makes Strong Showing Overall

48 Comments on Black Myth: Wukong Sweeps 2024 Steam Awards As Narrative Gaming Makes Strong Showing Overall

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