Resident Evil Village wins Game of the Year in the 2021 Steam Awards
Cyberpunk 2077 won an award, too.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The votes have been tallied and the winners announced, and Resident Evil Village has beat out Valheim, New World, Cyberpunk 2077, and Forza Horizon 5 to claim the Game of the Year title in the2021 Steam Awards.
Resident Evil Village is, of course, the game with Lady Dimitrescu, the vampire of great height who we hoped tosee even more ofin the future. We liked it quite a bit, calling it “a grimly beautiful collection of killer horror set-pieces, with some of the most memorably grotesque enemies in Resi history” in our85% review—not quite a Game of the Year score, perhaps, but what fun would it be if these things were unanimous?
(For the record, PC Gamer selectedValheimas its Game of the Year, along with various other categories that you candive into here.)
Game of the Year is the big one, but I think the other categories and winners in this year’s Steam Awards are actually even more interesting. In the VR category, for instance, Sniper Elite VR, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond 2, I Expect You to Die 2, and Blair Witch VR Edition—staple videogame fare from top to bottom—were all beaten out by Cooking Simulator VR. The surprise hit It Takes Two beat big releases including Back 4 Blood and Halo Infinite for the Better With Friends category, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy claimed the Best Soundtrack crown with its heavily-licensed “All-Star ’80s Soundtrack.”
Cyberpunk 2077 also went home with some hardware: After failing to win in either of the 2021 Game Awards categories in which it wasnominated,CD Projekt’s much-troubled futuristic RPG was given the Outstanding Story-Rich Game award. Farming Simulator 22 took a title too, as this year’s best Sit Back and Relax game.
Unlike some other congratulatory extravaganzas (including The Game Awards), the Steam Awards are nominated and awarded solely based on user votes. Neither is it necessary for nominees to be 2021 releases: Cyberpunk 2077, for instance, came out in 2020, while the entire Labor of Love category is dedicated to games that have been around for a while.
All of the 2021 Steam Award winners are now on sale in theSteam Winter Sale, which will soon be over: It wraps up at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on January 5. The full list of winners is below.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.Lotsof Henry Cavill.
Terrifyingly good Humble Bundle deal nets you 11 Resident Evil games for less than the price of Resi 4 remake
I spent the last week roaming the Spencer Mansion and I’m here to tell you not to sleep on the new GOG release of 1996’s Resident Evil
I chatted to an MIT-built AI version of my future, 60-year-old self and we did NOT get along
