This year’s Steam Autumn Sale also saw the first ever Steam Awards kick off, allowing players to vote on their favourite games within specific categories, with the winners due to be revealed in December. A bunch of people are using one of the categories to send a message to Valve: give us Half-Life 3. Seriously. Valve. Please. Valve, mate.
We’ve got a lovely list of upcoming PC games. None of them are Half-Life 3.
The Steam Awards seem like a pretty cool addition to Valve’s digital distribution platform. I mean, they’re probably the awards that most closely represent the will of the game buying public. There are a lot of people on Steam, after all.
Here are the categories you can vote in:
The ‘Test of Time’ Award
- This award is for the game that is just as good today as the day you first played it. Newer games may come out, but it doesn’t matter… you’ll always come back to play this one.
The ‘I’m Not Crying, There’s Something In My Eye’ Award
- Games are fun. But sometimes games become more than that, and touch you in a way you weren’t expecting. This award celebrates the game that blindsided you emotionally. You weren’t expecting to cry. It wasn’t in the plan. But it happened none the less.
The ‘Just 5 More Minutes’ Award
- You have an early day tomorrow. You need to get some sleep, so you’re just going finish one more thing before you decide to tuck in for the night. Just one more. Wait, one more. What’s that you say? It’s 2:30 AM? This award is for the game that keeps you playing late.
The ‘Whoooaaaaaaa, dude!’ Award
- Some games melt your face. Maybe it was a crazy plot twist. Maybe you just got your wisdom teeth removed. Either way, this game BLOWS YOUR MIND.
The ‘Villain Most In Need Of A Hug’ Award
- Some people just need a hug.
The ‘Game Within A Game’ Award
- Kinder Eggs. Peanut Butter Cups. Jelly Donuts. All great things stuffed with other great things. Like a mighty turducken, this award celebrates the best mini game hidden within another game.
The ‘I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award’ Award
- This title didn’t have a huge marketing machine behind it, but you found it and loved it. Then you told your friends about it. And they loved it. And now that little game that could is about to win an award… but always remember: you totally found it first.
The ‘Best Use Of A Farm Animal’ Award
- Animals are rad and almost any game is better for including them. However this game used a farm animal in the best way possible.
That’s not all, though, as there’s another category beneath these:We Didn’t Think of Everything. It’s basically everyone’s chance to throw some kind of accolade at a game that does a specific thing very well, perhaps, or whatever else you think is worth highlighting.
For many, the thing that is worth highlighting is: give us Half-Life 3, Valve. Like, right now. This message is being carried through the Steam Awards, thanks to that last category, with people voting on Half-Life 2: Episode 2 for the ‘GAME THAT DESERVES A SEQUEL’ award.
It’s a movement gaining some real traction on Reddit right now, and there’s something kind of poetic about sending Valve a message like this via their own awards, even if it is a message we’ve all been shouting at them for almost a decade.