It's that time of year again! Spike TV has announced it's list of 2010 Video Game Awards! The nominees for Spike's 2010 Video Game Awards have been announced and are unsurprisingly a list of the biggest games of the year across all categories. God of War III and Red Dead Redemption, two of the games nominated for GOTY from Spike. The VGA's will be aired on Saturday, December 11 at 8PM EST on SpikeTV and will probably feature a lot of celebrities talking about games in some form or another. There should be some major game announcements, as well, with BioWare already confirming that it will announce a new game at the show. The full list of nominees are as follows: Studio of the Year BioWare Blizzard Entertainment Bungie Studios Rockstar San Diego Best Wii Game Donkey Kong Country Returns Kirby's Epic Yarn Metroid: Other M Super Mario Galaxy 2 Best Xbox 360 Game Alan Wake Fable III Halo: Reach Mass Effect 2 Best PS3 Game God of War III Heavy Rain ModNation Racers Red Dead Redemption Best PC Game Fallout: New Vegas Mass Effect 2 Sid Meier's Civilization V StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Best Handheld Game God of War: Ghost of Sparta Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Professor Layton and the Unwound Future Super Scribblenauts Best Shooter Battlefield: Bad Company 2 BioShock 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach Best Action-Adventure Game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood God of War III Red Dead Redemption Super Mario Galaxy 2 Best RPG Fable III Fallout: New Vegas Final Fantasy XIII Mass Effect 2 Best Multiplayer Game Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Best Individual Sports Game EA Sports MMA Shaun White Skateboarding Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 UFC Undisputed 2010 Best Team Sports Game FIFA Soccer 11 Madden NFL 11 NBA 2K11 MLB '10: The Show Best Driving Game Blur ModNation Racers Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Split/Second Best Music Game Dance Central DJ Hero 2 Def Jam Rapstar Rock Band 3 Best Soundtrack Def Jam Rapstar DJ Hero 2 Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Rock Band 3 Best Song in a Game "Basket Case" by Green Day "Black Rain" by Soundgarden "Far Away" by Jose Gonzalez "GoldenEye" by Nicole Scherzinger "Replay" / "Rude Boy Mashup" by Iyaz and Rihanna "Won't Back Down" by Eminem Best Original Score God of War III Halo: Reach Mass Effect 2 Red Dead Redemption Best Graphics God of War III Heavy Rain Kirby's Epic Yarn Red Dead Redemption Best Adapted Video Game LEGO: Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Transformers: War for Cybertron Best Performance by a Human Male Daniel Craig as James Bond Gary Oldman as Sgt. Reznov John Cleese as Jasper Martin Sheen as Illusive Man Nathan Fillion as Sergeant Edward Buck Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man Rob Wiethoff as John Marston Sam Worthington as Alex Mason Best Performance by a Human Female Dame Judi Dench as M Danica Patrick as Herself Emmanuelle Chriqui as The Numbers Lady Felicia Day as Veronica Jennifer Hale as Commander Sheppard Kristen Bell as Lucy Stillman Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson Best Downloadable Game Costume Quest Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Monday Night Combat Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Best DLC BioShock 2: Minerva's Den Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare Best Independent Game Joe Danger Limbo Super Meat Boy The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom Most Anticipated Game Batman: Arkham City BioShock: Infinite Gears of War 3 Portal 2 Game of the Year Call of Duty: Black Ops God of War III Halo: Reach Mass Effect 2 Red Dead Redemption What say you? Agree? Disagree? Any nominees you're rooting for? Any you dispise?
This particular awards ceremony is very skewed towards console gaming, but you're right. Any comprehensive gaming award organization should recognize Best MMO as a category. I'd even go as far as to day that StarCraft II should at least be nominated for GOTY.
This is not what will happen, but rather should. These awards are little more than console fanboys throwing accolades on games they already voted on with their wallets. It's like when Titanic beat LA Confidential for Best Picture. Anyway: Bioware Super Mario Galaxy 2 Mass Effect 2 Red Dead Redemption Civ V MGS: Peace Walker BioShock 2 Red Dead Redemption Mass Effect 2 N/A - These all suck N/A - These all suck MLB '10: The Show N/A - These all suck Rock Band 3 Rock Band 3 (This is a joke: Rock Band 3 is a game about playing music). Eminem Red Dead Redemption Red Dead Redemption Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Points for being awesome and actually based on the source material) N/A - meh N/A - meh N/A - This is a stupid category N/A - This is a stupid category Write in - Osmos N/A - This is a stupid category (Portal 2 though) Red Dead Redemption (Runner Up: Mass Effect 2)
Studio of the Year BioWare Blizzard Entertainment Bungie Studios Rockstar San Diego I can see Rockstar winning this, but it's a toss up. BioWare perhaps? Best Wii Game Donkey Kong Country Returns Kirby's Epic Yarn Metroid: Other M Super Mario Galaxy 2 Super Mario 2, Runner up Kirby's Epic Yarn. Too bad Epic Mickey isn't out in time for this. Best Xbox 360 Game Alan Wake Fable III Halo: Reach Mass Effect 2 Halo Reach or Mass Effect 2. My money's on Halo. Best PS3 Game God of War III Heavy Rain ModNation Racers Red Dead Redemption God of War III. Hands down I don't know why Red Dead Redemption is even in this category. Best PC Game Fallout: New Vegas Mass Effect 2 Sid Meier's Civilization V StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Star Craft II. It's a monster. Best Handheld Game God of War: Ghost of Sparta Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Professor Layton and the Unwound Future Super Scribblenauts God of War Ghost of Sparta. I piucked up a PSP just to play this and I'm considering selling it now because everything else is so lame... but GOS is so awesome, I can't bring myself to do it. Best Shooter Battlefield: Bad Company 2 BioShock 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach I'm going to say Call of Duty: Black Ops. Treyarch did a great job on this, but BFBC2 could snatch it. Best Action-Adventure Game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood God of War III Red Dead Redemption Super Mario Galaxy 2 Either RDR or GOW III. Best RPG Fable III Fallout: New Vegas Final Fantasy XIII Mass Effect 2 Mass Effect 2. I'd like to say Fallout, but it was bug-plagued on release. Best Multiplayer Game Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Black Ops or BFBC2. Best Individual Sports Game EA Sports MMA Shaun White Skateboarding Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 UFC Undisputed 2010 I didn't play any of these games. Best Team Sports Game FIFA Soccer 11 Madden NFL 11 NBA 2K11 MLB '10: The Show NBA 2K11. Best Driving Game Blur ModNation Racers Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Split/Second Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Best Music Game Dance Central DJ Hero 2 Def Jam Rapstar Rock Band 3 Rockband 3 seems to be the fanboy favorite. Best Soundtrack Def Jam Rapstar DJ Hero 2 Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Rock Band 3 Again, Rockband 3 could get it. Best Song in a Game "Basket Case" by Green Day "Black Rain" by Soundgarden "Far Away" by Jose Gonzalez "GoldenEye" by Nicole Scherzinger "Replay" / "Rude Boy Mashup" by Iyaz and Rihanna "Won't Back Down" by Eminem Eminem. Best Original Score God of War III Halo: Reach Mass Effect 2 Red Dead Redemption God of War III. Symphony Orchestras have sold out venues performing this one all year. Best Graphics God of War III Heavy Rain Kirby's Epic Yarn Red Dead Redemption God of War III. Heavy Rain could pull it off, however. Best Adapted Video Game LEGO: Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Transformers: War for Cybertron Scott Pilgrim FTW. Best Performance by a Human Male Daniel Craig as James Bond Gary Oldman as Sgt. Reznov John Cleese as Jasper Martin Sheen as Illusive Man Nathan Fillion as Sergeant Edward Buck Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man Rob Wiethoff as John Marston Sam Worthington as Alex Mason Rob Wiethoff for Red Dead Redemption.... Gary Oldman was fantastic as Sgt. Reznov, however. Best Performance by a Human Female Dame Judi Dench as M Danica Patrick as Herself Emmanuelle Chriqui as The Numbers Lady Felicia Day as Veronica Jennifer Hale as Commander Sheppard Kristen Bell as Lucy Stillman Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson ???? Best Downloadable Game Costume Quest Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Monday Night Combat Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Scott Pilgrim or Lara Croft. Best DLC BioShock 2: Minerva's Den Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare. Best Independent Game Joe Danger Limbo Super Meat Boy The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom Limbo, or Super Meat Boy. Most Anticipated Game Batman: Arkham City BioShock: Infinite Gears of War 3 Portal 2 Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Call of Duty: Black Ops God of War III Halo: Reach Mass Effect 2 Red Dead Redemption I haven't had a chance to play Mass Effect 2 or Halo: Reach yet since I am PS3 exclusive, but I don't see God of War III or Red Dead Redemption winning this year. Both were great, but had their flaws. GOW3 ultimately was too repetitive to be GOTY and RDR really had a big portion in the middle where it got boring as hell. Call of Duty always seems to be nominated for this, but it never actually wins, although this year, I consider Black Ops to be this franchise's best chance since COD 4. So although I'd like to see one of the games I've played win, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Mass Effect 2, a game I won't be able to play until 2011, will win GOTY 2010.
I see that Target has an XBox for $149 tomorrow. I'm thinking about it... And Limbo would be my first XBLA purchase.
This is a pretty solid year for the Wii. At least as far as 1st/2nd party games go... Have already picked up Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. And I recently downloaded Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood for the Wii Virtual Console. And I have Starcraft II for my PC. That should hold me over until next year's The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword... which I predict will be game of the year.
Well, I've bought an Xbox 360 and Halo Reach over the Black Friday weekend... Halo really isn't all that... either that or Halo Reach doesn't stand well on it's own, so I think I'm going to rule that out as Game of the Year. That leaves Red Dead Redemption, God of War III and Mass Effect 2, which I have not played. Still waiting to play Mass Effect 2 on the PS3 next month... If God of War III doesn't win, it will be because the game didn't stand well on it's own without the first two games backing it up, like Halo. If Red Dead doesn't win, it will be because the game dragged so deep and long once it went to Mexico. Although I haven't played ME2, I've heard nothing but superlatives about it. I'm sticking with it for GOTY...
That would be remarkable!! .... seeing as how it's nominated for precisely 1 award!! Seriously, I'm a little disturbed by the lack of love shown for SC2.
Oh shit! Chris, you might be right! Red Dead Redemption won like 4 awards last night at the Inside Gaming Awards. Best Score(????), Most Compelling Character, Best Sound Design and their Game of the Year. Does this foreshadow the VGAs? http://content.usatoday.com/communi...demption-rides-to-inside-gaming-awards-wins/1
Well, things went a little different than what I predicted. Here are a list of the winners from Saturday's Video Game Awards on Spike TV: GAME OF THE YEAR Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego) I had Mass Effect 2 picked for this based of the positive buzz around it in the press, but this is a worthy winner. I was secretly rooting for God of War III, but if I'm honest, RDR provided a more complete experience. One time while playing, I went 3 hours between missions just hunting Elk and Cougars. STUDIO OF THE YEAR BioWare Makers of Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. Well deserved, IMHO. They actually managed to deal with 2 multiplatform IPs in 2010. BEST XBOX 360 GAME Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare) I look forward to playing this on the PS3 in January. BEST PS3 GAME God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica) My personal favorite in 2010. BEST Wii GAME Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo / Nintendo) BEST PC GAME StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment) I knew it! BEST HANDHELD GAME God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment / Ready At Dawn Studios) Told ya! this game felt more like a PS3 release than a PSP one. grand scale. I still wonder how Ready at Dawn was able to pack so much into such a small system like the PSP. BEST SHOOTER Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision / Treyarch) A lot of people thought BFBC2 was better. BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal) I don't like this franchise, but I might give it a second chance if I get bored enough. BEST RPG Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare) Fallout could have won this if they had delayed it to debug it. BEST MULTI-PLAYER Halo: Reach (Microsoft / Bungie Studios) Not impressed with this one. If COD won best shooter, how could it loose best multiplayer? And vice versa. BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon) BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME NBA 2K11 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts) The return of Michael Jordan. I knew it would win. BEST DRIVING GAME Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts / Criterion Games) BEST MUSIC GAME Rock Band 3 (MTV Games / Harmonix) BEST SOUNDTRACK DJ Hero 2 (Activision / FreeStyleGames) BEST SONG IN A GAME Far Away by José González (Red Dead Redemption) BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego) The folks that put together the score for God of War III were robbed. BEST GRAPHICS God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica) Agreed. The game looked like one huge interactive cut scene. BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Chengdu) Figured as much. This was an industry darling from the start. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker / Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions / Activision) I didn't like this game much. I thought the John Marston voice work from Red Dead Redemption was much better. Way better acting, IMHO. BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty / Blizzard Entertainment) BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME Costume Quest (THQ / Double Fine Productions) BEST DLC Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego) This may be the one thing that pushed RDR over the top for GOTY. The game itself got really boring in the middle, but this DLC was so good, that it more than redeemed the sagging part. The other game developers should study this because this is what DLC should strive to be in terms of content. BEST INDEPENDENT GAME Limbo (PlayDead) Currently Playing this now. This is a very good but unsettling platformer and I look forward to more from Playdead studios. They deserve this. MOST ANTICIPATED GAME Portal 2 (Valve / Valve) Bullshit. We want Batman: Arkham City. Maybe I'll give this a shot if I get bored in 2011. What do you think-
I have no opinions on any of these results (other than "Hey, THQ is still around. Neat"), but I appreciate your tabulating the results for us to talk about.
Starcraft 2 should NOT have beaten New Vegas and Mass Effect2 in the PC game category. Especially as ME 2 is essentially the same game but much better.
I don't agree with best score (definitely should have gone to God of War, like you said). As for Portal II... I'm not sure it should have gotten it over Arkham City. Both games are so different, but Batman just has this extra awesomeness about it. I dunno. I'd have probably gone with Batman.
I've never played Portal, since I've just gotten into the gaming world in mid 2009, but I know a lot of people hold it in high regard. At some point, I'm sure I'll give it a shot on PC unless it ever comes to Xbox or PS3. But I was really shocked when Arkham City lost this one. Heck, I was shocked when it lost GOTY 2009. But the people that put together the VGAs obviously held B: AA in high regard and Rocksteady even used the VGAs in 2009 to announce Arkham City. But I guess...
[yt=God of War III - Brothers of Blood]T7BNufZktVg&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/yt] Maybe I've got it wrong, but a good soundtrack should invoke a strong image of the gameplay and story that it compliments. For instance, when I hear Brothers of Blood, I think of the epic battle between Kratos and his half brother Hercules in God of War III.... But even without that sting imagery and correlation, this piece stands on it's own as a solid piece of music. This is just one instance among almost a dozen from the God of War III soundtrack. IMHO, there's nothing in Red Dead Redemption that comes close. I don't know why this is bugging me so much weeks later.
I'm starting to feel the same way. It's more of a popularity contest than a true measure of the greatness of interactive entertainment software.
