It may not be as glamorous as the Spike VGAs or AIAS awards, but the PSN Gamers' Choice Awards offers one thing no other awards program does: the chance to score great games for half off! Sony has just released the list of this year's nominees, and there are some great titles to vote for.

Starting tomorrow, PlayStation 3 owners will be able to cast votes for their favorite PlayStation Network title. There are a total of ten categories -- up from four last year -- and each vote cast will score users a PS3 theme. One of the categories is "Best PSN Indie," a special award that will be voted for online. As with the other categories, voting for the best PSN indie will net users an exclusive PS3 theme.

Just as with last year, the game that wins in each respective category will be on sale for 30% off to all PSN users, or 50% off for PlayStation Plus subscribers. It'll be interesting to see what happens if a game wins the award for two categories -- will we "lose out" on a discount or will Sony discount the runner up? Guess we won't know until the winners are announced on March 6th, via the PlayStation Blog.

Check out the nominees:

  • Best PSN Exclusive: inFAMOUS Festival of Blood (PS3), PixelJunk Shooter 2 (PS3), TETRIS (PS3)
  • Best PSN Game: inFAMOUS Festival of Blood (PS3), Plants vs. Zombies (PS3), Resident Evil 4 (PS3)
  • Best PSN Game Playable Online: Hard Corps: Uprising (PS3), Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition (PS3), TETRIS (PS3)
  • Best PS3 Full Game: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (PS3), Assassin’s Creed II: Deluxe Edition (PS3), Midnight Club LA Complete Edition (PS3)
  • Best PlayStation Move Game: 4Elements HD (PS3), Dungeon Defenders (PS3), Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PS3)
  • Best 3D Game: Dungeon Defenders (PS3), God of War: Origins Collection (PS3), The Sly Collection (PS3)
  • Best PlayStation Classic: Chrono Trigger (PS3/PSP), Parasite Eve (PS3/PSP), Xenogears (PS3/PSP)
  • Best Mini Game: Angry Birds (PS3/PSP), The Impossible Game (PS3/PSP), PAC-MAN Championship Edition (PS3/PSP)
  • Best PSP (PlayStation Portable) Game: DISSIDIA 012 [duodecim] FINAL FANTASY (PSP/PS Vita), DISSIDIA 012 Prologus FINAL FANTASY (PSP/PS Vita), TACTICS OGRE: Let Us Cling Together (PSP/PS Vita)
  • PlayStation Community Award — Best Indie: Dungeon Defenders (PS3), LIMBO (PS3), PixelJunk Shooter 2 (PS3)

There's a good selection of games on the list, but one criticism that could be levied against it is that the games are a tad too mainstream. This is because the list was chosen from the highest user-rated PSN titles, which would explain the absence of PS3 titles like Outland or Section 8: Prejudice -- which we thought was pretty awesome -- as well as PSP titles like Corpse Party. Those three titles were all received well, but they just don't have the popularity to compete with Angry Birds or Assassin's Creed.

As great as it is that Sony is has these PSN Awards, it's a bit counter intuitive to have discounts for the winners, namely because people are only going to vote for the games they don't own. Case in point: I've had my eye on Parasite Eve for a while. As a result, when voting opens tomorrow, I'm probably going to choose Parasite Eve over Xenogears or Chrono Trigger.

PSN users, what games are you voting for?

-

Follow me on Twitter @AnthonyMole