The holiday game season is nearly at its end, as is the year itself. Players' minds are slowly turning away from upcoming titles and beginning to look back at the games that really stood out over the past year -- awards season is about to begin. There are any number honors handed out by various and sundry organizations, including magazines, websites, and television networks, to celebrate the best in gaming.
Through sheer force of will, Spike TV's Video Game Awards have managed to become the most visible awards program, if not necessarily the most credible. Today, the network announced the nominations for the 2010 awards. The winners will be announced live on air December 11, 2010, at 8:00 PM EST (5:00 PM PST) on Spike TV.
Have a look at the full list of nominees:
Studio of the Year
Best Wii Game
Best Xbox 360 Game
Best PS3 Game
Best PC Game
Best Handheld Game
- God of War: Ghost of Sparta
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
- Super Scribblenauts
Best Shooter
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
Best Driving Game
- Blur
- ModNation Racers
- Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
- Split/Second
Best Music Game
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 José González
- GoldenEye by Nicole Scherzinger
- Replay/Rude Boy Mashup by Iyaz & 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
Game of the Year
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- God of War III
- Halo: Reach
- Mass Effect 2
As with any such list, the VGA nominees contain a number of puzzling, questionable, or just downright odd nominations and oversights.
Starting right at the top, how did Treyarch not get a nomination for studio of the year? Their game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, was nominated in several other categories, including Game of the Year, and had the biggest single day sales in the history of the medium. That would seem to warrant a nomination.
Donkey Kong Country Returns' nomination for Best Wii Game may ultimately prove to be well deserved, though how it qualifies as eligible today -- before it has been released -- is something of a mystery. Gran Turismo 5 comes out within days of DKCR, but it received no nominations.
Red Dead Redemption's nomination as Best PS3 Game is similarly perplexing, as it is famously inferior to its Xbox 360 counterpart.
The Best Multiplayer Game category might as well be renamed the Best Multiplayer Shooter category, as three of the four nominated games are first person shooters. It would have been nice to see a few other genres recognized for online play, such as music gaming with Rock Band 3 or driving with Blur.
In the Best Song in a Game category, the inclusion of Green Day's "Basket Case" is simply baffling. Yes, that song is in Green Day Rock Band, but how it was singled out as clearly superior to every other song in the game escapes me.
Still, there are some pleasant surprises among the nominations, such as the well deserved nod to Kirby's Epic Yarn in the Best Graphics category, and multiple nominations for the excellent, under-appreciated ModNation Racers.
Finally, without specific comment, it is difficult to overlook that an awards program designed to celebrate video games has as its two largest categories Best Performance by a Human Male and Best Performance by a Human Female.
Ranters, what do you think about the games nominated for the Spike TV Video Game Awards? Do you plan to watch the broadcast? What games would you pick to win?
The Spike TV Video Game Awards will air live, December 11, 2010, at 8:00 PM EST (5:00 PM PST) on Spike TV.
Source: Spike [via Joystiq]