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
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 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
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
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]
