Today the nominees were announced for the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. For those that know what I’m talking about, this goes beyond best RPG, best shooter, or best PC game of the year. This is for more of the technical aspects of the games for the year.
The nominees up for awards are not all that surprising. Though there were many great games this year few stood out ahead of the rest.
The indy-game, Limbo, for download on Xbox 360 is nominated for a total of seven awards, which include the coveted game of the year award. The black and white platformer is up against some strong competition from some mainstream juggernauts.
The western adventure from Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption is up for six nominations. While BioWare’s emotionally driven space RPG, Mass Effect 2 has gained five nominations.
Call of Duty: Black Ops, from Treyarch and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, developed by Ubisoft Montreal both gained multiple nominations including game of the year. Some other worth mentioning games that received nominations are SCE Santa Monica’s God of War III, Quantum Dream’s Heavy Rain, and Team Meat’s Super Meat Boy.
For those of you that think that this will end up like any other awards show where the media is doing the nominating and the voting, then think again. The GDCA, has the International Choice Awards Network doing the work. This group is an invitation-only group to the top 500 leading game creators.
The nominees for their respective categories are:
Best Game Design
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Limbo (Playdead)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
Innovation
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Limbo (Playdead)
Dance Central (Harmonix)
Best Technology
Starcraft II (Blizzard)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
Best Handheld Game
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready At Dawn/SCE Santa Monica)
Cut the Rope (ZeptoLab)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions)
Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
Dragon Quest IX (Level 5)
Best Audio
Limbo (Playdead)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Halo: Reach (Bungie)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Best Downloadable Game
Costume Quest (Double Fine)
Limbo (Playdead)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
Best Writing
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Costume Quest (Double Fine)
Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian)
Best Debut Game
Limbo (Playdead)
Darksiders (Vigil Games)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
Best Visual Arts
God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
Limbo (Playdead)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Game of the Year
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
Limbo (Playdead)
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
