GDC: Gears wins Best Game award

Epic Games' epic game Gears of War grabbed three awards at last night's GDC awards, while Okami and Wii Sports followed close behind with two each.

By Eugene Huang

News of last night's Game Developers Choice awards show indicates that Gears of War walked away the clear winner after winning the award for Best Game, in addition to two awards given for Technology and Visual Arts. This latest victory signifies yet another leg of Gears' dominance in the awards circuit after having won Overall Game of the Year honors at the Interactive Achievement Awards last month.

Nintendo's Wii Sports was another notable award winner, gaining the award for Game Design and Innovation. Capcom's Okami grabbed the award for character design, and also took home an award for Innovation, which it shared with both Wii Sports and Line Rider, the internet game created by Slovenian game designer Bostjan Cadez.

And although it topped the list along with Okami with the highest number of nominations, Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came up empty this year.

Here's the complete list of nominees, with the winners in bold-face:

Best Game

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
Todd Howard

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Audio

Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
Crispin Hands, John Johnson, Jennifer Lewis, John Tennant

DEFCON: Everybody Dies (Introversion Software)
Alistair Lindsay, Michael Maidment

Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive)
Troels Folmann, Karl Gallagher, Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens

LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Kemmei Adachi, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Kouji Niikura, Nobuyuki Shimizu

Character Design

Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida

LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Tsutomu Kouno, Keigo Tsuchiya

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier Studio / Ubisoft Entertainment)
Michel Ancel, Charles Beirnaert, Hubert Chevillard, Florent Sacre

Viva Pi?ata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
Ryan Stevenson

Game Design

Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
Michael Skupa

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
Hideki Kamiya

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
Todd Howard

Viva Pi?ata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
Justin Cook, Gregg Mayles

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Technology

Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
Drew Dunlop, Shelby Hubick, David Swinerd, Ian Thomson

Dead Rising (Capcom Entertainment)
Shinya Ikuta, Tomofumi Ishida, Yasuhide Sawada, Tomohiro Ueda

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar San Diego / Rockstar Games)
Ted Carson, Eugene Foss, Wil Paredes, Steve Reed

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
Takuhiro Dohta, Takeshi Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Kenta Sato

Visual Arts

Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
Naoki Katakai, Kenichirou Yoshimura

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
Matthew Carofano, Christiane Meister, Istvan Pely

Viva Pi?ata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
Ed Bryan, Ryan Stevenson

Writing

Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
Dan Houser, Jacob Krarup

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom / Aspyr Media)
Dag Scheve, Ragnar T?rnquist

Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (Telltale Games / GameTap)
Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
Ken Rolston

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

New Studio

Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms)
Jacob Van Wingen, Don Wurster

Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan

Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz)
Joshua Glazer, Tian Mu, Sam Thibault

Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter)
Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya

Wadjet Eye Games (The Shiva)
Chris Femo, Dave Gilbert, Peter Gresser, Ian Schlaepfer

Innovation

Line Rider
Bostjan Cadez

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Recipients for the evening's special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement:
Shigeru Miyamoto

First Penguin:
Alexey Pajitnov

Maverick:
Greg Costikyan

Community Contribution:
George "The Fat Man" Sanger

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment