As promised, here are the results of the 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. As expected, Uncharted 2 did ridiculously well. Batman: Arkham Asylum and Scribblenauts did well too. As a huge BioWare fan, I was pleased that Dragon Age: Origins picked up an award (I was teasing BioWare’s Dr. Greg Zeschuk that he now has 52 of them).
Anyway, the results are in! Check ’em out and let me know what you think (please)!!!
Game of the Year
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Casual Game of the Year
Flower
Fighting Game of the Year
Street Fighter IV
Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Dragon Age: Origins
Sports Game of the Year
FIFA Soccer 10
Racing Game of the Year
Forza Motorsport 3
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Adventure Game of the Year
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Social Networking Game of the Year
Farmville
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Brutal Legend
Action Game of the Year
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Family Game of the Year
The Beatles: Rock Band
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Scribblenauts
Oustanding Achievement in Animation
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Oustanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Outstanding Achievement in Story (Adapted)
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Outstanding Character Performance
Batman: Arkham Asylum — The Joker
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Oustanding Achievement in Story (Original)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Oustanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Oustanding Achievement in Soundtrack
Brutal Legend
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Oustanding Achievement in Sound Design
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design
Scribblenauts
Portable Game of the Year
Scribblenauts
1 biff
Halo Wars should have gotten Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year. Brutal Legend was the worst RTS I played all year. Horrible controls and horrible unit balancing broke that aspect of the game. Where as Halo Wars broke the console barrier with nuclear force.
@ Sandrock
I can see where you or I would think that. We're gamers. We sit down to play games and delve in to worlds. The AIAS is looking at a different angle. Halo Wars is the type of RTS we're all used too. Even though alot of people complained about it because it wasn't as in depth as say Civilizations or Empire at War, it was still along the same lines.
Brutal Legend added action game elements with an emphasis on the sound. That's pretty risky for the genre. As an art, I can see where Brutal Legend stands out a bit more. That's what the AIAS was measuring, the artistic value and accomplishment, not the "fun factor" so to say.
The whole list reeks of that, especially Flower. I mean was Flower the most fun casual game of the year? no. Did it sell more copies than any other casual game? no. Did it stand out for it's art as a whole? yes. If you're looking for awards that judge the "fun-factor", this is not them.
It's the same reason movies like The Dark Knight, Terminator 2, and The Hangover will never win Best Picture of the Year.
farmville???
really??
just kidding
Yay for Uncharted 2
@N8R You are totally correct. You have to think about how other developers would vote instead of what you think is the "best". Remember, last year LittleBigPlanet won a ton of awards — I believe more than Uncharted 2 won this year.
Uncharted 2 was SO good! These awards are incredibly deserving.
This may seem like a stupid question, but is "Flower" only available on PSN or can I get it on XBL or PC? I am intrigued by the game and want to try it out.
-M
@TheJediRevan I love these awards. These and the Game Developers Choice Awards are my favorites. Both are important to the business.
@Iceman
Only on PSN.
@ Sandrock
It's not about improving the genre either. Picasso didn't improve painting and sculpting by any means. If anything, he knocked it back a couple clicks. All rock, rap, and pretty much any music that was written while recording technology was invented is a far cry less compositional than classical music… but that's not what defines art.
What BL did was risky, bold, and it worked. They broke a mold.When everyone says "it should be that way" and someone says "well, I'm gonna do it this way instead" and it works… that's a notch on the artistic scale.
It also wasn't up to Naughty Dog to hand out the awards to whom. As far as I know, the Naughty Dog Awards don't exist. Maybe they have Employee of the Month, but I doubt Tim Schaffer qualifies for that.
In another arena for awards, I'm sure Halo Wars would have taken home the trophy. It's the difference between the Golden Globes and the SAG awards. I don't say Oscars, because they only focus on film.
I hope 5th Cell does a spinoff of Scribblenauts, and hopefully improve on the touch screen commands lol. I love that flippin game.
And be honest with me guys, is Uncharted really that good? Be level with me here, cause I haven’t played 1 or 2 lol.
@N8R
Artisticly, it should have one other awards. It is differnt from other RTSs, but it didn’t do anything to improve the genre. I’m sure Uncharted 2 could have let Brutal Legend have a couple of its awards.
@Sandrock323 Two things:
1) Why does it matter that it’s different from other RTS games? It didn’t win an RTS award. It won an award to strategy/simulation, which is much broader.
2) The academy tends to favor things that are different and creative. This is why LittleBigPlanet won every other award last year.