The 10th annual Spike Video Game Awards have, yet again, drawn to a close leaving us in the wake of another pile of trailers, premieres, and award results to pick our way through. To those of you unfamiliar with the Spike VGA's the show consists of a host celebrity (this year it was Samuel L. Jackson) and allows gamers to vote online for who/what deserves the title of “Best Something” of the year or otherwise. The interesting part about this particular award show for the past several years is the lack of total emphasis on awards which allows room for big gaming announcements and first looks at some unseen content.
While many smaller awards such as “Best Female Character In a Game” were awarded online the television cast emphasized Best Shooter, Character, Action/Adventure, and Independent as well as “Game of the Decade” and “Game of the Year”. Each category had multiple nominations but, as any competition, there was only one winner.
The categories, their nominations, and victors are as follows:
Best Shooter
Nominations: Borderlands 2, Max Payne 3, Black Ops 2, Halo 4
Victor: Borderlands 2
Best Action Adventure
Nominations: Assassin's Creed 3, Darksiders II, Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs
Victor: Dishonored
Best Independent Game
Nominations: Fez, Journey, Mark of the Ninja, Dust: An Elysium Tale
Victor: Journey
Best Character
Nominations: Connor, Master Chief, Claptrap, Commander Shepard, Black Ops 2 Villian
Victor: Claptrap
Game of the Decade
Nominations: Half-Life 2, Portal, Mass Effect 2, World of Warcraft, BioShock, Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, Wii Sports
Victor: Half-Life 2
Game of the Year
Nominations: Assassin's Creed 3, Dishonored, Journey, Mass Effect 3, Walking Dead
Victor: The Walking Dead
Other than the awards a ton of great trailers were shown, games were announced, and details were released.
Phantom Pain, a new title, was announced and we were given a look at this gameplay trailer above. Unknown developer Moby Dick Studios is behind this weird game and people have been speculating that it is a new Metal Gear Solid game from a familiar character model and other things fans of the franchise might recognize.
A more fleshed out glimpse was shown of the upcoming PS3 exclusive game The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog with an official release date of May 7th. We finally get to see different environments and more characters in this new trailer. More cutscenes between main protagonists Joel and Ellie were also shown.
As far as other premieres go, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and Dark Souls II were officially announced and accompanied by some fantastic trailers. Dark Souls II, which you can see the trailer below, was one of the more bigger and surprising announcements from the show as fans of the franchise are very excited to play this highly anticipated sequel later next year.
Extended gamplay trailers of South Park: The Stick of Truth, Assassin's Creed III's newest DLC: The Tyranny of king Washington, Gears of War: Judgment, Tomb Raider, Halo 4: Spartan Ops (season one continues), and BioShock Infinite were shown. If your curiosity was peaked by any of these titles there should be plenty of material out now to munch on for a while.
This year's Spike Video Game Awards was a better show than last year's. No real-life teabagging and Fruit Ninja reimaginings this year as skits with Samuel L. Jackson were better to watch. Did you agree with who won the big awards and which trailer impressed the most last night? Let us know in the comments below.
