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Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announces 2009 Achievement Award nominees
Over the weekend, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced nominees for its 12th annual Achievement Awards, showering oodles of love on Little Big Planet, Fallout 3, and Metal Gear Solid 4.
This is the closest videogaming has to an Academy Awards. Over time, the awards have become less ridiculous, but that doesn't mean they're entirely sensible just yet. The nomination process is based on publishers who are members of the AIAS, which isn't an easy or inexpensive process. This means a lot of the best games of the year get shut out in favor of the merely highest profile games. In other words, it's not much different than your typical website or magazine. Winners will be announced at the DICE Summit in Vegas on February 19th.
There a lot of silliness in the categories, but keep in mind the Academy needs to hand out nominations and awards far and wide to keep its members happy. There are basically 13 category awards, some by genre and some by platform, as well as an overall best game award. Then there are fourteen technical awards, based on elements of a game like graphics, music, and writing. This latter group is where you'll find some real head-scratchers. I can sort of puzzle out the difference between art direction and visual engineering (one is artwork, the other is graphics?), but I can't for the life of me figure out what they're getting at with separate awards for "gameplay engineering" and "game design".
But the real head-scratchers, and the full list of nominees, are after the jump.
For the most part, you can attribute the 'Why isn't Game X in there?" to the publisher not being a member of the AIAS. But beyond that, I have a few thoughts.
* The categories for writing are a joke. Those are the best they could come up with for adapted and original stories? The only category more absurd is the character performance category, which consists of four utter embarrassments and Sack Boy, who's cute but devoid of any actual character.
* Good for THQ for getting de Blob in there, but how is it that Saints Row 2 didn't get a single nomination? Also, it's a damn shame that their wonderful Frontlines: Fuel of War was entirely overlooked.
* As a guy who knows nothing about sports, the sports game nominations look like alphabet soup. There could be a cricket game in there for all I know.
* How on earth did Rockstar not get Midnight Club Los Angeles into the racing game category? It's easily one of the finest racing games of the last ten years.
* Why didn't Microsoft get Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts into any categories? Not even a token "family games" nod? Even more mystifying is the absence of their commercially successful Viva Pinata games.
* It's nice to see Ubisoft getting some recognition for EndWar. It's a great game that's probably struggling commercially. I'm surprised Far Cry 2 wasn't put up for any technical awards.
* Braid is a casual game? Ha ha.
* Were there any fighting games released this year that weren't nominated?
Here's the complete list:
Family Game of the Year
Boom Blox
LittleBigPlanet
Rayman
Raving Rabbids TV Party
Rock Band 2.
Wii Fit
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
Sins of a Solar Empire
Tom Clancy's EndWar
Outstanding Achievement in Animation
Castle Crashers
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Prince of Persia
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Dead Space
Fable II
LittleBigPlanet
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
Gears of War 2
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Resistance 2
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
Fable II
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead
Spore
Tom Clancy's EndWar
Outstanding Character Performance
Gears of War 2 (Dom)
Gears of War 2 (Marcus)
LittleBigPlanet (Sackboy)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Old Snake)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (Lara Croft)
Outstanding Achievement in Adapted Story
Lego Batman: The Videogame
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Naruto: The Broken Bond
Quantum of Solace
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Outstanding Achievement in Original Story
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Role-Playing Game of the Year
Fable II
Fallout 3
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time
Tales of Vesperia
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Braid
Left 4 Dead
LittleBigPlanet
Spore
Wii Fit
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
de Blob
Dead Space
Fable II - Microsoft Game Studios
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack
Guitar Hero World Tour
LittleBigPlanet
Motorstorm Pacific Rift
Rock Band 2
Singstar PS3 Vol. 1
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Dead Space
Gears of War 2
LittleBigPlanet
Prince of Persia
Wipeout HD
Computer Game of the Year
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead
Mass Effect
Spore
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Adventure Game of the Year
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Mirror's Edge
Naruto: The Broken Bond
Prince of Persia
Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
EVE Online: Quantum Rise
Pirates of the Burning Sea
PMOG
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Sports Game of the Year
FIFA 09
Madden NFL 09
MLB 08: The Show
NBA 2K9
NHL 09
Racing Game of the Year
Burnout Paradise
GRID
Mario Kart Wii
Motorstorm Pacific Rift
Pure
Fighting Game of the Year
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Soul Calibur IV
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Call of Duty: World at War
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
NHL 09
Rock Band 2
Action Game of the Year
Call of Duty: World at War
Dead Space
Far Cry
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Handheld Game of the Year
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Patapon
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Casual Game of the Year
Braid
Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhurst
Patapon
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
World of Goo
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
Fable II
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2 -
Left 4 Dead
World of Goo
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Console Game of the Year
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Overall Game of the Year
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Left 4 Dead
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
By salwon at 8:59 AM ON 01/26/09
This is stupid. How do you judge whether Hockey '09 is better than Football '09? And their entire list of casual games shows that they don't know what they're talking about.
How long has this award been around? It'll probably take 5-10 years before it starts to mean anything. And hey, still better than the SpikeTV Awards.
By obonicus at 9:33 AM ON 01/26/09
Braid as a casual game isn't as bad as Patapon as a casual game.
By Chijts at 10:10 AM ON 01/26/09
What makes me cringe a bit are headings such as "Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack" - When you look at the nominees is it really that outstanding an achievement to just put in/buy the rights to pre-existing music and slap it in your game?
Why not just make up your own award? Tom, you can have the "Outstanding Achievement in Web-based Gaming Blog-type-things Powered by the Sci-Fi Channel"
Your trophy will be in the post once the PVA glue dries on the lollipop sticks.
By budgethero at 11:21 AM ON 01/26/09
yeah it more than "a little funny" when there's an award for music composition and one for soundtrack.
By cycomike at 12:43 PM ON 01/26/09
no lord of the rings online? what a rip.
By Miramon at 2:07 PM ON 01/26/09
Of course game design comes from designers, and gameplay engineering comes from engineers.
Seriously, this one at least makes perfect sense from the studio point of view, though perhaps it might be a bit tough to figure out if an actual game is showing good engineering or good design in a particular instance, since most of the time at least the engineering is implementing the design.
By steve at 5:29 PM ON 01/26/09
Where can I buy "LittleBigPlanet Rayman?" I'd probably like that more than Little Big Planet or Rayman Raving Waggle.
By Tom Chick at 7:29 PM ON 01/26/09
Cycomike, I'm guessing Turbine isn't a member of the AIAS, which would explain the lack of Lord of the Rings Online. It's a shame, too, since the Moria expansion is so good. They did some excellent work with the design of Moria.
Miramon, the distinction between game design and gameplay engineering is new to me, but I've never been on the other side of the business. Your explanation helps a bit. Like the distinction between artwork and graphics, it seems one is the "blueprint" and the other is the actual execution?
By malkav11 at 9:46 PM ON 01/26/09
I notice that the only categories that computer games appear to be eligible for are "Best Computer Game" and "Best MMO" (a bizarre category. Okay, more MMOs are coming out than really should be, but the candidates for serious consideration barely number more than five.).
Also, I dunno what exactly qualifies a game story as "adapted", but Lego Batman and The Force Unleashed both have completely original stories based on established licenses, which is "original story" in *my* book. (I cringe at the very thought of awarding anything to a Mortal Kombat game for story, but it's probably an original, if atrocious, story also.)
By Lizard Dude at 11:25 PM ON 01/26/09
Random thought: notice how all the handheld games came out early in 2008, while most of the big console stuff is from the year-end glut.
Lizard Dude:
Random thought: notice how all the handheld games came out early in 2008, while most of the big console stuff is fr...More »