Video Game Awards 2011 Round Up

Last night, all this went down. A complete round up of the Spike TV Video Game Awards 2011.

Aaaaand breathe. The last big news bash of the year occured last night, the Spike TV Video Game Awards 2011. Now, when I say ‘awards’, I say it lightly. The actual event itself was less of an awards ceremony and more of a mini E3, with a myriad of developers showing off all their current work to the baying public, blasting excitement levels for 2012 gaming into the stratosphere. Reveals of titles that seem to be using each of their platforms to the absolute maximum, blowing away rumours of new consoles for one evening only. Oh yes, we’re not quite done with this generation just yet.

But what of the actual event? ‘Chuck’ star, the man himself Zachary Levi took hosting duties, and in my opinion did a damn fine job and holding it all together. After a brilliant introduction seemingly placing him into every massive blockbuster game released this year, it ended with him shooting a Portal gun from the top of an Assassin’s Creed tower, jumping and tearing through the awards itself on a wire over the audience, landing on stage to a massive applause. It was a pretty damn cool arrival and set the tone for the rest of the evening quite nicely.

It’s quite easy to diss celebrities and gaming, as they’re looking for high profile names who seemingly know nothing of what they’re talking about – anyone care to explain why LL Cool J was there presenting Mass Effect 3? – but still, it’s become part of this industry and although Zachary Levi genuinely had an interest in the industry – he was ‘Trooper 4′ in ‘Halo Reach’, after all – everyone else that turned up seemed to be there for the pay check. I’m looking at you Charlie Sheen.

Still, great moments were rife last night. The biggest highlight being the wonderful standing ovation that greeted the Master of Nintendo, Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto, who made  a rare Western TV appearance to collect the award for The Legend of Zelda entering the Awards’ Hall of Fame. He came on stage to the sounds of Hyrule Field with a green neon Triforce AR’d behind him. It was a special moment, especially when he lifted the award above his head in true Link style. The Nintendo fanboy in me cried and cheered, nobody deserves it more than he.

Hideo Kojima arrived on stage to present the latest ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’ (stupid title) trailer. While he slipped on his speech quite badly, nobody seemed to care. It was Hideo mother fudgin’ Kojima after all. If he ever just said hello to me I would sit there for hours waiting for it to happen.

Any stupid moments? Well, of course. There was a real live cow there somehow representing ‘Farmville’. Nobody knows why and nobody wants to know, but the joke fell flat on its ass. Again, LL Cool J and Will.I.Am appearing seemed odd, although perhaps Will.I.Am had just a touch more wanting to be there, any reason to plug the ‘Black Eyed Peas Experience’, right? He seemed very subdued, and could not have been less excited to present to the world the very first look at footage for the highly anticipated ‘The Last of Us’. I would have preferred someone who had a connection to the game but hey, a singer with a stupid stage name is good enough for me.

Oh yeah, some awards were won aswell! Here is the complete list. Did you favourites win out?

AWARDS

Game Of the Year

Batman: Arkham City
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 
Portal 2
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Studio Of the Year
Bethesda Game Studios
Naughty Dog
Rocksteady Studios
Valve

Best Xbox 360 Game
Batman: Arkham City
Forza Motorsport 4
Gears Of War 3
Portal 2

Best PS3 Game
Infamous 2
Killzone 3
LittleBigPlanet 2
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Best Wii Game
Disney’s Epic Mickey
Kirby’s Return To Dream Land
Lost In Shadow
The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Best PC Game
Battlefield 3
Minecraft
The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings
Portal 2

Best Handheld/Moibile Game
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Infinity Blade
Super Mario 3D Land
Jetpack Joyride

Best Shooter
Battlefield 3
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Gears Of War 3
Rage

Best Action/Adventure Game
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Batman: Arkham City
The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Best RPG
Dark Souls
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dragon Age II
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Best Multiplayer Game
Battlefield 3
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Gears Of War 3
Portal 2

Best Individual Sports Game
Fight Night Champion
Tiger Woods Pga Tour 12: The Masters
Top Spin 4
Virtua Tennis 4

Best Team Sports Game
FIFA Soccer 12
NBA 2K12
NHL 12
MLB ’11: The Show

Best Driving Game
Dirt 3
Driver: San Francisco
Forza Motorsport 4
Need For Speed: The Run

Best Fighting Game
The King Of Fighters XIII
Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds
Mortal Kombat
WWE All Stars

Best Motion Game
Child Of Eden
Dance Central 2
The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Gunstringer

Best Independent Game
Bastion
Minecraft
Superbrothers: Sword And Sworcery EP
The Binding Of Isaac

Best Adapted Video Game
Back To The Future: The Game
Batman: Arkham City
Captain America: Super Soldier
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

Best Song In A Game
Bastion – “Build That Wall (Zia’s Theme)” by Darren Korb
Portal 2 – “Exile Vilify” by The National
Dragon Age II – “I’m Not Calling You A Liar” by Florence + The Machine
Bastion – “Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)” by Darren Korb
Portal 2 – “Want You Gone” by Jonathan Coulton

Best Original Score
Bastion
Batman: Arkham City
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Portal 2

Best Graphics
Batman: Arkham City
LA Noire
Rage
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Best Performance By A Human Male
J.K. Simmons as Cave Johnson – Portal 2
Mark Hamill as The Joker – Batman: Arkham City
Nolan North as Nathan Drake – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2

Best Performance By A Human Female
Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Ellen Mclain as GladOS – Portal 2
Emily Rose as Elena Fisher – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Tara StrongaAs Harley Quinn – Batman: Arkham City

Best Downloadable Game
Bastion
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Stacking
Trenched

Best DLC
Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues
Mass Effect 2 – Arrival
Mortal Kombat – Freddy Krueger
Portal 2 – Peer Review

There you go, a sea of deserving winners and predictable outcomes. It’s great to see ‘Portal 2′ get plenty of love considering so much has been released since then, and they fully deserved their performance awards, particularly Steven Merchant as Wheatley. Just brilliant.

No matter what everyone says though, the trailers and reveals are what the VGAs are all about, below is every single frickin’ reveal in one handy place. Don’t say we’re not good to you, folks.

TRAILERS

The Last of Us
Fortnite
Rainbow Six: Patriots
Command and Conquer Generals 2
Alan Wake: American Nightmare
Darksiders 2
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
The Amazing Spider-Man
Bioshock Infinite
Mass Effect 3 
Diablo III
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

EXTRAS (courtesy of GameTrailers.com)

Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 

One of the awards going throughout the evening was character of the year. Each nominee appeared on screen to thank the ceremony for the nomination and plead their case as to why they should win. Honestly, it was brilliant. Here are them all, along with the Jokers victorious acceptance speech.

Character Nomination Videos

The Joker (Arkham City)
Marcus Fenix (Gears of War 3)
Nathan Drake (Uncharted 3)
Wheatley (Portal 2)

Joker’s Winning Video – Including THAT teaser.

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Along with this round up, EVERYTHING you want from the Video Game Awards is right here – GO HERE FOR MORE

There you go! The VGAs are over for another year and hopefully at some point this evening I can actually sleep. Cheers for sticking around and enjoying the awards with us, here’s to VGAs 2012!

Whats your favourite trailer? Happy with the winners? Let us know below.

Oh yeah, there’s always THIS to talk about aswell……

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