Bethesda Softworks' epic post-apocalyptic open-world adventure, Fallout 3, received the Game of the Year Award at the 9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented at a ceremony this evening the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Bethesda also received the Best Writing award for the game.
Media Molecule's imaginative user creation-centric platform game LittleBigPlanet, which was first unveiled at GDC 2007, was the recipient of the most awards of the evening, taking four awards for Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Debut Game and Innovation Award.
Other winners at the Tim Schafer-hosted event included Ubisoft's hauntingly beautiful update of the Prince of Persia franchise, which won the prize for Best Visual Arts, and Ready at Dawn's portable action-adventure, God of War: Chains of Olympus, winner of the Best Handheld Game award. EA Redwood Shores' shocking horror title, Dead Space, won the prize for Best Audio award.
Additionally, successful independent developer 2D Boy, winner of the 2008 Independent Games Festival's Design Innovation award and Technical Experience award, snagged this year's Game Developers Choice award for Best Downloadable game for World of Goo.
The Game Developers Choice Awards, which honor the very best games of the year, are voted on by developers and created for developers.
They are produced and hosted by the GDC and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, with the aid of a distinguished Advisory Committee that includes many of the world's top game creators, and each award is decided by thousands of votes from game professionals worldwide.
This year, Hideo Kojima, the Corporate Officer, Executive Producer and Director of Kojima Productions and creator of the seminal Metal Gear series was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his influence on the craft of game development and his twenty years of work on Metal Gear and other notable franchises.
In addition, Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, co-developers of a groundbreaking decade-plus long line of music games culminating in the Rock Band franchise, received the Pioneer Award for their work; and Tommy Tallarico, co-founder of the Video Games Live concert series and founder of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), received the Ambassador Award for helping to advance the game audio community.
The recipients of the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:
Game of the Year Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
Best Game Design: LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Writing: Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
Best Technology: LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Visual Arts: Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
Best Debut Game: LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Handheld Game: God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)
"Over the past nine years, the Game Developers Conference has become the premiere video game award show because it gives voice to those who understand games better than anyone; the people who make them," said Meggan Scavio, content director of the Game Developers Conference.
"The games being recognized here are virtuoso efforts that have truly advanced the state of video games. Our congratulations to all the talented and hardworking teams that put so much of themselves into their art."
That's great! I think Fallout 3 deserved that. Little Big Planet got just a bit over-hyped though. I think it really shouldn't have swept that many awards. I am really surprised Braid walked away with nothing, as well. Best visual arts went to Prince of Persia? In one respect it's nice to see a non-photoreal title get art recognition, but on the other hand I think it really didn't hold up given a couple of the other nominees in that category. Oh well, you know what they say about opinions...
It was a tough choice between LBP and Fallout 3 for GOTY - both were deserving. While Fallout 3 delivered everything I would expect from a 2008 GOTY, LBP shocked me by delivering something completely new and original, while still retaining gameplay elements as old as Donkey Kong. Great results!
Quite disappointed by the total lack of MGS4 in that list... doesn't feel right at all. But then again, I guess I wasn't the only one feeling that if Kojima was honored to make up for it... ;)
