Portal 2: Indie Game Joins Other Prestigious Nominated Titles

Developers awards nominations. Here we go again. It seems that the lead nominees for the 2012 Game Developers Choice Awards are those who really deserve the nominations, anyway. The awards itself will be held in March in a Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The event is considered to be one of the most prestigious in the world of gaming. They are to be held on the same night and venue as the Independent Games Festival (IGF) awards. What a night for gaming it will be then.

Bethesda’s Skyrim and Valve’s Portal 2 have already been given awards by other industry award-giving bodies. The latter has been named game of the year by Kotaku. Now both games have received several nominations in the 2012 Game Developers Choice Awards. Of course, there must be a surprise but still charming addition to the nominees. The XBLA downloadable Bastion has also received some nominations. It sure would be nice to cover even the less popular but ultimately well-made games in the nominations and then the awards. We are not just talking popularity here – we are talking real skill in game development. For Best Game Design, the nominees are The Elder Scrolls 5 – Skyrim, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda – Skyward Sword, Valve’s Portal, Rocksteady Studios’ Batman – Arkham City and FromSoftware’s Dark Souls. Almost all these games make it to the list of nominees for game of the year except Skyward Sword. Deus Ex – Human Revolution takes the fifth spot instead as Game of the Year nominee.

Here are the rest of the awards and nominations:

Innovation

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (Toys For Bob)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
L.A. Noire (Team Bondi)

Best Technology

Battlefield 3 (DICE)
L.A. Noire (Team Bondi)
Crysis 2 (Crytek Frankfurt/UK)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Naughty Dog)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game

Tiny Tower (NimbleBit)
Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo)
Jetpack Joyride (Halfbrick)
Infinity Blade II (Chair Entertainment)
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Capy Games/Superbrothers)

Best Audio

Bastion (Supergiant Games)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Media Molecule)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
Dead Space 2 (Visceral Games)
Portal 2 (Valve)

Best Downloadable Game

Stacking (Double Fine)
From Dust (Ubisoft Montpellier)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Outland (Housemarque)
Frozen Synapse (Mode 7)

Screenshot from Portal 2 (Credit: Valve)

Best Narrative

Portal 2 (Valve)
The Witcher 2 (CD Projekt RED)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Naughty Dog)
Saints Row: The Third (Volition)

Best Debut

Supergiant Games (Bastion)
Team Bondi (L.A. Noire)
Re-Logic (Terraria)
BioWare Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)

Best Visual Arts

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Naughty Dog)
Rayman Origins (Ubisoft Montpellier)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Ignition Japan)
Battlefield 3 (DICE)

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