2011 IAAs: BioWare, Red Dead Redemption big winners
The fourteenth annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony wrapped up moments ago, with Mass Effect 2 taking home game of the year and two other wins, and Red Dead Redemption pocketing four five.
Game of the year went to Mass Effect 2, beating out Red Dead Redemption, God of War 3, Angry Birds HD, and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
"Holy crap!" exclaimed BioWare's Ray Myuzka, looking genuinely shocked. "I mean, uh..."
"Red Dead is Ray's favourite game," Greg Zeschuk explained, referring to high expectations that Rockstar's title would take home another award.
The award was presented by Naughty Dog's Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra.
Ceremony
Insomniac president Ted Price and G4's Morgan Webb presented the award for outstanding achievement in visual art, which went to God of War III.
Red Dead Redemption took home a number of awards in the art sub-categories including art direction, gameplay engineering, and character performance (John Marston). Heavy Rain took out visual engineering.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford was up next, for the family game of the year, which went to Dance Central.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit took out racing game of the year, as presented by Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, Don Mattrick.
Don Daglow was up next, to present veteran Bill Budge with a pioneer award. Budge's Raster Blaster was one of the first pinball games capable of emulating the speed of real tables, and his Pinball Construction Set directly foreshadowed titles like LittleBigPlanet and ModNation racers, as well as the modding scene.
Ratchet and Clank creator Brian Algier presented the outstanding achievement in story award, taken by Mass Effect 2. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk accepted the award for BioWare.
Morgan Webb returned with Blair Herter to give the RPG and MMORPG game of the year award to Mass Effect 2, with Muzyka and Zeschuk trooping straight back on stage.
Kazunori Yamauchi turned up to hand over outstanding innovation in gameplay, scored by Heavy Rain, its second win of the night.
"We honestly feel like we have to earn this award, like we have to do more in the future" - BioWare's Ray Muyzka.
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame by Blizzard's Mike Morhaime and Epic Games' Mike Capps. EA CEO John Riccitiello welcomed the pair.
"We honestly feel like we have to earn this award, like we have to do more in the future," Muzyka commented in his acceptance speech.
"We're gonna try our best to earn this," Zeschuk echoed him.
PopCap's Matthew Lee Johnston then presented the outstanding achievement in original music for Heavy Rain.
In audio sub-categories, soundtrack was taken by Rock Band 3; and sound design by LIMBO, the first indie win.
But not the last - LIMBO won again moments later, as Mark Lamia and Dave Anthony of Treyarch arrived on stage to present the adventure game of the year.
The pair explained the difference between action, their forte, and adventure, is that the latter may involve puzzles and justifications for the destruction of endless hordes of enemies.
Nexon president Min Kim and "world-renowned undersea explorer" Dr. David Gallo presented outstanding achievement in online gameplay (the latter's presence explained by the boredom of months in a submarine) to Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.
Action game of the year went to Red Dead Redemption, to nobody's surprise at this point, and was awarded by Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond and Xplay host Adam Sessler.
Zynga's chief game designer Brian Reynolds and G4's Kristin Adams gave sports game of the year to FIFA 11.
Super Street Fight IV took out fighting game of the year, while the simulation and strategy category was an obvious second win for Starcraft II.
God of War: Ghost of Sparta won portable game of the year, inexplicably awarded by Madden staffer Rich Kleiman.
"These guys are shaping our future and how we will do business" - Lord British on social networking games.
Richard "Lord British" Garriott gave up the casual game of the year to Angry Birds HD, and then social networking game of the year to CityVille.
"These guys are shaping our future and how we will do business," Garriott said of the latter category.
Don Mattrick came back to hand out the lifetime achievement award to Bing Gordon, once of EA, later of Zynga and Amazon, and credited as chief creative officer on over one hundred games.
Robin Williams and Will Wright were among those who contributed to a montage praising Gordon's contributions to the industry.
The second to last award of the evening, outstanding achievement in game direction, was awarded by Blizzard's Rob Pardo to Christian Cantamessa, for Red Dead Redemption.
Gearbox's surprise
The awards kicked off with a special appearance from the Duke, teased earlier today in a Gearbox tweet.
The Duke considered the virtues of nominees Red Dead Redemption, God of War III, and Halo: Reach, while swearing repeatedly and generally being awesome.
Winners
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: God of War III
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: Red Dead Redemption
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Heavy Rain
Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering: Red Dead Redemption
Outstanding Character Performance: Red Dead Redemption
Family Game of the Year: Dance Central
Racing Game of the Year: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Outstanding Achievement in Story: Mass Effect 2
Role Playing / MMO Game of the Year: Mass Effect 2
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Heavy Rain
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music: Heavy Rain
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band 3
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Limbo
Adventure Game of the Year: Limbo
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Action Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption
Sports Game of the Year: FIFA 2011
Fighting Game of the Year: Super Street Fighter IV
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Portable Game of the Year: God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Casual Game of the Year: Angry Birds HD
Social Game of the Year: CityVille
Lifetime Achievement Award: Bing Gordon:
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction: Red Dead Redemption
Game of the Year: Mass Effect 2
Pioneer Award: Bill Budge
Partial nominee list
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Electronic Arts/Digital Illusions CE
LIMBO - Playdead/Playdead
Medal of Honor - Electronic Arts/Danger Close/Digital Illusions CE
Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego
Social Networking Game of the Year
CityVille - Zynga/Zynga
Family Feud - iWin/Backstage Technologies/iWin/Backstage Technologies
FrontierVille - Zynga/Zynga
Nightclub City - Booyah/Booyah
Ravenwood Fair - Lolapps/Lolapps
Adventure Game of the Year
Alan Wake - Microsoft Game Studios/Remedy Entertainment
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal
ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West - Namco Bandai/Ninja Theory
Heavy Rain - Sony Computer Entertainment America/Quantic Dream
LIMBO - Playdead/Playdead
Sports Game of the Year
FIFA Soccer 11 - Electronic Arts/EA Canada
MLB 10: The Show - Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE San Diego
NBA 2K11 - 2K Sports/Visual Concepts
NHL 11 - Electronic Arts/EA Canada
Racing Game of the Year
Gran Turismo 5 - Sony Computer Entertainment America/Polyphony Digital
ModNation Racers - Sony Computer Entertainment America/United Front Games/SCE San Diego
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - Electronic Arts/Criterion
Split/Second - Disney Interactive Studios/Black Rock Studio
Fighting Game of the Year
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift - Aksys Games/Arc System Works
EA Sports MMA - Electronic Arts/EA Tiburon
Super Street Fighter IV - Capcom/Capcom/Dimps
UFC 2010 Undisputed - THQ/Yuke's Co.
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Electronic Arts/Digital Illusions CE
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision/Treyarch
Halo: Reach - Microsoft Game Studios/Bungie
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
Action Game of the Year
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Electronic Arts/Digital Illusions CE
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision/Treyarch
God of War III - Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Halo: Reach - Microsoft Game Studios/Bungie
Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego
Portable Game of the Year
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies - Nintendo/Square Enix
God of War: Ghost of Sparta - Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Santa Monica Studio/Ready at Dawn
Infinity Blade - Epic Games/Chair Entertainment
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - Nintendo/Level-5
Valkyria Chronicles II - Sega/Sega
Casual Game of the Year
Angry Birds HD - Chillingo/Rovio
Bejeweled 3 - PopCap Games/PopCap Games
Kinect Sports - Microsoft Game Studios/Rare
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX - Namco Bandai/Namco Bandai
Plants vs. Zombies - PopCap Games/PopCap Games
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal
ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West - Namco Bandai/Ninja Theory
LIMBO - Playdead/Playdead
Mass Effect 2 - Electronic Arts/Bioware
Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego
Game of the Year
Angry Birds HD - Chillingo/Rovio
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision/Treyarch
God of War III - Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Mass Effect 2 - Electronic Arts/Bioware
Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego