Spike Announces 2012 Video Game Award Nominees

[Andy Chalk]

Spike Announces 2012 Video Game Award Nominees

Samuel L. Jackson is returning to host the tenth anniversary of the Spike VGAs.

It's easy to make fun of the sound and fury of the Spike Video Game Awards, packed as they are with product placements, "exclusive world premieres of highly anticipated titles" and Linkin Park. At the same time, it's the only show in town, as they say, and even this sort of tawdry mainstream attention is better than no attention at all. Right?

Leaving aside discussions about the relative merits of the VGAs, I present you with a list of some of the more prominent nominees. Most of them will be familiar and unsurprising, but there are a few unexpected twists here and there, such as the inclusion of Journey and The Walking Dead alongside Assassin's Creed 3, Dishonored and Mass Effect 3 for Game of the Year. On the other side of the coin, there's plenty of the usual silliness to be found too, like the separate categories for Best Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Game that include three of the same games plus one platform-specific title for each.

But enough of my complaining! Here's a look at some of the big categories on the board:

Game of the Year

Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal)
Dishonored (Bethesda Softworks/Arkane Studios)
Journey (Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany)
Mass Effect 3 (Electronic Arts/BioWare)
The Walking Dead: The Game (Telltale Games)


Best Action Adventure Game

Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal)
Darksiders II (THQ/Vigil Games)
Dishonored (Bethesda Softworks/Arkane Studios)
Sleeping Dogs (Square Enix/United Front Games)


Best Shooter

Borderlands 2 (2K Games/Gearbox Software)
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Activision/Treyarch)
Halo 4 (Microsoft Studios/343 Industries)
Max Payne 3 (Rockstar Games)


Studio of the Year

343 Industries
Arkane Studios
Gearbox Software
Telltale Games


Most Anticipated Game (viewer voted)

BioShock Infinite (2K Games/Irrational Games)
Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games)
South Park: The Stick of Truth (THQ/Obsidian Entertainment)
The Last of Us (Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog)
Tomb Raider (Square Enix/Crystal Dynamics)


The 2012 Spike VGAs will be hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, who previously held the reins from 2005 through 2007, and will feature performances by Tenacious D and Medal of Honor house band Linkin Park. The whole thing goes down at 9 pm EST on December 7, on Spike, MTV 2 and MTV Tr3s, and will also stream live on Xbox Live, Spike.com and GameTrailers.com. A full list of categories and other relevant information can be found at Spike.com [http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards/].


Permalink

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Sigh...only the hugest AAA super-blockbusters are on display, and the usual short memory span is in full effect. You've got a point though Andy, it's the only game in town for proper TV recognition of the hobby, and I can't imagine why we should expect anything other than an equivalent to the Oscar's.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Best Shooter

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Activision/Treyarch)

That was released 2. FUCKING. DAYS. AGO. How can it already be nominated for best shooter?!

Sigh... what else did I suspect from a channel with mostly frat-boy and manly man programming?

OT: Why no Persona 4: Golden? Not even for most anticipated game?

 

[Nurb]

>Implying Spike VGAs aren't any more than commercials and that they actually matter

 

[FEichinger]

There's a consensus that we all just pretend this never happened, right?

 

[rofltehcat]

Haha. Same as always. Just laugh about them. The Spike awards aren't meant for us, they are meant for the people watching Spike TV. Those two audiences don't overlap much.

The sad thing is just that it seems to be pretty much the only award show to get that kind of media coverage. We could really need a show with a media coverage like this, just a little more serious and focused on artistic/design aspects of video games.

 

[Saulkar]

You can count this informed viewer as not one of your audience.

 

[Trololo Punk]

There's a consensus that we all just pretend this never happened, right?

What happened? I have no idea what your talking about...

 

[Nurb]

Haha. Same as always. Just laugh about them. The Spike awards aren't meant for us, they are meant for the people watching Spike TV. Those two audiences don't overlap much.

The sad thing is just that it seems to be pretty much the only award show to get that kind of media coverage. We could really need a show with a media coverage like this, just a little more serious and focused on artistic/design aspects of video games.

We had TechTV, a whole TV channel dedicated to computers and technology, but then G4 sat on its head and took a shitty-shit-shit.

Anything that is positive, intelligent or useful doesn't make money, but making the Honey Boo Boo of video gaming does.

 

[Absolutionis]

Dishonored, EA's Mass Effect 3, and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 3 seem to be everywhere.

 

[Nihlus2]

Knowing Spike, ME3 is gonna win this one by a landslide with huge applauds.

And that's... kinda sad, both because it does not deserve it, but also because the guys that made Tuchanka and Rannoch deserves some recognition for the effort put into that.

I still cannot grasp how you can make a game that bipolar and breaking from its own formular.

Oh well, here's to hoping for The Walking Dead or Dishonored, need some innovation recognition to try and break this industrial dillusional bubble of carbon copying one another.

 

[saintdane05]

Seeing as the VGA's gave us this last time, you think there might be any other cool stuff?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Considering the terrible critical reception of Assassin's Creed 3, I have no idea how that was nominated.

 

[Waaghpowa]

*Without look at list, assumes call of duty is on it*

Wouldn't you fucking know it, apparently that psychic was right about me being psychic.

Game came out not two days ago, boy do they work fast. This is exactly why, even if I had the ability to watch the awards show, I wouldn't. It's so obviously targeted towards a a totally different crowd.

 

[mattttherman3]

I do find it a farce that black ops 2 came out 2 days ago and halo 4 a week, and they both have nominations. It's like they KNEW they would be hits. But, nice to see The Walking Dead up there. For me this year it's: ME3-TWD as my one two, I guess H4 would be third but it's a distant third.

 

[XandNobody]

Wait, wait, let me get this strait.

The Spike "VGA" doesn't have an FPS (ME3 is an RPG/TPS) in for best game, and actually gave Journey a nod? Really? I mean it wont win, but it's still there. I'm surprised they have even heard of Journey.

I'm almost impressed. At least I was till I saw the few days old Black Ops II in the shooter list, but still.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Considering the terrible critical reception of Assassin's Creed 3, I have no idea how that was nominated.

"Generally average or slightly above average" is "terrible"?

 

[gigastar]

I saw thier 'Best Character' nominations just a few minuites ago, they were Master Chief, some guy from Black Ops, Connor from AC3, Shepard and Claptrap.

I have to wonder what makes Claptrap a best character nomination over the likes of Handsome Jack, but i dont buy into Spike anyway.

On a related note, Gearbox is going loud [https://twitter.com/ECHOcasts?tw_i=269118685564768256&tw_e=screenname&tw_p=tweetembed] on Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage.

Sigh...only the hugest AAA super-blockbusters are on display, and the usual short memory span is in full effect.

That short term memory span also applies to you, as you seem to have missed that Journey is on the GotY list by some miracle.