Topic: Nintendo DS Games Nominated for GDC Choice Awards

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Nintendo earns five nominations for its innovative Nintendo DS titles, and Resident Evil 4 finally gets some love.

INNOVATORS DAVID JAFFE, TIM SCHAFER AND FUMITO UEDA DOMINATE LIST   OF NOMINEES FOR 6TH ANNUAL GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE AWARDS    

"God of War" Leads With Six Nominations, "Shadow of the Colossus" Garners Five;  "Guitar Hero," "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Psychonauts" Tie With Three Nods   Each    

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Feb. 27, 2006 - Sony Computer Entertainment's "God of   War" and "Shadow of the Colossus" lead the list of nominated games for the 6th   annual Game Developers Choice Awards, receiving six and five nominations, respectively.   "Guitar Hero," "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Psychonauts" follow close behind   with three nods.    

The ceremony, produced and hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and   presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), is the only   peer-based, open nomination awards program in the industry where honors are bestowed   to developers by developers.  Recipients will be announced during the GDC, slated   for March 20-24, 2006 in San Jose, Calif.    

"Recognizing and showcasing individual achievement in the creation of games is   a core principle of the GDC," Jamil Moledina, director, Game Developers Conference,   said.  "For that reason, we are proud to produce and host the Choice Awards."    

The ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 22 at 6:30p.m. at the San Jose   Civic Auditorium.    

"Every year, thousands of nominations are submitted by developers from around   the world," Jason Della Rocca, executive director, IGDA, said.  "Voting on the   final recipients will be extremely competitive, and who can spot excellence and   creative achievement better than the creators themselves?"    

Nominations were free of charge and open to all IGDA members, ensuring that the   nominees reflect the international development community's opinions.  The IGDA   membership will vote on the finalists.    

The 6th annual Game Developer Choice Awards are supported by Platinum Sponsor   Motorola and Gold Sponsor AGEIA.  In addition to the voted award categories,   honors will be presented for the Lifetime Achievement, First Penguin, Community   Contribution, Maverick and Innovation awards.      

For more information about the Game Developers Choice Awards, check out www.gamechoiceawards.com.    

The complete list of nominees is:    

Best Game    

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
 - Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka    

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
 - David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill    

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
 - Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos    

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
 - Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda    

The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision)
 - Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley    

Audio    

Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
 - Mark Ganus    

Electroplankton (Nintendo)
 - Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki    

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
 - Dave Murrant    

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
 - Eric Brosius, Kasson Crooker    

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
 - Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell    

Character Design    

City of Villains (Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Corporation)
 - Ocala Bellows Kulig, Ryan Butts, Jay Doherty, Jeremy Mattson    

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
 - David Jaffe, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen    

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (Oddworld Inhabitants / Electronic Arts)
 - Lorne Lanning, Rich McKain, Iain Morton, Raymond Swanland    

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
 - Scott Campbell    

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
 - Atsuko Fukuyama, Hitoshi Niwa, Shunpei Suzuki, Fumito Ueda    

Game Design    

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
 - Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka    

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)  - David Jaffe    

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
 - Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki    

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
 - Erik Robson, Tim Schafer    

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
 - Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda    

Technology    

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Digital Illusions / Electronic Arts)
 - Fred Gill, MÃ¥ns Vestin    

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
 - Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew, Phil Winston    

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
 - Tsutomu Kaneshige    

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
 - Edmund Clay, Roger Perkins, Phil Teschner, Ian Wilson    

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
 - Jinji Horagai, Takuya Seki, Hajime Sugiyama, Masanobu Tanaka    

Visual Arts    

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
 - Steve Caterson, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen    

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
 - Gren Atherton, Julie McGurren, Peter Roe, Kiki Wolfkill    

Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4 / Capcom Entertainment)
 - Yusuke Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Yusuke Kan, Masaki Yamanaka    

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
 - Koji Hasegawa, Hironobu Nakano, Masanori Kajita, Fumito Ueda    

We Love Katamari (Namco Limited / Namco Hometek)
 - Keita Takahashi, Takeshi Ugajin    

Writing    

Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich (Irrational Games / Vivendi Universal Games)
 - Ken Levine    

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
 - David Jaffe, Marianne Krawcyzk, Alex Stein    

Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream / Atari)
 - David Cage    

Jade Empire (BioWare Corp. / Microsoft Game Studios)
 - Drew Karpyshyn, Brian Kindregan, Luke Kristjanson, Mike Laidlaw, Peter Thomas,   Mac Walters    

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)
 - Tim Schafer, Erik Wolpaw    

New Studio    

ArenaNet (Guild Wars)
 - Mike O'Brien, Jeff Strain, Patrick Wyatt    

Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts)
 - Caroline Esmurdoc, Tim Schafer    

New Crayon Games (Bonnie's Bookstore)
 - Phil Steinmeyer    

TellTale Games (Bone: Out From Boneville)
 - David Bogan, Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, Troy Molander    

Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse)
 - Alexander Seropian

[Artimus]

What is UP with the industry? They're acting like morons with these awards.

RE4 gets ONE nomination? It loses out to THE MOVIES?

And God of War? WTH?

Even the Oscars aren't this flat out stupid.

[WuTangTurtle]

WOW, what on earth is going on?  I've played both RE4 and God of War, i think both are great but there is no way The Movies gets in and RE4 doesnt!

[King of Twitch]

Is this one of those awards gigs where you have to pay to enter?

[Ian Sane]

What's the big deal with God of War?  I remember hearing all sorts of praise about it when it came out but I couldn't seem to get a straight answer out of anyone about WHY it was so praised.  From what I read it seemed like a typical 3D action game in the mold of titles like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.  The most exceptional things I heard about it was that it had bare boobs.  So is there anything really notable or unique about it or is just one of those games that does what's been done before, only really well?  I don't have a PS2 so I'm in the dark here.  

[TheYoungerPlumber]

People going to GDC voted for the nominees.  Clearly some people got their buddies to vote.

[Infernal Monkey]

God of War's a very generic, yet fairly enjoyable game. Boss battles are an absolute joke, though. In order to make them look stylish, you have to play DDR with the dpad.

Quote
Best Game

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda

The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision)
- Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley

None of those deserve to win. =|  

[PaLaDiN]

God of War is just a good game. Not so different from RE4 actually... it takes what's been done before and does it well.

That said, I preferred RE4.

[WuTangTurtle]

to me it felt more like a beat em up/hack n slash, of course with a bit more depth like learning new attacks and all but at the end of the day its still just like a beat em up/hack n slash to me.

[KDR_11k]

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos

None of those deserve to win. =|

Beware of .

[miedo]

Seriously, Resident Evil 4 not being nominated for best game makes me lose all credibility in these awards.  AIAS had an excuse of Capcom not paying to enter, but this is an honest joke.  This isn't even coming from the Nintendo fanboy in me, I'd argue for both versions getting a bit more recognition then Visual Arts.

[TrueNerd]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
What's the big deal with God of War?  I remember hearing all sorts of praise about it when it came out but I couldn't seem to get a straight answer out of anyone about WHY it was so praised.  From what I read it seemed like a typical 3D action game in the mold of titles like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden.  The most exceptional things I heard about it was that it had bare boobs.  So is there anything really notable or unique about it or is just one of those games that does what's been done before, only really well?  I don't have a PS2 so I'm in the dark here.

As Leisure Suit Larry proved, boobs are all you need to make a good game.

But yeah, there's nothing really new about the game. It's a combination of Devil May Cry and Prince of Persia, but presented with a Greek mythology spin so it looks like it's new. It's extremely polished and Kratos is an awesome character. And it's pretty. A bit overrated to be sure, but the game is still a good time.