2011 Spike VGA winners recap

We run down the winners of the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards.

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Between the trailer premiers, backstage carnival games, and, yes, tea-bagging it was easy to miss the actual Video Game Award winners during the telecast.

With the help of a couple pauses on the recorder, I put together this quick recap of all the winners, many of which only received a brief mention. Of course the show culminated in the Game of the Year award, which the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took home. For all the rest, check out the list after the jump.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 10, 2011 7:20 PM

    Garnett Lee posted a new article, 2011 Spike VGA winners recap.

    We run down the winners of the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards.

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      December 10, 2011 7:51 PM

      WTF. Skyrim was kinda fun but is so buggy and nothing about it felt new or original; maybe because I played plenty of Oblivion, I just don't feel that Skyrim was that great. I liked Deus Ex HR much more; still need to get to Batman.

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        December 10, 2011 8:08 PM

        http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=27173191#item_27173191

        A lot of Shackers seem to disagree.

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        December 10, 2011 8:47 PM

        Haha someone takes the VGA's seriously.

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        December 10, 2011 9:39 PM

        That it can still win Best Game despite its inherently buggy nature means the elements that make it great supersede its flaws. That's the sign of a truly remarkable gaming experience. Skyrim deserves every award it gets.

        And besides, I'm calling bullshit on your comment. Skyrim doesn't feel "new", yet Deus Ex and Batman do? So you're just picking and choosing what elements of a game to compare? Your opinion doesn't make sense.

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          December 10, 2011 9:42 PM

          Actually awarding a buggy release like Skyrim is pretty much bullshit. I'm sure they will have plenty of incentive to do better the next release.

          Oh no wait, why bother when they can still sell millions and get GOTY awards.

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            December 10, 2011 11:00 PM

            Actually, rewarding polish over all else is what is basically killing our industry.

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              December 10, 2011 11:02 PM

              Other than Valve, who makes games that have polish everywhere?

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                December 10, 2011 11:04 PM

                CD Projekt RED

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                  December 11, 2011 11:11 AM

                  Didn't they have to patch in basic stuff like a tutorial level and bosses that weren't broken / terrible? (p.s. They did).

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                    December 12, 2011 8:23 AM

                    Maybe, but CD Projekt is in Poland, so everything they make have polish everywhere.

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                December 10, 2011 11:07 PM

                uhh like most/all console games.

                Blizzard

                tons and tons of indie devs.

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                  December 10, 2011 11:38 PM

                  Don't most console games have day-0 patches, now? I guess I could maybe see Blizzard, but not if you include WoW which is almost always buggy on every new patch drop.

                  Indie devs are incredibly hit and miss, and depend on how you define polish. The mechanic they're focusing on will certainly be polished. That's not the same thing as Valve, though. Valve polishes everything.

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                    December 10, 2011 11:42 PM

                    It is not very common for consoles still but it is unfortunately on the rise. It is very much still a few repeat offenders though and hasn't become a total plague like it is on the PC.

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                    December 10, 2011 11:49 PM

                    no 0-day patches are not that common. also I believe some of them occur due to cert-process shenanigans.

                    also it's funny you keep bringing up valve because I actually don't find valve games to be THAT much more polished than a lot of games. They certainly iterate a whole lot, and think about mechanics a whole ton more than other games in a way that reflects positively on their own games, but despite that (perhaps even because of that?) some some bugs/imperfections still slip through.

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                      December 11, 2011 12:35 AM

                      Did... Did you play portal 2?

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                        December 11, 2011 12:35 AM

                        Do you play games?

                        Valve time is a thing. It's an actual thing.

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                          December 11, 2011 12:03 PM

                          yes I did. Source engine has been a pretty buggy engine, though admittedly portal 2 was probably one of their most polished releases. People also complained that it was rather dated engine-wise and this game had probably the fewest new/experimental features of any Valve game (excepting MAYBE HL:ep 2, I think). So, it is a good example of how there are trade offs.

                          Valve time isn't just for stability/bugs they also do it for gameplay balance and they scrutinize design aspects of their games on a level that I'd guess most developers don't bother with. It's also kind of hurt their reputation a bit, people often complain about how valve seems continually unable to release a game on time, and that has a real effect on people's expectations and interest (even though the game that comes out is almost always good).

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                    December 10, 2011 11:50 PM

                    also guess what wow is: a fucking huge mmo with tons of shit in it. sounds like another game we're talking about here!

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                      December 11, 2011 12:49 AM

                      True, but the bugs I'm referring to are the "hey, this update is all about this new raid... aaaaaaand it's totally fucking broken."

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                        December 11, 2011 11:46 AM

                        You're full of it. I can't remember the last time that happened. That's the exception, not the norm. They have the patch test servers up for months for a reason.

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                          December 11, 2011 1:00 PM

                          Clearly you never played through all of WoW classic, TBC, and somewhat in Wrath.

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              December 10, 2011 11:08 PM

              I like how you drew that conclusion even though nobody said so.

              I really can't believe I'm sitting here reading about someone defending a buggy release though. Sorry it's not ok no matter how good your game is.

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                December 10, 2011 11:19 PM

                there are definitely different levels of bugginess and some kinds are more acceptable than others.

                Obviously if ALL or even most big-budget developers were like that, we'd have a problem, but they aren't, so it's not.

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                  December 10, 2011 11:20 PM

                  I'm gonna repost this every time you allude to it being just a few bugs: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Bugs_(Skyrim)

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                    December 10, 2011 11:33 PM

                    it's just a few bugs.

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                      December 10, 2011 11:35 PM

                      Now in convenient image format: http://chattypics.com/files/BugsSkyrimTheElderScrollsWiki_a8x53308jd.png

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                        December 10, 2011 11:45 PM

                        i wasn't saying the game wasn't buggy or that it was just a few bugs (it's just a few bugs) just that most of them are innocuous. which is true. i'd guess there's certainly a large variety of even game-breaking bugs due to the complexity of the game, but they don't seem to be very common. also: most of them will probably get fixed in due time.

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                          December 11, 2011 12:33 AM

                          Did you actually read the list of bugs (here's a link! http://chattypics.com/files/BugsSkyrimTheElderScrollsWiki_a8x53308jd.png )

                          The first 50 are game-breaking-you're-totally-fucked-if-you-hit-them-time-to-restart bugs.

                          Including some that will prevent you from ever making forward progress even if you start a new character.

                          That's before we get into the 100+ moderate bugs that are listed, or the minor bugs.

                          Or all of the ones that no one has bothered to write up.

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                            December 11, 2011 12:34 AM

                            Whoops I missed the divider for moderate-to-minor bugs (so there are ~the same number of moderate as there are "major" bugs).

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                              December 11, 2011 11:31 AM

                              no offense but you're being kinda obtuse. the bugs that break quest lines are really not that common. that is not a list of "IF YOU DO THIS THING THIS WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY HAPPEN" because that just isn't true. Many/most people will probably go through those quest lines without a hitch -- and don't get me wrong, it sucks and should be fixed for the people it does happen to, but it's not really game breaking even then.

                              plus, not all those bugs are verified, and it's impossible to tell how common they are. it could be as little as one or two people that are having the problem, out of the tons and tons of people that read the wiki, which itself is a fraction of the people that play the game.

                              my argument has never been that the game doesn't have bugs. that is in fact the opposite of what I'm arguing.

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                                December 11, 2011 11:49 AM

                                I agree. Pretty sure most of that list is bullshit. The game is very clean. I think I encountered two bugs in my 70 hour playthrough.

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            December 10, 2011 11:36 PM

            Where the hell do you guys come from?

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            December 11, 2011 8:16 AM

            Flaws in a game are the nature of its creation. Look at Star Wars for example. According to George Lucas it was unfinished and flawed in many ways, which is why he/they have ruined (altered) all of the new ones. Lucky for games however, the more they are altered and fixed and better they become, more often than not.

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        December 10, 2011 9:41 PM

        fuck this "it can't be goty it's too buggy!" sentiment

        if more buggy games are like skyrim then maybe developers should be releasing more buggy games. There I said it.

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          December 10, 2011 11:04 PM

          So more games with poorly thought out (and easily exploitable) game mechanics, boring and derivative combat, the worst voice acting of any game on recent record...

          Really? Really?

          I mean it's kinda fun, sorta. I guess. I'm having a good time punching dragons to death.

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            December 10, 2011 11:17 PM

            it's also probably the most massive game world out there with a quest structure that is pretty much approachable in any way you can think of. That was their goal at all costs, and I think a little bit of bugginess or imbalance is okay as long as there is a generally playable game that does not have serious game-breaking bugs. most of the bugs in Skyrim are of a pretty innocuous nature.

            some of my favorite games have had buggy as fuck first releases.

            I'm sorry if you're mad because your horse can clime up sheer slopes and there are mechanics you can exploit that make the game real easy and there are a bunch of awkward/phoned-in sounding lines. I'm sorry the game is not fun after 60+ hours and you've become a demigod that can slay giants by tapping them (hint: start a new character and try something else when you get to that point). The game is fucking huge and that's always been the thing that's made TES games unique. If you don't like the (necessary) sacrifices and corners they had to cut to achieve that, that's fine, but a lot of other people seem to be okay with it, and it's hardly an awful thing that games like this get praised once in a while.

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              December 10, 2011 11:20 PM

              I think anyone could look past a little bugginess. That's not really what we're talking about, right?

              http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Bugs_(Skyrim)

              By the way, I'm about 4 hours into the game, level 6, and punch dragons to death in ~5-6 hits.

              Obviously, different strokes for different folks.

              • gmd legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
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                December 11, 2011 4:46 AM

                you are in the minority because the game is amazing, it isn't for you obviously, it just means you are a horrible person and have bad taste.

              • gmd legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
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                December 11, 2011 4:48 AM

                and of course an open world game with near infinite variations on quests is going to have more bugs than 99% of games out there that are linear.

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                December 11, 2011 11:54 AM

                I've never seen you hate on a game like this, you're usually so positive. It's weirding me out.

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                  December 11, 2011 8:05 PM

                  I actually am having a reasonably fun time with it--I just don't get the huge boner that some folks have for it and I don't get why it's totally cool to continue to apologize for the hundreds of reported bugs that they have.

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          December 11, 2011 7:30 AM

          Developers and publishers need to be held to a higher standard. Remember, not everyone who has a console or gaming PC has internet, so any patches that are released they won't get and are essentially stuck with a broken game.

          David Jaffe spoke of this at GDC this year, saying he wants developers to limit themselves to 3 or 4 patches in total for any release. What this generation has grown into are games that aren't fully functional until a few weeks after their release, and even the patches sometimes only introduce new problems.

          It's a possible slippery slope the industry could find itself in. Publishers would rush projects because they can always fall onto the "we can patch it later" argument. What we could end up seeing are more games coming out in shorter periods of time, but the quality in the games are much worse from the start, so it's only right that developers and members of the media not support this because publishers will see the success Skyrim had and try to replicate it, bugs included.

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            December 11, 2011 11:50 AM

            it really is not a slippery slope. There are enough developers/publishers that still like to polish their games because polished games look and play good, and are attractive to players. And there is truth to that. Look at the COD games, those games are hella polished -- easily the most polished games in the industry right now. They're also put out every year, and tend to include rather incremental changes rather than big and dramatic ones. There's also the "make it massive, huge, complex and get it out sometime this century and just squash the major/game-breaking bugs and crash bugs" approach which is equally valid.

            My point is we've been too much in this "polish at all costs" approach for a while now (I think MS cert has had something to do with this trend), has actually worked to the detriment of many games, where features or ideas have been cut out because developers didn't know how to make them totally stable or work 100% of the time. We should be allowing and encouraging experimentation, not demanding that developers get it totally right the first time every time (which, I mean, doesn't happen anyway even with polish). There should be a diverse ecosystem of games and one of those variances should be tolerance for bugs.

            also I've said polished so many times the word feels like it's starting to lose all meaning.

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              December 11, 2011 3:56 PM

              I think there is a way to be creative AND have a high quality game all at the same time, without any bugs to it. Look at the other nominees in the category. All of them were able to use the current tech out there and deliver great games without having many bugs in them.

              But there are limits to what the tech and the engines provide when it comes to creating these games, and perhaps the engine running Skyrim needs to be reworked or scrapped for something more powerful.

              It's almost like working in film. Depending on what equipment you have, the set you're on, and the cast... you can only do the best with what you have and you work within that frame. Perhaps Bethesda was overachieving, trying to create a world too grandiose for either the tech or the engine. It's nice in thought what they are doing, but the game is held back by practicality.

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                December 11, 2011 5:30 PM

                No, there really isn't, actually. You cannot have big bold leaps in game development in a timely fashion without putting at least some stuff out there before it's done. As long as you guys are still stuck on film comparisons, the same is true of film as well. Tons of really great and ground-breaking films have glaring and sometimes even crippling flaws... bad editing, poor sound, bad pacing, composition lighting etc. etc.

                It's also worth noting that sometimes bugs result in happy accidents. Sometimes when you create a system, it has strange and wonderful unintended consequences that. Games need to have flaws. I'm not even arguing that they are made great because of them (that would be extreme), but there has to be some allowance for glaring imperfections. The focus on polish, I think, at its worst comes from people being unable to come to terms with ways to criticize or evaluate games in any other way.

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                  December 11, 2011 5:31 PM

                  woah unfinished sentence there, the second sentence in the second paragraph should read: "Sometimes when you create a system, it has strange and wonderful unintended consequences that result in entirely new ideas or ways of approaching games"

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                    December 12, 2011 8:15 AM

                    But the ultimate thing you have to consider is that the consumer is spending $60 on said product. With that kind of investment, there is expectations on the user end that what they are purchasing is a finished product. Any product you buy that is damaged in some way or isn't fully functional either gets returned and replaced or the customer is given a discount for their troubles.

                    It's an understood business model that has gone on through a long, long time... Customer agrees to spend X money on product, where the developer agrees to sell the intended product. With video games, developers patch games as opposed to allowing someone to return the game. The burden then becomes whether or not they can actually patch the game to get it working properly and in a timely fashion, and that is something that isn't totally reliable.

                    Bottom line, developers owe it to the consumers to get it right the first time. If they want to intentionally ship out a game that is filled with bugs, make it a beta and ask the gamers for feedback to see whether or not those bugs make the game better... not force them to spend money on a potentially broken game.

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                      December 12, 2011 8:17 AM

                      And in film, absolutely everything is intentional. Producers spend months of pre-production getting things right before they shoot so that way no time and film are wasted in the process.

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            December 11, 2011 11:56 AM

            Not everyone has Internet? This is your greatest worry about perception of games? A lack of patches?

            Stupid thread.

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            December 11, 2011 12:01 PM

            Everyone playing Skyrim on PC has internet, that much is for sure.

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            December 11, 2011 3:46 PM

            Holding yourself to a higher standard doesn't start at limiting the amount of patches you release.

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        December 10, 2011 9:45 PM

        I think that is exactly it, Oblivion wasn't really a main stream game. Skyrim got a lot of hype and got people to play that had never touched an elder scrolls game before.

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          December 10, 2011 9:54 PM

          What? Oblivion brought RPGs into the mainstream, it was huge with the casual crowd, especially on the 360 which was lacking in substantial releases at the time. I'm sure the popularity of that game made Skyrim even bigger than it otherwise would have been.

          Now I've played a lot of Morrowind, put over 200 hours into Oblivion (PC+360 combined) and Skyrim is deserving of all the hype and praise. It's the best game Bethesda has ever done and fucking incredible if you love exploring interesting game worlds. Not going to say it isn't flawed, but what game is perfect these days? There's a lot I would change about it and probably will whenever they release the mod tools.

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        December 10, 2011 11:20 PM

        Skyrim 0wns. Deal with it.

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        December 11, 2011 12:54 AM

        Skyrim is hands down the best game I've ever played. Giving it GOTY isn't a question at all in my mind.

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        December 11, 2011 3:56 AM

        People love sandbox games no matter how buggy they are. Games like these are so massive that it would be impossible to ship without a boatload of bugs.

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        December 11, 2011 1:04 PM

        Nothing else comes close in terms of the amount of time I've put into a game this year. Yeah it's buggy though honestly I haven't encountered all that many in the course of a 100+ hours.

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      December 10, 2011 8:04 PM

      I am shocked BF3 didn't win anything. I would say hands down best shooter, and probably best multiplayer...

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        December 10, 2011 8:08 PM

        meh... who the fuck cares, its Spike TV.

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        December 10, 2011 8:24 PM

        And best graphics. Graphics could also go to Witcher 2. But it's Spike, so whatever.

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        December 11, 2011 9:03 AM

        Yeah, BF3 is amazing, but "spike tv" is meaningless anyway.

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      December 10, 2011 8:04 PM

      Interesting, no mention of BF3? I preferred it's multiplayer over the Portal 2 coop...

      OPINIONS!

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        December 10, 2011 8:37 PM

        I can see MW3 getting best shooter, but how the hell Portal 2 beat BF3 for best multiplayer in general wtf :(

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          December 12, 2011 3:59 AM

          Makes sense to me. BF3 is good, great even, but Portal 2's multiplayer is fresh, new and incredibly engrossing, even though you can only really play it once. BF3's replay value doesn't beat how good Portal 2's co-op campaign really is.

          They're very close though, to be honest.

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      December 10, 2011 8:46 PM

      2012 Spike Video Game Awards already?

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      December 10, 2011 8:46 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 10, 2011 8:47 PM

      What DLC did portal 2 have that was better than Uncle Tully's Funhouse for Monday Night Combat?

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      December 10, 2011 9:25 PM

      Skyrim! Woo! Congrats, Bethesda :)

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      December 10, 2011 10:44 PM

      Best Nolan North voice performance (should've been a real award, but sadly isn't): Portal 2.

      One word: SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!

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      December 11, 2011 5:18 AM

      While its difficult to take the entire thing seriously, two facts:
      - that the awards were basically cleaned up by Skyrim, Batman: AC, and Portal 2
      - Bastion won three awards
      make me think that at least somewhere in that judging group, they get "it".

      And then they give CODMW3 best Shooter. huh.

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      December 11, 2011 5:35 AM

      So is it 2011 or 2012? From here in the chatty, it looks like you don't know what time it is.

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      December 11, 2011 12:56 PM

      Portal. 2 won best performance for a human male and female. What a disgrace

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        December 11, 2011 1:31 PM

        Agreed, neither of the characters were human!

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      December 11, 2011 6:47 PM

      Surely if Skyrim is GOTY it gets to win lots of other categories by default.
      Best Action Adventure, Best Xbox 360 Game, Best PS3 Game, Best PC game.

      Also best performance by a human male. I USED TO BE AN ADVENTURER LIKE YOU ONCE.
      Also doubles as best character of the year.

      And how can a PS3 exclusive win best graphics over pc games? Don't lie.

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        December 12, 2011 4:04 AM

        Skyrim isn't an action adventure, it's an RPG and it won that category.

        Skyrim is amazing overall (!) but it has crappy graphics and 0 mod support on consoles, hence no console win.

        Skyrim has far too many issues to be the best PC game, though it does come close. Portal 2 is simply by far the most polished choice.

        The choices can live side by side easily once you look at what the titles are really meant for, none of them means you automatically win another except possibly the goty and genre ones.

        Uncharted 3 did have very good graphics, though admittedly i'm wondering why BF3 didn't win that one.

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          December 12, 2011 3:06 PM

          How can Skyrim be game of the year, but not be the best game on ANY platform, while Portal 2 is released for all 3 and is the PC game of the year, and Arkham City is released on all platforms and is the 360 game of the year?

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      December 11, 2011 8:38 PM

      Skyrim came out very close to the voting. No big surprise.

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