2011 Game Developers Choice nominees announced

The Game Developers Choice Awards nominees have been announced, and Portal 2, Skyrim, and Bastion lead the pack.

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The 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards nominees were announced today, providing nods to some of last year's greatest games. Three studios shared a tie for the most nominations: Bethesda for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Valve for Portal 2, and newcomer Supergiant Games for Bastion. Skyrim and Portal 2 received five nominations each, while Bastion received four and the studio itself was nominated for Best Debut.

Sharing Game of the Year nominations with Portal 2 and Skyrim were Batman: Arkham City, Dark Souls, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Winners will be chosen by a group of 500 industry professionals and announced at the 2012 Game Developers Conference on March 7.

Check out the full list of nominees below.

Best Game Design

  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)

  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo)

  • Portal 2 (Valve)

  • Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady Studios)

  • Dark Souls (FromSoftware)

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)

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)

Game of the Year

  • Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady Studios)

  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)

  • Portal 2 (Valve)

  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal)

  • Dark Souls (FromSoftware)

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 5, 2012 6:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, 2011 Game Developers Choice nominees announced.

    The Game Developers Choice Awards nominees have been announced, and Portal 2, Skyrim, and Bastion lead the pack.

    • reply
      January 6, 2012 5:21 AM

      HAHA FAIL BEST TECHNOLOGY (NAUTHY DOG SHOULD BE REPLACED BY ID SOFTWARE / RAGE ) ... an epic fail that is capslock worthy.

      • reply
        January 6, 2012 5:24 AM

        Epic fail for visual arts too ... this is invalid
        ignored
        have a nice day

      • reply
        January 6, 2012 5:38 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 6, 2012 5:43 AM

        What about the Wii games, Ruski? Skyward sword should be best technology, don't you think?

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        January 6, 2012 5:47 AM

        no. NO. ID software sucks now, they're no longer at the forefront of technology.

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          January 6, 2012 5:48 AM

          Agreed. I never thought I would say that. :[

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          January 6, 2012 5:54 AM

          [deleted]

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            January 6, 2012 6:34 AM

            I'm very curious to see the driver optimized 7970 run it since it has that streaming texture acceleration tech in it.

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              January 6, 2012 7:13 AM

              Why? The game is mediocre and iD isn't licensing the engine AFAIK

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                January 6, 2012 8:07 AM

                Just curious, AMD seems to think that it has a future and just because id won't license it doesn't mean the techniques used won't make it into other engines at some point, they'll just have to wait till id open sources it or write it themselves from the ground up (I wouldn't be surprised if Crytek gave something similar a shot).

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          January 6, 2012 6:35 AM

          To be fair, the vast majority of tech used in ESV is old, I do think RAGE deserves that spot more than Bethesda.

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            January 6, 2012 7:20 AM

            And The Witcher 2 deserves it more than Rage

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            January 6, 2012 7:21 AM

            Seriously, I know they rewrote large chunks of it but the reason there's already an active Skyrim modding community is because they can re-use a lot of the techniques and such from the Oblivion modding community.

      • reply
        January 6, 2012 7:16 AM

        You are gold. How can I subscribe to your posts?

        • reply
          January 6, 2012 7:25 AM

          You can subscribe to his his stream of posts by giving me all the monies you have available to you. Just mail me slices of toast filled with the monetary currency of your country and I will do the rest.

      • reply
        January 6, 2012 7:28 AM

        Please please PLEASE post more, you are my favorite Shacker.

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      January 6, 2012 8:47 AM

      how the hell is BF3/DICE not in the best audio category?

      • reply
        January 6, 2012 9:06 AM

        That list seems pretty good to me but I agree that BF3 should be in there, which one would it replace?

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          January 6, 2012 12:21 PM

          LittleBigPlanet 2 or Dead Space 2

          Never even heard (literally) of LittleBigPlanet 2 but I'm leaning towards DS2...did not like it.

          • reply
            January 6, 2012 3:36 PM

            Thought Dead Space 2 was great myself, like the first one but it upped the scale on the action and set pieces, think i've gone through it 3 or 4 times now.

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