Awards in thirteen categories will be given at a ceremony produced by the Think Services Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at GDC. The gala event, held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival, will be hosted in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. For further details about the Choice Awards, visit www.gamechoiceawards.com.

The Game Developers Choice Awards recognize excellence in the art of game creation regardless of genre or platform. 2008’s award categories are:Game Developers Choice Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

Pioneer Award

The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history – paving the way for the myriads who followed them.

• Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

Ambassador Award

The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.

• Tommy Tallarico

Game of the Year

The Game of the Year Award recognizes the choice of game developers for the overall best game release during 2008.

• Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes the single game that demonstrates true innovation, advances the state of the art, and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive medium.

• SPORE (Maxis)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
• Braid (Number None)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Debut Game

The Best Debut Game Award recognizes the best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title in the year 2008.

• Braid (Number None)
• Sins of a Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• World of Goo (2D Boy)
• Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)

Best Audio

The Best Audio Award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game – including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, orchestration, etc.

• Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Game Design

The Best Game Design Award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game – including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balancing, and level design.

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Technology

The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game – including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.

• SPORE (Maxis)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Visual Arts

The Best Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game – including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.

• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Writing

The Best Writing Award recognizes the overall excellence of storytelling in a game – including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, dialogue, and other major factors.

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Downloadable Game

Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download – with an emphasis on smaller, more ‘casual’-friendly titles.

• Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
• Braid (Number None)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• N+ (Metanet/Slick Entertainment)
• PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)

Best Handheld Game

Best Handheld Game Award recognizes the overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform during 2008.

• Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
• God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)
• Echochrome (SCE Japan)
• Patapon (Pyramid/SCE Japan)
• The World Ends With You (Jupiter/Square Enix)

Game Developers Conference 2009: March 23-27, San Francisco – Game Developer Choice Awards

bit-tech.net covers hardware reviews and features, case modification, enthusiast gaming as well as providing the latest news and a balance of editorial opinion.

1. Left 4 Dead – Setting out to do for co-op gaming what Counter-Strike did for team combat, Left 4 Dead is an ambitious survival horror game. Running on the Source engine, Left 4 Dead leaves four armed survivors of a world overrun with zombies, and they must fight their way out to escape the outbreak.

Designed for co-op play, the four players must work together to finish each stage of the game, lending each other artillery support, sharing ammo and rescuing each other when zombies are on top of them. In addition to the standard four players as humans, another four players can be amongst the masses of assaulting zombies, seeking to take down the other players. Zombie players might even find themselves become one of the four mutant “boss” zombies, who have unique powers that can be used to devastate, injure, tie up, mark and track, confuse, or even humiliate the gun-toting human survivors

2. Fallout 3 – Vault 101 – Jewel of the Wastes. For 200 years, Vault 101 has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you’ve ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth.

3 . Mass Effect

4. Grand Theft Auto IV

5. Far Cry 2

6. Race Driver: GRID

7. Crysis: Warhead

8. Audiosurf

9. Call of Duty: World at War

10 . Dead Space – Dead Space was one of the major launches in Electronic Arts’ attempt to reinvent itself as an innovator this year and the title shows off some rather funky in-game effects and mechanics. This isn’t just another over-the-shoulder bullet fest with monsters in closets, this is a lot more clever and subtle. The aliens you’re going up against are surprisingly tough to kill, but can be crippled by blowing off their arms and legs – so a lot of the action is up close and personal. It’s a good thing you have such a big suit of armour on.

Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Gears of War 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet

* Studio of the Year:

Media Molecule (winner)
Rockstar North
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios

* Best Shooter:

Gears of War 2 (winner)
Left 4 Dead
Resistance 2
Far Cry 2

* Best RPG:

Fallout 3 (winner)
The World Ends With You
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Fable II

* Best Individual Sports Game:

Shaun White Snowboarding (winner)
Skate It
Wii Fit
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09

* Best Handheld Game:

Professor Layton and the Curious Village (winner)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Patapon
God of War: Chains of Olympus

* Best Graphics:

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
LittleBigPlanet
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3

* Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show:

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (winner)
Naruto: The Broken Bond
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Quantum of Solace

* Best Music Game:

Rock Band 2 (winner)
SingStar
Wii Music
Guitar Hero World Tour

* Best Driving Game:

Burnout Paradise (winner)
Mario Kart Wii
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
PURE

* Best Action Adventure Game:

Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Mirror’s Edge
Dead Space

* Best Soundtrack:

Rock Band 2 (winner)
Guitar Hero World Tour
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet

* Best Xbox 360 Game:

Gears of War 2 (winner)
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable II

* Best Wii Game:

Boom Blox (winner)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
No More Heroes
Wii Fit

* Best PS3 Game:

LittleBigPlanet (winner)
Grand Theft Auto IV
Resistance 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

* Best PC Game:

Left 4 Dead (winner)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Crysis Warhead
Spore

* Best Original Score:

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
LittleBigPlanet
Spore
Fallout 3

* Best Multiplayer Game:

Left 4 Dead (winner)
Call of Duty: World at War
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2

* Best Independent game:

World of Goo (winner)
PixelJunk Eden
Braid
Audiosurf

* Best Fighting Game:

Soulcalibur IV (winner)
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

* Best Male Voice:

Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Stephen Fry as “The Narrator” in LittleBigPlanet
David Hayter as “Old Snake” in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Jason Zumwalt as “Roman Bellic” in Grand Theft Auto IV

* Best Female Voice:

Debi Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
Keeley Hawes as “Lara Croft” in Tomb Raider: Underworld
Paula Tiso as “Silvia Christel” in No More Heroes
Nathalie Cox as “Juno Eclipse” in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

* Big Name in the Game Male:

Kiefer Sutherland as Sgt. Roebuck in Call of Duty: World at War (winner)
Liam Neeson as “Father” in Fallout 3
Ricky Gervais as “Himself” in Grand Theft Auto IV
Daniel Craig as “James Bond” in Quantum of Solace

* Big Name in the Game Female:

Jenny McCarthy as Special Agent Tanya Adams in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (winner)
Dame Judi Dench as “M” in Quantum of Solace
Eliza Dushku as “Shaundi” from Saints Row 2
Liv Tyler as “Betty Ross” in The Incredible Hulk

* Best Team Sports Game:

NHL 09
Fifa Soccer 09
NBA 2K9
Madden NFL 09

Spike Video Game Awards – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dead Space is shipping to stores on October 14 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Get your copy today!

The character you play is Isaac Clarke (named after the science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke), an engineer on his way to the stricken mining ship, USG Ishimura. Responding to a distress call sent from the USG Ishimura, he is part of a team of four sent to investigate the call. Upon arriving at the stricken ship, Isaac’s shuttle crash lands on the Ishimura flight deck and the crew is attacked by a bunch of mutated hostile creatures called Necromorphs. Isaac gets separated from the rescue team and he then has to spend the rest of the game repairing different areas of the Ishimura, whilst fending off Necromorphs.

‘Dead Space’ is a third person shooter, with an over the shoulder style much similar to Resident Evil 4. The interface is displayed via a holographic display in front of your character, a unique trick which doesn’t disrupt the flow of the game. Through out the game you can collect nodes and credits. With these you can upgrade your weapons and suit, so that you are better protected as you progress to the harder levels. At various stations around the ship, you can equip yourself with various weapons. The decisions that you make here can come back to haunt you, as certain weapons are more effective in certain situations.

The Ishimura has a very claustrophobic feel to it, which really adds some atmospheric tension to the gameplay. It is pretty obvious that the developers took a good look at films like Alien and Event Horizon, when deciding on the look and feel of ‘Dead Space’, as it does have a very cinematic feel to it. Part of this is helped by the very effective music score. When Necromorphs jump out at you, there is a musical stab which sends shiver done the spine, as you panic to move Isaac to safety.

While most levels are set on the ship, there are a few sections where Isaac has to venture out into areas that have no gravity or air. Despite the wide area, you still feel as if a Necromorph can jump out and attack you – this might have something to do with the fact that you can not turn around quickly, especially if you are flying through space.

The various designs of the Necromorphs are truly chilling. Clearly the concept of some twisted individual who understands the horror genre all too well – they are essentially aliens that combine themselves to the deceased, in a truly grisly manner. Think of the alien in John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’, but with big claws and a horrific scream.

The controls of ‘Dead Space’ handle pretty well. Its all pretty standard with games similar to this title, but as stated earlier, there is no quick button to turn around quickly – but I feel that this adds to the atmosphere and tension of the game. A quick tap on the R3 button and Isaac will go into attack mode, needless to say, I spent most of the game prepared for anything. Which is just as well, because when a Necromorph attacks you, it is quite unrelenting and only by pressing the square button at a fast rate, will you be able to fight it off.

One interesting spin of this game, is that where a head shot will instantly disable your opponenent, on this it will achieve nothing. To disable the Necromorphs, you will need to take out their arms and legs, usually achieved with fast and precise aiming.

Graphically, ‘Dead Space’ looks amazing and as I stated earlier, the developers have really done their homework with achieving that sci fi horror look. There’s blood-stained walls, NPC’s committing suicide as you walk in rooms, really gruesome stuff. This game is definitely not for the younger audience, nor the weak of heart. Again kudos has to be given to the developers for the haunting and effective music score.

‘Dead Space’ is a linear based game, so there is a little bit of back peddling here and there, but it doesn’t affect the overall gameplay. The cut scenes are also quite good, with some impressive voice work.

All in all, ‘Dead Space’ is quite an impressive and scary game. EA have done a great job in creating an immersive universe and I wouldn’t be surprised if a sequel is on the way. I would definitely recommend getting this one, along with some clean underwear.

From News Shopper