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

In Gears of War 2, the Locust have found a way to make giant emergence holes capable of sinking entire cities at once. Marcus Fenix and the rest of the COG Delta Squad are now drilling underground to “take the fight to the Locust.” In a teaser of the first scenes of gameplay of Gears of War 2, COG soldiers engage in battle with a large army of Locust as they travel to drill into the underground region. Comic book writer Joshua Ortega says, “The stakes are raised. This is humanity’s last stand. Everything is at risk. Nothing is safe.”

Gameplay

John DiMaggio, the voice actor of the game’s main character, Marcus Fenix, confirmed to IGN that players would be able to fight the large Brumaks in Gears of War 2. He also revealed there will be a deeper story with new characters, new weapons, and new enemies. The game also includes the ability to duel with an AI or human opponent when both use the chainsaw attachment of the Lancer rifle, as seen in the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference promotional video, later confirmed in informal interviews with developers and a Game Informer preview. Epic released a gameplay video which revealed the player may now use “downed” enemies as shields. Bleszinski confirmed also that players who have been injured can crawl as a final desperate attempt at life. Players may tap the ‘A’ Button to crawl faster. The level of blood and gore has been increased, for example, when the player is close to death, wherever he moves there are trails of blood behind him. This is the same for enemies, and the opponents who’ve been used as a meat shield. There are also more ways to kill an opponent, such as punching them while they are downed, using the sniper rifle as a sledgehammer, or using the torque bow as an axe.

The cover story in the May 2008 issue of Game Informer revealed several new gameplay features. Players can now play on individual co-op play settings. One player may, for instance, play on Casual difficulty while the other teammate plays on Hardcore. A “communal combat system” will adapt to give a player at a lower difficulty an equivalently fair challenge as the player at higher difficulty. The player will be able to maintain multiple save files that work with the drop-in/drop-out co-op features. There is also a fourth difficulty level that is a level above Casual called Normal, a difficulty below Hardcore; senior producer Rod Fergusson admitted that — for the first game — “We overshot on [the Casual] difficulty and a game that was a little harder than we intended.” Some of the Xbox Live achievements can be completed through both play in single player and multiplayer mode, such as achieving 1,000 headshots. New enemy creatures are planned on being added, including one described by Cliff Bleszinski as one “that [makes] the Brumak look like a baby panda bear.” In a developer’s video, Cliff Bleszinski stated that Gears of War 2 would feature “drop in and out” co-op in the campaign. A feature carried over from the original is the optional mature content filter, which, when active, makes blood appear as sparks and removes harsh language from the dialogue.

The collection of COG tags has been expanded to include the collection of story-based items such as personal letters and medical records, and a “war journal” will track which collectibles have been found and where missing ones can be located. The cut-scenes will also use the better facial rendering technology of Epic’s Unreal engine, and will use more dramatic angles for the conversation, as well as using a video screen on Jack (the all-purpose robot used by Delta squad) to talk with their commanders “face-to-face.”

New weapons were added to the game in addition to firearms from the previous gamee. The accuracy, function, and power of several weapons have been altered, and all grenades can now be used as mines by placing them on walls or floors, and will detonate when approached by enemies. In addition, players can now be knocked over by the concussive force of a nearby detonating grenade. Cliff Bleszinski has also announced that there will be more vehicle missions in the campaign than before, such as the Centaur Tank which Cliff describes as a “tank with monster truck wheels.” Players can also ride a Brumak in the game; previously, the Brumak could only be fought by the player as an enemy, in the PC version of the game.

Multiplayer

Gears of War 2 features an upgraded multiplayer mode that allows up to ten users to simultaneously play. X360 magazine reported that Gears of War 2 contains at least three new online multiplayer modes, called “Guardian,” “Wingman,” and “Submission.” “Guardian” is a modified version of “Assassination” from the original Gears of War, but allows players to continue fighting after the leader has been killed, but losing the ability to respawn. “Wingman” splits all ten players into five teams of two, where both members of a team play as the same character. “Submission,” formerly known as “Meat Flag,” is a version of capture the flag in which players attempt to “down” an enemy controlled by the game’s AI and move its body to their team’s base to earn points. A Halo-like matchmaking system has been utilized for the online multiplayer. In a GameTrailers TV E3 special, it was confirmed that AI “bots” have also been introduced in this installment. Players can now engage in multiplayer scenarios with both human players and bots, or with bots alone, and may modify their intelligence level (from Casual to Insane difficulty) in the options menu prior to starting a game.

A new co-op game mode was confirmed during Microsoft’s E3 2008 press conference; called “Horde,” this mode allows up to five players to fight off waves of attacking Locust together. Horde Mode does not feature bot support as in competitive multiplayer, and can be played alone. The Locust attack in waves of multiple enemies which become more difficult as players progress.

Cameras in the multiplayer modes have also been improved significantly. Rather than static views from different points on a map, the new Battle Cam allows players to pan around a map as the camera focuses on areas of intense fighting, and the Ghost Cam allows a player to roam freely around a map. A photo mode is also featured, with each photo taken by a player rated on the amount of action in the shot and can be uploaded to the official Gears of War website.

Other Information

• Developer(s)  Epic Games
• Publisher(s)  Microsoft Game Studios
• Designer(s)  Cliff Bleszinski
• Composer(s)  Steve Jablonsky
• Engine  Unreal Engine 3
• Release date(s)  November 7, 2008
• Genre(s)  Third-person shooter, Tactical shooter
• Mode(s)  Single player, System Link, Multiplayer, Cooperative modes

Links

• Gears of War Official Website
• The Last Day: Promotional Site

• Flood is a very tight map that’s made extra snug when the environmental hazard of Imulsion begins creeping up around the edges. As the playing field closes in, the firefight will intensify as combat is forced to the center of the map. Teams skilled at flanking their opponents will have a powerful edge.

• Gold Rush takes place in an old Imulsion refinery that now serves as a hotly contested battleground. Players must survive heavy crossfire as they infiltrate the factory and navigate multiple tiers. Breakable glass allows for a clean shot at those who make a dash for the Longshot rifle while bolder players make their run for the heavy weapon. In the right hands, the Mortar can be devastating on this map, so keep those smoke grenades armed as the concussive effect comes in very handy.

• Fuel Station is situated in a desolate area marked by an abandoned fossil fuel station. The team that secures and controls the station is likely to be the side that wins the match. An especially strategic location on this map is the rooftop, as there are only two points of entry – the main elevator and a staircase on the back side of the building. Heavy weaponry is situated right in front, which presents a high risk to reward ratio in this level. Lugging the Mulcher around, deploying it and revving it up can keep an entire team at bay, and unleashing hell from the rooftops is always an excellent tactic.

All of the multiplayer maps in the Combustible Map Pack are playable in the highly popular, five player co-op Horde mode.