With the VGAs airing on Spike TV in about an hour, I’d thought I would put up my picks for each award. I’ll start by listing off the nominees for each award, and include my pick and reasoning underneath them. Let’s hope I do a lot better with my picks this year as opposed to last year.
Game of the Year:
Call of Duty: Black Ops
God of War III
Halo: Reach
Mass Effect 2
Red Dead Redemption
This is an obvious choice for me, with Black Ops running away with it. Halo: Reach will lose votes because it is platform specific, and there are just so many people that play Call of Duty: Black Ops because the player base of FPS games is so much larger than that of, say, RPGs. With a very well put together single player campaign, the return of zombie mode, and the fun, yet sometimes frustrating multi-player, I’m pretty sure Black Ops will win this easily.
Best Xbox 360 Game:
Alan Wake
Fable III
Halo: Reach
Mass Effect 2
I see Halo:Reach winning this by a good bit, not as far of a landslide as Black Ops will win Game of the Year, but again, FPS games get more attention and just have a larger player base.
Best PlayStation 3 Game:
God of War III
Heavy Rain
Modnation Racers
Red Dead Redemption
My pick for this award is Heavy Rain thanks to the beautiful visuals it provides throughout the game. God of War III didn’t seem to break a lot of new ground, opening up the door for competitors on Sony’s platform, and Heavy Rain has blown so many people away that I think it will win easily.
Best Wii Game:
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Metroid: Other M
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Awards for the Wii are hard to call due to the fact that there are a couple of different audiences clamoring for the majority of the vote, but I think Super Mario Galaxy 2 will barely win this thanks to the popularity of Mario himself, and the amazing and intuitive game play.
Best PC Game:
Fallout: New Vegas
Mass Effect 2
Sid Meier’s Civilization V
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
If StarCraft II doesn’t win this award I will be thoroughly shocked. The anticipation of the release of this game seemed to be higher than that of Halo: Reach. Civ V was too much of a disappointment to too many people to warrant it winning, and the other two games seem to have a greater stock in their console versions, leaving StarCraft II, the ultimate strategy game to prevail.
Best Handheld Game:
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Super Scribblenauts
I think this will be a close running between Super Scribblenauts and Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Both of these games have predecessors, and therefore had followers of the older games waiting to pick up these new installments. I see Super Scribblenauts inching out Professor Layton on this one thanks to the creative game play that the game provides resulting in more fans.
We’ll see how I do starting at 8:00 Eastern on Spike TV.