It's that time of year again...where celebs with no connection to games whatsoever present awards to the people who make them. Yup, it's Spike Video Game Award season. Below are the nominees in all of the illustriuos categories, as well as my almost completely uniformed opinion of who will win what (seriously, I've played like 6 games that released this year) as well as what I think should win if I feel strongly enough about it...anywho...

Game of the Year

Batman: Arkham City
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Portal 2
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Batman is getting a huge response from the critics, so I'm gonna go with that. Of the 3 I have played, Skyrim would be my personal choice but I wouldn't complain if any of the games, save Uncharted 3, won.

Studio of the Year

Bethesda Game Studios
Naughty Dog
Rocksteady Studios
Valve

A completely useless award if you ask me. This has been little more than a runner up "Game of the Year" award in years past, and I don't expect this year to be any different. I see Bethesda winning this one, but if Skyrim gets Game of the Year expect to see Rocksteady win it.

Best Xbox 360 Game

Batman: Arkham City
Forza Motorsport 4
Gears of War 3
Portal 2

Logic would say Skyrim should be on this list if it's a GOTY nominee, but it's not, so I'm throwing logic out the window. Gears of War 3 is the biggest of the exclusives and I expect Batman to win plenty of other hardware, so I can see something strange like this happening.

Best PS3 Game

Infamous 2
Killzone 3
LittleBigPlanet 2
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Unlike the 360 lineup, this is all Sony exclusives, showcasing just how impressive their list of PS3 only games was this year. Also unlike the 360 cateogory, I will play it safe in this case and go with the one game that got nominated for GOTY: Uncharted 3.

Best Wii Game

Disney's Epic Mickey
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Lost in Shadow
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Not much to say. Has to be Zelda, right?

Best PC Game

Battlefield 3
Minecraft
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Portal 2

I could see Portal 2 winning, but I'm gonna have to go with Minecraft as the darling of 2011 here.

Best Handheld/Mobile Game

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detectives
Infinity Blade
Super Mario 3D Land
Jetpack Joyride

I never, ever bet against Mario.

Best Shooter

Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Gears of War 3
Rage

Going into the year, you would have seen this list and said "holy shit!". Looking at metacritic scores, none of these games wowed critics the way many expected. Good offerings, but nothing truly great. I choose MW3 but I'm not terribly thrilled about it. Could see Battlefield 3 or Rage winning.

Best Action Adventure Game

Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Batman: Arkham City
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

I could see Uncharted 3 getting this as a consolation prize since I expect Batman and Zelda to win plenty of other awards, but I'm gonna play it safe here and pick Arkham City. Also, I think we could have just gone three deep in this category, no?

Best RPG

Dark Souls
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dragon Age II
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Wouldn't fault anyone for picking Dark Souls, but my heart tells me Skyrim and the reviews don't say otherwise. Deus Ex could always sneak in too.

Best Multi-Player Game

Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Gears of War 3
Portal 2

Once again, this is a tossup for me. Competitive always seems to trump cooperative multiplayer, so I'm going with Modern Warfare 3, but Battlefield wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Best Individual Sports Game

Fight Night Champion
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
Top Spin 4
Virtua Tennis 4

Because he has to win something this year.

Best Team Sports Game

FIFA Soccer 12
NBA 2K12
NHL 12
MLB '11: The Show

Meh.

Best Driving Game

Dirt 3
Driver: San Francisco
Forza Motorsport 4
Need for Speed: The Run

I'm starting to lose interest.

Best Fighting Game

The King of Fighters XIII
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Mortal Kombat
WWE All Stars

Mostly because I want to see something good happen to these guys.

Best Motion Game

Child of Eden
Dance Central 2
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Gunstringer

Going with logic once more. Safe play is Zelda.

Best Independent Game

Bastion
Minecraft
Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
The Binding of Isaac

If only for all the creation videos I've seen on Youtube.

Best Adapted Video Game

Back to the Future: The Game
Batman: Arkham City
Captain America: Super Soldier
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

Ugh.

Best Song in a Game

"Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)" by Darren Korb - Bastion
"Exile Vilify" by The National - Portal 2
"I'm Not Calling You A Liar" by Florence + The Machine - Dragon Age II
"Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)" by Darren Korb - Bastion
"Want You Gone" by Jonathan Coulton - Portal 2

Coulton can do no wrong. This song is awesome.

Best Original Score

Bastion
Batman: Arkham City
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Portal 2

Portal 2 because it's different. But, pray tell, where the hell is Skyrim? Jeremy Soule created another amazing score for that game, and it at least should have been nominated.

Best Graphics

Batman: Arkham City
LA Noire
Rage
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Plays like a movie, feels like a movie, looks like a movie. And even the 3D is convincing.

Best Performance by a Human Male

J.K. Simmons as Cave Johnson - Portal 2
Mark Hamill as The Joker - Batman: Arkham City
Nolan North as Nathan Drake - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Stephen Merchant as Wheatley - Portal 2

If Simmons doesn't win this award, I will create combustable lemons and deliver them to each member of the advisory council personally.

Best Performance by a Human Female

Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Ellen Mclain as GLaDOS - Portal 2
Emily Rose as Elena Fisher - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Tara Strong as Harley Quinn - Batman: Arkham City

Guessing the votes for the two Uncharted characters split, and GLaDOS isn't the surprise she was the first time around.

Best Downloadable Game

Bastion
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Stacking
Trenched

Ack.

Best DLC

Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues
Mass Effect 2: Arrival
Mortal Kombat: Freddy Krueger
Portal 2 Peer Review

I guess.

Most Anticipated Game

Bioshock: Infinite
Diablo III
Halo 4
Mass Effect 3
The Last Guardian

Being on of the two awards voted on by fans, all bets are off. Could see the Halo fanboys pushing 4 to victory. Could also see the PC crowd unite behind Diablo III. But my guess is Bioshock gets the win.

Trailer of the Year

Assassin's Creed: Revelations - E3 2011 Trailer
Batman: Arkham City - Hugo Strange Reveal Trailer
Dark Souls - Ignite '11 Debut Trailer
Dead Island - GDC 11 Cinematic Trailer
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Purity First Infomercial
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - In Game Debut Trailer
Hitman: Absolution - E3 2011 Trailer
Prey 2 - E3 2011 Trailer
Tomb Raider - E3 2011 Trailer
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - E3 2011 Trailer

This is pretty easy for me...I vividly remember two of these trailers, and while I love me some Skyrim, one left a huge impression and got people talking about a game that I don't think they would have been talking about otherwise. While I prefer in game stuff over CG, I have to give Dead Island the award here.

Discuss.

Was it last year or the year before that they announced Arkham City? I really am kind of mad at myself for selling the game back so early to gamestop as while I did finish the main storyline mode I guess there was a bunch of side missions that I could have done before selling it.

When is this award show btw?

_________________

I believe I remember there being a teaser at the 2009 awards, with a proper reveal at 2010.

As for time and date, Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

I can't disagree too much with your rationales. I still think Skyrim wins GOTY. I'd like to see BF3 beat MW3 for shooter, just because we haven't seen a BF game in there in awhile. I also think that GOW3 should not win XBOX 360 GOY. While it is most certainly the best Gears game, I'm going to say Portal 2.