It may not have the credibility and reputation of the BAFTA Video Games Awards, but Spike TV's annual event also aims to shine the light on the deserving games of the last year. Sadly, the nominations are a mixed bag, to say the least.

Spike TV, aimed at a more mainstream male audience, was always going to present a show geared towards that demographic, and sadly, this fact shows just by looking at the nature of the event itself, and media's constantly baffling habit of using celebrities from other mediums of entertainment who have no relation to gaming whatsoever; a strong argument for why the video game industry really needs to start giving the limelight to the people who make the games, not just the games themselves.

Last year, Samuel L. Jackson was the host of the event, with live musical performances (why?) by Tenacious D and AFI. Hopefully this years event will highlight celebrities and music that actually have something to do with videogames.

Sadly, the nominations also lend themselves to Spike TV's hormonally-challenged-males focus, but most of the nominations amongst the list are thankfully deserving games that deserve the chance to win.

Here are the nominations:

Game of the Year
BioShock
Halo 3
Mass Effect
The Orange Box

Best Shooter
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
The Orange Box

Best Action Game
Assassin's Creed
God of War 2
Super Mario Galaxy
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Rhythm Game
Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Jam Sessions
Rock Band

Best RPG
Eternal Sonata
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Mass Effect
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Best Driving Game
DiRT
Forza Motorsport 2
Need for Speed ProStreet
Project Gotham Racing 4

Best Military Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
World in Conflict

Studio of the Year
Bungie Studios
Harmonix
Irrational Games
Valve

Best Graphics
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
Mass Effect

Breakthrough Technology
Crysis
Halo 3
Portal
Rock Band

Best PS3 Game
Heavenly Sword
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Warhawk

Best Wii Game
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario

Best Xbox 360 Game
BioShock
Halo 3
Mass Effect
The Orange Box

Best PC Game
BioShock
Crysis
The Orange Box
World in Conflict

Best Individual Sports Game
Skate
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
Virtua Tennis 3

Best Team Sports Game
Madden NFL 08
NBA 2K8
NHL 08
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

Best Handheld Game
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show
The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
The Simpsons Game
Stranglehold

Best Soundtrack
BioShock
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
Rock Band

Best Original Score
BioShock
God of War 2
Halo 3
Mass Effect

Best Multiplayer Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Rock Band
The Orange Box

Most Addictive Game Fueled by Dew
Halo 3
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Team Fortress 2
Wii Sports

Tags : AFI : Bioshock : Call of Duty : God of War 2 : Guitar Hero III : halo 3 : Mass Effect : rock band : Samuel L. Jackson : Spike TV : Spike TV Video Game Awards : Team Fortress 2 : Tenacious D : The Simpsons Game : Wii Sports

Comments

By: Samuel On: 06:14 Nov 12th, 2007 Offline	Halo 3 seems set to win every category it's been nominated for, if they do indeed have a hormonally challenged male demographic. Believe me, I'm part of that.

By: Black Convoy On: 11:02 Nov 12th, 2007 Offline	Call of Duty 4 and Super Mario Galaxy not in the GOTY catagories prove that the VGAs are very sad. (Gamestop has the full version of Mario Galaxy in their demo units so I took it home one night and almost beat it) I forsee Halo 3 running away with tons of awards which is an injustice considering its competition in other catagories has at least one game which is better in that aspect it's nominated for. (although the best game fueled by Dew will be Halo 3 for obvious reasons) Although, I do like Persona 3 got mentioned for something. Granted, it is going to lose to Mass Effect (which isn't released yet will be used to advertise the game) Something I've also noticed, not a lot of PS3 exclusive games on that list.

By: Dragonsoul On: 06:01 Nov 12th, 2007 Offline	I'm out of the loop with gaming these days because a lot of those games made no impression on me whatsoever. Of course, I need to get with the times and get a more recent gaming console so that's probably the problem. xD Good to see Twilight Princess in there somewhere, at least.