Skyrim sweeps Interactive Achievement Awards, Portal 2 and Uncharted 3 tie for second best
Bethesda's RPG leads list of Academy of Arts & Sciences award winners
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences conducted its 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (IAA) in Vegas last night, capping the 2012 DICE. Summit with a tribute to 2011's top games and game makers. Chief amongst the night's winners was Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was named IAA's Game of the Year, as well as the winner for Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Online Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Story, Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.
Valve's Portal 2 and Naughty Dog's Uncharted 3 where also well represented with three awards each, while the rest of the trophies were evenly split between other high profile games including Nintendo's Super Mario 3D Land, Supergiant Games' Bastion, and Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham City.
The AIAS released the full list of IAA winners this morning:
Portal 2 (Valve): Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, Outstanding Character Performance (Wheatley), Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity
Battlefield 3 (DICE): Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games): Action Game of the Year
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda): Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Story, Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Online Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog): Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
Bastion (Supergiant): Downloadable Title of the Year
Fruit Ninja Kinect (Halfbrick): Casual Game of the Year
The Sims Social (Playfish): Social Networking Game of the Year
Skylanders Spyro's Adventure (Toys for Bob): Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
FIFA 12 (EA): Sports Game of the Year
Forza Motorsport 4 (Turn 10): Racing Game of the Year
Mortal Kombat (NetherRealm): Fighting Game of the Year
Orcs Must Die! (Robot Entertainment): Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Media Molecule): Family Game of the Year
Infinity Blade II (Epic Games): Mobile Game of the Year
Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo): Handheld Game of the Year
Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady): Adventure Game of the Year
Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare): Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
The gala night also included a Pioneer Award nod for Atari legend Ed Logg and a Hall of Fame ceremony for Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney.
Agree? Disagree? Planning to write a strongly worded email to AIAS judges? Let us know what you think of this year's picks in the comments below.
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Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at 12DOVE until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.