In mid-November we learned which lucky developers had their games nominated for the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards and today the votes are in. This year’s VGAs were hosted by Chuck star Zachary Levi and as usual, we were treated to a series of new video game trailers and a few unveilings of brand new games, including Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and BioWare’s Command & Conquer: Generals 2.
The votes are in and we now know the winners for this year’s awards. See the complete list of VGA 2011 winners below and check out all of Game Rant’s coverage of the Spike Video Game Awards for all of the new trailers and announcements.
The Legend of Zelda franchise was also be honored in the first ever “Hall of Fame” award. Geoff Keighley, publisher relations of Spike said, “It is only natural to start with ‘Zelda.’” View the entire list of 26 categories, their nominees and most importantly, the winners below:
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
STUDIO OF THE YEAR
- Bethesda Game Studios Naughty Dog Rocksteady Studios Valve
BEST XBOX 360 GAME
- Batman: Arkham City Forza Motorsport 4 Gears of War 3 Portal 2
BEST PS3 GAME
- inFAMOUS 2 Killzone 3 LittleBigPlanet 2 Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
BEST Wii GAME
- Disney’s Epic Mickey Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Lost in Shadow The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
BEST PC GAME
- Battlefield 3 Minecraft The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Portal 2
BEST HANDHELD/MOBILE GAME
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Infinity Blade Super Mario 3D Land Jetpack Joyride
BEST SHOOTER
- Battlefield 3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gears of War 3 Rage
BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME
- Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Batman: Arkham City The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
BEST RPG
- Dark Souls Deus Ex: Human Revolution Dragon Age II The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
BEST MULTI-PLAYER
- Battlefield 3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gears of War 3 Portal 2
BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
- Fight Night Champion Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters Top Spin 4 Virtua Tennis 4
BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
- FIFA Soccer 12 NBA 2K12 NHL 12 MLB ’11: The Show
BEST DRIVING GAME
- DiRT 3 Driver: San Francisco Forza Motorsport 4 Need For Speed: The Run
BEST FIGHTING GAME
- The King of Fighters XIII Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Mortal Kombat WWE All Stars
BEST MOTION GAME
- Child of Eden Dance Central 2 The Gunstringer The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
- Bastion Minecraft Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP The Binding of Isaac
BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME
- Back to the Future: The Game Batman: Arkham City Captain America: Super Soldier LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
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
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
- Bastion Batman: Arkham City Deus Ex: Human Revolution Portal 2
BEST GRAPHICS
- Batman: Arkham City LA Noire Rage Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
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
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
BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
- Bastion Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Stacking Trenched
BEST DLC
- Fallout: New Vegas — Old World Blues Mass Effect 2: Arrival Mortal Kombat: Freddy Krueger Portal 2 Peer Review
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME (Fan-Voted)
- BioShock: Infinite Diablo III Halo 4 Mass Effect 3 The Last Guardian
There you have it, all of the awards for this year’s Spike VGAs? Some quick thoughts:
- Why didn’t Skyrim win best score? It wasn’t even nominated!? Someone made a big mistake and missed this behind-the-scenes video about the sound of Skyrim. For the console awards, why is Portal 2 nominated for best Xbox 360 game and not PS3 when it supports Steam and cross-platform gameplay only on PS3? Portal 2 wins best DLC because it was free. Win! Despite winning game of the year, Skyrim somehow is not nominated on any of the consoles for best game. Bethesda wins studio of the year even though they released a weak game in Brink and a disappointing one in Rage. Valve released Portal 2 (with free DLC) and let’s not forget about Steam… If Mass Effect 3 miraculously was delayed (again) to 2013, could it win most anticipated again?
What are your thoughts on this year’s awards? Would you have picked any differently?
Be sure to check out the rest of the premieres, announcements and trailers coming out of the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards here on Game Rant.
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