Portal, Bioshock Lead Game Developer's Choice Nominations

Gamasutra is reporting that the annual Game Developer's Choice Award nominations are now available for your reading pleasure. Portal, BioShock, Mass Effect, and Call of Duty 4 are all looking pretty good, with Portal in particular sitting pretty in five separate categories. Here are a few of the nomination lists: "Best Game Design - BioShock, Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Portal, Super Mario Galaxy. Best Visual Art - Assassin's Creed, Team Fortress 2, Crysis, BioShock, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Best Writing - Portal, God of War II, Mass Effect, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, BioShock. Innovation - Rock Band, Portal, flOw, Peggle, Mass Effect." Five bucks says Portal sweeps the awards.

Comments

Portal`

[FredFredrickson]

Portal is a great game- too short in my opinion. It shows that PC gaming is long over-due for something more innovative in the game-play category. Now combine portal with half-life 2 = most amazing game ever!!!

Re:Portal`

[Shimdaddy]

Portal does rock, but I think one reason it's so great is because of its minimalism. I think Half-Life & Portal in the same game would be too much, and worse than the two games separately.

Re:Portal`

[gEvil (beta)]

Now combine portal with half-life 2 = most amazing game ever!!!

Are you referring to this?

Rock Band

[Freeside1]

Exactly how is Rock Band innovative? It's multiplayer Guitar Hero with drums, and a mic.

Re:Rock Band

[Cornflake917]

Rock Band is innovative in how it brings it all together. Yes pretty much every aspect of it has been done before, but you could say the same for Portal.

It's definitely original. I don't think any other games have gone all out trying to simulate the rock band experience with a full set of instruments.

It's hard to explain, but getting large group of friends together to play Rock Band (and drink) is an experience unlike any other game I played. Maybe because females actually get involved, and that doesn't happen much when we're playing games.

Call of Duty 4

[framauro13]

A shame CoD4 was left out of the writing nominations. It had the most immersive storyline of them all.

Personally I think it was the best FPS released this year, and definitely the best out of the entire franchise, and that's not even taking into account the amazing multiplayer mode. I'd definitely opt for this game over BioShock in a heartbeat, and I loved BioShock.

PAs Opinion

[Nerdfest]

Appears to be as follows: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/28/

IANAL

[mattwarden]

Five bucks says Portal sweeps the awards.

IANAL, but I'm 99% sure this is binding.

So Steam games aren't downloadable?

[randyest]

Best Downloadable Game
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Everyday Shooter
Peggle
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (XBLA version)
Flow

So while, Portal, TF2, HL2:ep2, COD4, and Bioshock get lots of "Best" nominations, they're mysteriously absent from the "Best Downloadable Game" category, even though they're all quite downloadable via steam. Maybe they meant "best downloadable (only) game (not available in stores?"

With Steam and (the relatively crappy) Direct2Drive sales channels, isn't just about everything "downloadable" now? Heck, if you include torrents and such, I'm sure absolutely everything is downloadable ;)

There will be more Portal

[Xelios]

If you listen to the developer commentary in Portal it's pretty clear this first game was just testing the water. I'm sure there will be more Portal in the future, maybe as a standalone game, maybe integrated into the Half Life series.

But the cake is a lie.