Oblivion nabs Spike TV top honors

LOS ANGELES--Another Spike TV Video Game Awards show, another star-studded event that might not have appealed to hardcore fans of the subject it's supposed to celebrate. However, in its fourth try, the "First Network for Men" did pull off one of its best awards shows, in terms of both production and worthy nominees.

The fourth annual Spike TV Video Game Awards were held at the Galen Center in Los Angeles Friday night, with veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson returning for the second consecutive year as the show's host.

The broadcast of Friday's event will be aired on the self-proclaimed "First Network for Men" next Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT and will feature musical performances from Tenacious D and AFI. But GameSpot was in attendance this eve, with the results of the judges' voting below.

The big winner of the night was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which scooped up five awards including the coveted Game of the Year prize. It wasn't a runaway victory for the Bethesda Softworks-developed game, though. Gears of War was neck-and-neck with Oblivion until the very last award--Game of the Year.

As the announcer listed off the nominees for Game of the Year, the greatest applause was aimed at Gears of War and Guitar Hero 2. But when Oblivion was announced as the winner, many in the crowd sounded stunned.

Oblivion also walked home with Most Addictive Game (voted on by the public), Best Performance by a Human (Male) for Patrick Stewart, Best Role-Playing Game, and Best Original Score. Gears of War took home four awards total, including Best Shooter, Best Graphics, Best Multiplayer Game, and Best Studio for its developers, Epic Games.

The Critics' Choice Award, the only category open for games released after November 7 (games scheduled for release before the end of the year were eligible for the Critics' Choice Award), went to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. By its requirements, the category was also the only chance for Wii or PlayStation 3 games to take home an award.

Tenacious D kicked off the ceremonies with the band's usual heavy-metal parody rock stylings, and Jackson continued the action with a few sketches before taking the stage in person. Helping Jackson out was Seth MacFarlane, bantering with the Snakes on a Plane star as the voice of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. Presumably, Stewie will be animated in for the Wednesday broadcast.

There were some world-exclusive premieres, including footage of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, TNA Wrestling, and the opening cinematic from The Burning Crusade expansion of World of Warcraft. WOW got the deluxe treatment, with a congregation of robed, lip-synching figures taking the stage while the trailer showed above them, occasionally accompanied by some light pyrotechnics.

Beyond that, most of the presenters were in good spirits as they delivered their hit-and-miss lines before an oft-indifferent crowd. Former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin let go of a Wii Remote three times on the backswing of a Wii Sports golf game in a staged event, Masi Oka of Heroes dissed the WNBA when presenting the Best Team Sports Game Award, and Tyrese used the opportunity to promote his upcoming CD in the only ad-lib of the night.

The highlight of the evening came when comedienne Sarah Silverman brought her usual shtick of sarcastic humor to the stage, which was unfortunately lost on most of those in the crowd. She went on a tirade against gamers, saying they "should get an award for their work in AIDS prevention" because they simply stand no chance of getting laid.

Thankfully for those in attendance, Silverman's remarks apparently didn't apply to them. The MTV-generation audience continually filed out of the auditorium throughout the night muttering, "I don't even play video games."

The results of the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards are as follows (winners in bold):

GAME OF THE YEAR
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)
Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)
Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Harmonix)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)

CRITIC'S CHOICE
(game to be released after 11/15/2006 but before 12/31/2006)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)
Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony Computer Entertainment America/Insomniac Games)
Medieval II: Total War (Sega/Creative Assembly)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal)
Wii Sports (Nintendo)

BEST DRIVING GAME
Burnout Revenge, Xbox 360 (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games)
Need For Speed Carbon (Electronic Arts/EA Black Box)
TOCA Race Driver 3 (Codemasters)
GTR 2 (10tacle Studios/SimBin Development Team)

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego)
EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts/ EA Chicago)
Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Activision/Neversoft )
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)
Top Spin 2 (2K Sports/Power and Magic)

BEST ACTION GAME
Dead Rising (Capcom)
New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)
Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)
Saints Row (THQ/Volition)
Bully (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Vancouver)

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
NBA2K7 (2K Sports/Visual Concepts)
Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)
NCAA Football 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)
FIFA 07 (Electronic Arts/EA Canada)
NHL 07 (Electronic Arts/EA Canada)

CYBER VIXEN OF THE YEAR
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider: Legend (Eidos Interactive/Crystal Dynamics)
Alyx Vance - Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (Valve)
Princess Peach - New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)
Enrica - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft Montreal)
Jen - Prey (2K Games/ Human Head Studios/3D Realms)

BEST SONG
"LocoRoco No Uta" by Nobuyuki Shimizu and Kemmei Adachi, LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Studios Japan)
"Heavenly Star" by Genki Rockets, Lumines II (Buena Vista Games/Q Entertainment)
"Helicopter" by Bloc Party, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari/The Collective)
"Summer Shudder" by AFI in Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)
"Lights and Sounds" by YellowCard, Burnout Revenge-XBOX 360 (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games)

BEST SOUNDTRACK
Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Harmonix)
Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts/Tiburon)
Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds / Rockstar North)

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Clover Studio (Okami)
Relic (Company of Heroes)
Cliff Bleszinski /Epic Games (Gears of War)
Todd Howard / Bethesda Softworks (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
Harmonix (Guitar Hero 2)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)
Bully (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Vancouver)
Electroplankton (Nintendo)
Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)
Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)

BEST FIGHTING GAME
Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai)
Dead or Alive 4 (Tecmo/Team Ninja)
Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Midway Games)
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (Capcom)
God Hand (Capcom/Clover Studio)

BEST SHOOTER
Black (Electronic Arts/Criterion)
Prey (2K Games/ Human Head Studios/3D Realms)
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (Valve)
Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)
Call of Duty 3 (Activision/Treyarch)

BEST MILITARY GAME
Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)
Call of Duty 3 (Activision/Treyarch)
The Outfit (THQ/Relic)
Battlefield 2142 (Electronic Arts/EA UK/DICE UK)

BEST GRAPHICS
Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)
Okami (Capcom/Clover Studio)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)
Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)

BEST HANDHELD GAME
New Super Mario (Nintendo/Nintendo EAD)
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (Nintendo)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North)
Tetris DS (Nintendo)
LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment America/SCE Studios Japan)

BEST WIRELESS GAME
Diner Dash (Glu Mobile)
SWAT Force (Vivendi/KAOLink)
Tower Bloxx (Digital Chocolate)
Super K.O. Boxing (Glu Mobile)

BEST MULTI-PLAYER GAME
Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)
Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (Konami/Kojima Productions)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft Montreal)

BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Wii (Nintendo)
PS3 (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
DS Lite (Nintendo)
Electroplankton (Nintendo)

BEST PC GAME
Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (Valve)
Battlefield 2142 (Electronic Arts/Digital Illusions CE)
Star Wars: Empire at War (LucasArts/Petroglyph)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)

BEST RPG
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix)
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (Square Enix/tri-Ace)

BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE OR TV SHOW
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts/Traveller's Tales)
The Godfather (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)
Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment)
The Sopranos: Road to Respect (THQ/7 Studios)
Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN (MALE)
Seth MacFarlane in Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)
Gerry Rosenthal in Bully (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Vancouver)
Patrick Stewart in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks)
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (Bethesda Softworks/7 Studios/Buena Vista Games)
Kiefer Sutherland in 24: The Game (2K Games/SCEE Studios Cambridge)

BEST SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCE
Seth Green in Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)
James Woods in Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment)
James Caan in The Godfather (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)
Philip Michael Thomas in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North)
James Gandolfini in The Sopranos: Road to Respect (THQ/7 Studios)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN (FEMALE)
Vida Guerra in Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment)
Tia Carrere in Saints Row (THQ/Volition)
Emmanuelle Vaugier in Need For Speed Carbon (Electronic Arts/EA Black Box)
Keely Haws in Tomb Raider: Legend (Eidos Interactive/Crystal Dynamics)
Rosario Dawson in Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari/The Collective)

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Rachel Leigh Cook in Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix)
Elisha Cuthbert in 24: The Game (2K Games/SCE Studios Cambridge)
Brittany Murphy in Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Atari/The Collective)
Mila Kunis in Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)
Lynda Carter in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)

BEST CAST IN A GAME
The Godfather (Electronic Arts/EA Redwood Shores)
Family Guy (2K Games/High Voltage Software)
Scarface: The World is Yours (Vivendi/Radical Entertainment)
Saints Row (THQ/Volition)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)

MOST ADDICTIVE GAME
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda)
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (Nintendo)
Gears of War (Microsoft/Epic Games)
Guitar Hero 2 (Red Octane/Harmonix)
Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)