Spike TV's VGA Awards 2011: Highlights, Thoughts, and Videos

Another year, another VGAs. As you may have expected, awards were given out, games were acknowledged, and premieres were had. All-in-all, the show went off without a hitch (unless Zachery Levi saying Arkham "Asylum", instead of Arkham "City", counts as a hitch).

But that probably doesn't matter so much to you. At the moment, you probably don't care about Levi's little flub, or the apparent practical joke Deadmau5 played on Sony by "leaving" his PS Vita in a cab. No, what you probably want to know of is which games won what awards. And let's not forget the games that made their world premieres Saturday night.

So enough with the intro. Time to get this article rolling.

What won what?

Game of the Year

Of the more than 25 categories, it was the Game of the Year that was easily the most anticipated. Up until the very end, no one knew which of 2011's greatest contenders – Batman: Arkham City, Portal 2, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – would come out on top.  So who came out on top? Which game took home the little blue statue this year?

Here's a hint: it's not Skyward Sword (grumble, grumble), but it does have the word "Sky" in it. Yes, folks, Skyrim, with its massive open world and deep gameplay capable of sucking gamers in for a very long time, rose above the competition to take home the coveted award. 

Not bad for a game where you can rob people blind by placing buckets on their heads. 

Notable Awards

Being the winners of the Game of the Year award, it should come as no surprise that Bethesda took home the next big prize: Studio of the Year. And while we're still on the topic of Skyrim, the game also took top honors for Best RPG.

Throughout the awards, the other four Game of the Year nominees made their presence known, with Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Skyward Sword, and Portal 2 winning the awards for Best Xbox, PS3, Wii, and PC Games, respectively. Add to these, awards like Best Graphics (for Uncharted 3), Best Action Adventure (for Arkham City), and Best Motion Game (Skyward Sword), and it doesn't take too great a stretch of the imagination to say these games dominated the show. But if one of these games is to be acknowledged for bringing them in, it has to be Portal 2, which, besides being Best PC Game, took home Best Multiplayer, Best DLC, and both awards for Best Performance (way to go, GLaDOS and Wheatley).

While those games took the VGAs by storm, plenty of other popular games made their impression. The first two that come to mind are Super Mario 3D Land, winner of Best Handheld / Mobile Game, and Bastion, which dominated the music-related awards (Best Original Score and Best Song in a Game), and won Best Downloadable Game. Other notable titles include Forza Motorsport 4 (Best Driving Game), Mortal Kombat (Best Fighting Game) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Best Shooter).

Being a Legend of Zelda fan, I was more than a little disappointed when Skyrim won Game of the Year. After all, Skyward Sword got more perfect scores from critics than Skyrim and the other nominees (just saying). Despite losing this year to Bethesda, Nintendo still had a pretty awesome moment of glory during the awards. The moment I speak of is when the franchise became the first to be inducted into the VGAs newly debuted Hall of Fame, which was made all the sweeter by an awesome video compilation of footage from across the series, and an acceptance speech made by Shigeru Miyamoto himself.

Exciting stuff, isn't it? But I'm not done yet. I've still yet to mention…

The Big Fancy World Premieres

There were a lot of trailers at this year's show, and if they are any indication of how these games will turn out, then there'll be plenty of action-packed madness to look forward to in the next year and beyond (note: the following is not listed in any specific order)

Rainbow 6: Patriots – Don't make the Patriots angry

While Rainbow 6: Patriots is still more than a year away, we do know that Ubisoft's newest entry in the series will involve the battle against a group of domestic terrorists, known as the "True Patriots", whose goal is to take back the country they believe the government and corporations have taken from them.

Rainbow 6: Patriots trailer (probably shouldn't let the kids watch)

And, judging by the trailer that debuted at the VGAs, this group means business. In just less than a minute, we see the Patriots beat up a corrupt corporal bigwig, shoot him, throw him out through his office's window, and then, before he hits the ground, sets off the bombs they strapped to him. Grisly stuff, yes, but at least these are the bad guys. You wouldn't see the hero easily dispatching his foes without flinching.

Oh, wait…

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