AIAS 2011 Awards winners revealed

By Robert Purchese Published 10 February, 2012

Skyrim dominates the evening.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was crowned Game of the Year at this year's video gaming Oscars, the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards.

Skyrim won five awards in all, including those for story, RPG/MMO, game direction and gameplay engineering.

Beaten RPG/MMO competitor Star Wars: The Old Republic was recognised for its Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Portal 2 both took home three awards. Uncharted 3 took the technical awards for best art direction, animation and visual engineering.

Portal 2 took the awards for connectivity, character performances and music. Portal 2 was crowned Eurogamer's Game of the Year 2011, if you're wondering.

Modern Warfare 3 won the Action Game of the Year category; Battlefield 3 won Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design.

Batman: Arkham City won best adventure game.

FIFA 12 won best sports game, Forza Motorsport 4 best racing game and Mortal Kombat 9 best fighting game.

LittleBigPlanet 2 won best family game, Infinity Blade 2 best mobile game and Super Mario 3D Land best handheld game.

Downloadable game Orcs Must Die! won best strategy game, and downloadable game Orcs Must Die! won best strategy game.

Downloadable Title of the Year, meanwhile, went to the terrific Bastion.

Fruit Ninja won best casual game, and The Sims Social won best social networking game.

Finally, Skylanders won Best Innovation in Gaming.

  • Bastion - Downloadable Title of the Year
  • Batman: Arkham City - Adventure Game of the Year
  • Battlefield 3 - Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Action Game of the Year
  • FIFA 12 - Sports Game of the Year
  • Forza Motorsport 4 - Racing Game of the Year
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect - Casual Game of the Year
  • Infinity Blade II - Mobile Game of the Year
  • LittleBigPlanet 2 - Family Game of the Year
  • Mortal Kombat - Fighting Game of the Year
  • Orcs Must Die! - Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
  • Portal 2 (3) - Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, Outstanding Character Performance (Wheatley), Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity
  • Skylanders Spyro's Adventure - Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic - Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
  • Super Mario 3D Land - Handheld Game of the Year
  • The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (5) - 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
  • The Sims Social - Social Networking Game of the Year
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (3) - Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering

With Skyrim's Creation Kit toolset released, the game is just beginning on PC.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 4 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ZizouFC #1 4 months ago

    What is up with the lack of Dark Souls in these things?

  • xXHamdamcwaXx #2 4 months ago

    Downloadable game Orcs Must Die! won best strategy game, and downloadable game Orcs Must Die! won best strategy game.
    So good it won it twice? :-)

  • revan8 #3 4 months ago

    Mw3 awards Pisses me off more than it should. Action game of the year?? Just no. It is an average shooter on rails, might as well play virtua cop. I even saw it got nominated for story award, wtf. Any game that shows Russia got its naval fleet to new york undetected is retarded. Oh and then Russia managed to seek a battalion of tanks into Paris is laughable. Saints row story is more realistic and that doesn't take things seriously. Most other awards fair. Skyrim will win most goty awards and bf3 more than deserves its sound award.

  • arcam #4 4 months ago

    @ZizouFC I guess it wasn't commercially successful enough. In almost every case, the game that won was the most successful game in its genre/category, and only the biggest publishers seem to be represented.
    Edited by arcam at 10/02/12 @ 09:31

  • Piccadillio #5 4 months ago

    I was wondering where Skyward Sword was before I remembered how much I hate Skyward Sword.

  • bad09 #6 4 months ago

    Glad OMD! won something, brilliantly fun game that deserves more love!

  • Ultrasoundwave #7 4 months ago

    Skyrim deserves all the success it gets to be honest. Outstanding Achievement. :cool:

  • Darren #8 4 months ago

    Portal 2 had music??? I honestly never noticed it... I must have been concentrating too hard on solving those puzzles... :confused:

  • mccappind #9 4 months ago

    •Mortal Kombat - Fighting Game of the Year

    Never thought I'd see Mortal Kombat pick up an award.

  • Darren #10 4 months ago

    @revan8 - The AIAS Awards are not voted by the public but by "field specific and qualified members" so it isn't surprising to see big-selling titles getting a "pat on the back". I'd have been surprised if Call of Duty: MW3 didn't receive some sort of recognition even though I don't particularly rate the game myself.

  • Colin8703 #11 4 months ago

    @mccappind I'm just as surprised considering that King of Fighters XIII is so good.

  • Po1ymorph #12 4 months ago

    Happy to see Bastion in there. Sad to see awards for "inovation" not being given to Dark Souls.

  • axman303 #13 4 months ago

    Correction!

    Dark Souls - Adventure Game of the Year
    Dark Souls - Fighting Game of the Year
    Dark Souls - Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
    Dark Souls - Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
    Dark Souls - Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
    Dark Souls - 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
    Dark Souls - Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering

  • dose #14 4 months ago

    So game of the year can be released bugged-as-fuck and unplayable on one of the systems? Awesome.

  • Skyclad #15 4 months ago

    Why is it that everyone is complaining about no Dark Souls in each and every of these topics about some awards?
    Get over it!

    I love Saints Row The Third as well and in my opinion, Bulletstorm was the best shooter in 2011 - but do I lose anything out of those games if they don't get picked?
    No.

    *Flame shield initialised*

  • kirinnokoshin #16 4 months ago

    Bar one lone wolf (SM3DL) not a single Japanese developed game won an award.

    Two of the most critically acclaimed games of the year Skyward Sword and Dark Souls, not a mention.

    AIAS, sponsored by Gamespot.

    Nuff said.

  • jonfon #17 4 months ago

    Good news for Orcs Must Die, great game which Steam forced me to buy over Xmas (stupid Steam Sales)

    I forgave it once I started playing.

  • Colin8703 #18 4 months ago

    @Skyclad There's a lot to be said more about the lack of recognition for the title than it not actually winning. In my opinion, it was a genuine breath of fresh air that the industry needed and it provided a sense of place like no other title last year.

    Despite Skyrim being a great game, there should be no denying that it was bugged to shit and should have had another six months to polish it up into a releasable piece of software.

    Edit: I didn't neg you by the way.
    Edited by Colin8703 at 10/02/12 @ 10:41

  • Bloobat #19 4 months ago

    personally I thought that D:SF was the best driving game but al the other awards are sound!

  • Skyclad #20 4 months ago

    @Colin8703 I agree. Not mentioning Dark Souls is a bit odd.

    Skyrim is definitely not perfect, especially on a PS3. However, it gave me the feeling of having purchased a complete game with tons of content - without any sort of day 1 DLC!

    Plus,even if it is a great game as well, Dark Souls has its shortcomings, too: The story didn't develop until late, the gameplay was great but far too repetitive, and the setting of bonfires was ridiculously annoying.

    But bottom line is repeating the (partly justified) claim again and again won't help. Dark Souls is good - but not good enough for most people.

  • guernican #21 4 months ago

    I would also like to complain at length about why my favourite didn't win.

  • jonfon #22 4 months ago

    @guernican
    You call that "at length"?

    Hand in your Forum Ranters Union card at the front desk and get out.

    ;)

    Edit : Dear lord the EG "winking" emoticon is deformed looking.
    Edited by jonfon at 10/02/12 @ 13:51

  • Machetazo #23 4 months ago

    The one that shocked me was Elder Scrolls V Skyrim winning Best Game Direction, over Arkham City and Portal 2.
    Skyrim, for all that it is, and it achieves, is often disparate and doesn't resolve it's tasks at all well. Their world isn't complete, it exists in little patches of activity.

    I feel that more was asked of Portal 2, and Arkham City. Yesterday, Sefton Hill of Rocksteady mentioned that one of their design goals on AC was to put as much detail in to a smaller space, rather than build out Gotham, with the intent that anywhere a player went, they would find a feature-rich, polished experience to enjoy. I think that took some doing, to buck the trend and lead what I can only suppose was an especially tight, and motivated ship, at their studio whilst making that game.

    I can agree though, of any award that Modern Warfare 3 ought to have won, and my own experience from its campaign is that it's a strong contender/worthy winner, it would be Action Game of the Year. I felt like I was playing a movie part, and that game showed commendable scope, and ability to realise the scenarios it presented through its visuals and audio, to capture a sense of awe, and often apparent danger.

    About Dark Souls, the game was actually nominated in the Best Adventure Game catagory.
    Edited by Machetazo at 10/02/12 @ 13:56

  • king26 #24 4 months ago

    Dark Souls is a brilliant game, but it isn't very innovative as it's the sequel to the genius Demon's Souls.
    I'm also pissed of about MW3 winning awards, Batman uses it's licence to kid people, Infamous 2 was head and shoulders above.

  • wattsn26 #25 4 months ago

    Modern Warfare 3, Best Action Game? They do determine the winner of these awards on quality right, not just how much "action" there is...