Predictable end-of-year praise from faceless critical consortiums isn’t just limited to films and music, as Saturday also saw Spike TV’s eighth annual Video Game Awards—which at least livened things up by filtering their opinions through ingratiating song-and-dance man Neil Patrick Harris. In addition to keeping his social skills limber, Harris actually took home a prize of his own—a “best performance by a human male” trophy for playing Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions—which was one of the few accolades of the night not awarded to Red Dead Redemption or Mass Effect 2. Rockstar Games’ mostly wild Western took home Game of The Year honors, along with Best Song (for José González’s “Far Away”), Best Original Score, Best Downloadable Content, and easily would have nabbed Best Endless Herb-Picking Scenes, were that a category.
Meanwhile, Mass Effect 2 won best Xbox game and best RPG, while its creator Bioware was recognized as Studio of the Year. Other big winners: Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer was named best female performer for her role in Starcraft II; Wings Of Liberty, Call Of Duty: Black Ops won Best Shooter and Character of the Year (for Sgt. Frank Woods), Halo: Reach was awarded Best Multiplayer, Assassin’s Creed took Best Action Adventure, God Of War III was named Best PS3 Game, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 got Best Wii Game. You can see the full list of winners and nominees here. [via AP]