Gears of War wins big at Interactive Achievement Awards

The 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards have at long last confirmed a growing, industry-wide suspicion: Gears of War is pretty good. In a ceremony held last night at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences bestowed eight shiny statuettes upon Epic Games' monsters vs. testosterone epic. In addition to winning overall Game of the Year, it picked up gongs for Console Game of the Year, Online Game Play, Animation, Art Design, Visual Engineering, Outstanding Character Performance and Action/Adventure Game of the Year.

Wii Sports waggled three awards out of the academy, including ones for Outstanding Innovation, Gameplay Engineering and Game Design. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Guitar Hero II and Loco Roco all came away with double wins, whereas The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess made off with a single prize for Outstanding Story and Character Development (in your face, Saint's Row!). Inaugural Lifetime Achievement awards went to Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln, for their involvement with the NES and the rebuilding of a shattered games industry during the 1980's.

Check out the full list of winners after the break.

Read -- AIAS press release [PDF]

Game of the Year

Overall
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Computer
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (P: 2K Games, D: Bethesda Softworks, Executive Producer: Todd Howard)

Console
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Handheld
• Nintendo Brain Age (P: Nintendo, D: Nintendo, Producer: Shinya Takahashi, Game Director: Kouichi Kawamoto, Creative Directors: Kouichi Kawamoto, Noriko Kitamura, Masamichi Sakaino, Shinji Kitahara, Yoshinori Katsuki, Tadashi Matsushita, Masura Nishida)

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming

• Wii Sports (P: Nintendo, D: Nintendo, Executive Producer: Satoru Iwata, Producer: Katsuya Eguchi, Game Directors: Keiza Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita)

Outstanding Achievement

Animation
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Art Direction
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Soundtrack
• Guitar Hero 2 (P: Activision/Red Octane, D: Harmonix, Producer: John Tam, Game Director: Daniel Sussman, Creative Director: Josh Randall)

Original Music Composition
• LocoRoco (P: Sony Computer Entertainment, D: Sony Computer Entertainment, Producer/Game Director/Creative Director: Tsutomo Kouno)

Sound Design
• Call of Duty 3 (P: Activision, D: Treyarch, Producer/Game Director/Creative Director: Treyarch)

Story and Character Development
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (P: Nintendo, D: Nintendo, Producer: Shigeru Miyamoto, Game Director: Eiji Aonuma, Executive Producer: Satoru Iwata)

Game Play Engineering
• Wii Sports (P: Nintendo, D: Nintendo, Executive Producer: Satoru Iwata, Producer: Katsuya Eguchi, Game Directors: Keiza Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita)

Online Game Play
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Visual Engineering
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Game Design
• Wii Sports (P: Nintendo, D: Nintendo, Executive Producer: Satoru Iwata, Producer: Katsuya Eguchi, Game Directors: Keiza Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita)

Outstanding Character Performance

Male
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Female
• Viva Piñata (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Rare, Producer/Game Director/Creative Director: Greg Mayles)

Genre Awards

Sports Game of the Year
• Tony Hawk Project 8 (P: Activision, D: Neversoft Entertainment, Producer; Chris Parise, Game Director/Creative Director: Brian Bright)

First-Person Action Game of the Year
• Rainbow Six: Vegas (P: Activision, D: Neversoft Entertainment, Producer; Chris Parise, Game Director/Creative Director: Brian Bright)

Role-Playing Game of the Year
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (P: 2K Games, D: Bethesda Softworks, Executive Producer: Todd Howard)

Fighting Game of the Year
• Fight Night Round 3 (P/D: Electronic Arts, Producer: Kudo Tsunoda, Game Director: Keith Morton, Creative Director: Darren Bennett)

Action/ Adventure Game of the Year
• Gears of War (P: Microsoft Game Studios, D: Epic Games, Producer: Rod Ferguson, Game Director: Michael Capps, Creative Director: Cliff Bleszinski)

Racing Game of the Year
• Burnout Revenge (P: Electronic Arts, D: Criterion Games, Creative Director: Alex Ward, Criterion Games)

Children's Game of the Year
• LocoRoco (P: Sony Computer Entertainment, D: Sony Computer Entertainment, Producer/Game Director/Creative Director: Tsutomo Kouno)

Downloadable Game of the Year
• Bookworm Adventures (P/D: PopCap, Producer/Game Director/Creative Director: Tysen Henderson)

Family Game of the Year
• Guitar Hero 2 (P: Activision/Red Octane, D: Harmonix, Producer: John Tam, Game Director: Daniel Sussman, Creative Director: Josh Randall)

Simulation Game of the Year
• Microsoft Flight Simulator X (P/D: Microsoft Game Studios, Producer: Shawn Firminger, Game Director: John Licata, Creative Director: Patt Cook, Jason Waskey)

Strategy Game of the Year
• Company of Heroes (P: THQ, D: Relic, Producer/Game Director: John Johnson, Creative Director: Sean Dunn)

Massively Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year
• Guild Wars Nightfall (P: NCsoft, D: ArenaNet, Producer: Jay Adams, Game)

Mobile Game of the Year
• Orcs and Elves (P: Electronic Arts Mobile, D: Fountainhead Entertainment, Producer/ Game Director/ Creative Director: John Carmack, Katherine A. Kang)