Red Dead Redemption wins VGA 'Game of the Year'

by Andrew Yoon on Dec 11th 2010 10:20PM

There could only be one winner. After it was all said and done, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption took home the coveted Game of the Year prize from the VGA, besting Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Halo: Reach and Mass Effect 2.

Other noteworthy winners throughout the evening include Costume Quest's victory as downloadable game of the year, and Limbo's victory as indie game of the year. In addition, BSG's Tricia Helfer finally won an award for something, as a voice in Starcraft 2.

For the full list of winners, click past the break.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)

STUDIO OF THE YEAR

BioWare

BEST XBOX 360 GAME

Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)

BEST PS3 GAME

God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)

BEST Wii GAME

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo / Nintendo)

BEST PC GAME

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment)

BEST HANDHELD GAME

God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment / Ready At Dawn Studios)

BEST SHOOTER

Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision / Treyarch)

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)

BEST RPG

Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)

BEST MULTI-PLAYER

Halo: Reach (Microsoft / Bungie Studios)

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME

NBA 2K11 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)

BEST DRIVING GAME

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts / Criterion Games)

BEST MUSIC GAME

Rock Band 3 (MTV Games / Harmonix)

BEST SOUNDTRACK

DJ Hero 2 (Activision / FreeStyleGames)

BEST SONG IN A GAME

Far Away by José González (Red Dead Redemption)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)

BEST GRAPHICS

God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)

BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Chengdu)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE

Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker / Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions / Activision)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE

Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty / Blizzard Entertainment)

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME

Costume Quest (THQ / Double Fine Productions)

BEST DLC

Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME

Limbo (PlayDead)

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME

Portal 2 (Valve / Valve)

Tags: microsoft, nintendo, playstation, ps3, psp, Red-Dead-Redemption, sony, vga-2010, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (149)

Red Dead Redemption deserved the award. HANDS DOWN.

@Guts -- I totally agree. It was the only original game in the running and an excellent game at that.

Watching the VGA's once again they need to fix how they handle giving out awards.

Awards shouldn't just be thrown out there before a commercial break or just given to the winners before the show.

I find it disrespectful in a way for those winners.
They should get their time on the stage like everyone else.

Especially when after the 2 hour mark you just air the show again, i'm sure you could have worked a better schedule so everyone got a chance.

@Kenoji

You realize Red Dead Redemption is a sequel too, right?

@Kenoji Original? What are you talking about? It was a sequel.

@Guts

I'm certainly not saying it doesn't deserve the acclaim, it's a well made game, no doubt. But RDR bored me to tears. I can't get over what a complete snooze fest that was for me. A yawner galloping around with some real cheese characters and over the top voice acting.

Just another great example of a great game, and different strokes for different folks. My close friends that have played loved the absolute hell out of it, so I dunno precisely why it didn't click for me. Maybe I got worn down by GTAIV and just feeling like I was going through the motions just for the sake of it...

Side note, kinda neat to see Costume Quest sneak in there given it was only recently released.

@Faceless Troll
Not to mention a very similar game, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (though it did not include zombies), was released about 8-9 months earlier.

@Faceless Troll

Just because something is a sequel, doesn't mean it can't be original. It was the most "original" game of the nominees, hands down. GUTS is correct.

@Brian Griffin By definition a sequel is not original without some serious mental gymnastics.

@MarkezJM

We are in the minority Markez. I couldn't bring myself to finish the game, I just got so tired of tapping A repeatedly around the world. And John Marston was such a douchebag. Funny at first and ironically well-mannered. But that wore thin VERY quickly.

Outside of NPH as Spider-Man, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Rock Band 3 for music that list is terrible. The VGA's are such a joke, someone needs to shut that shit down. The who-had-the-biggest-budget-awards.

@Brian Griffin

How is Grand Theft Carriage original? The game took absolutely no risks outside of the animal skinning.

@Anticrawl
I don't mind being in that minority. I was very excited to get the game, but in the end, it treated me just like any GTA game before it: errand running between mission givers offering mostly boring, repetitive tasks. The gameplay wasn't massively fun in and of itself (fighting wasn't super fun to do ad nauseum, like it is in, say, Smash Brothers), and the story didn't step up to fill in the gap. Assassin's Creed had this problem in AC1...in AC2 the story stepped up and filled in the gap, with far superior content and pace.

I'd say I was holding out hope for RDR2, but Rockstar seems to focus all its effort on the environments, which is probably worth the price of the game all by itself, but it's still sad because it could be so much more.

RDR is more spiritual successor than sequel. If the name wasn't so similar no one would make the comparison.

@Anticrawl

Red Dead seemed like a huge financial disaster until the last few months before its release where everything came together.

I thought the NPH award was particularly dumb. He hosted the awards, so it felt sketchy from the start, but there's no way his performance was better than Fable 3's Jasper, Red Dead's Marston, or ME2's Illusive Man.

@MarkezJM

Couldn't agree more. I haven't been this bored with a game since Fallout 3!

@thund3rstruck yeah, yeah. I bet all you play is mindless shooter crap like COD. RDR was all about the atmosphere. It nailed it down like no cowboy game ever before. And now that you mention it, Fallout 3 is all about atmosphere and exploration too. If both games bore you, well... it's just because they're too much for you.

@(Unverified)

I thought the game was boring as hell, and I mostly play WRPG's.

@Grimcicle

thats more your problem than the game's problem.

@Guts

I'm confused on this... Best 360 game = Mass Effect 2, Best PS3 game = GoW3... RDR is out for both systems but did not win game of the year for either system? Yet it wins overall GotY?

I'll wait for the AIAS awards.

@Punkrawk Bbob G4 did a similar thing in 2008 when Fable 2 won GotY but didn't win any other categories.

@(Unverified)

Or it could be that riding a horse for 15 minutes in EVERY mission while listening to a voice that is so grating that it's almost ear rape isn't for everyone.

Seems like they were out to please everyone with the award winners this year.

@jeepgun

I agree. The winners should appeal to every gamer in some way.

And Red Dead Redemption is a wonderful game, definitely deserves all of the praise. Congratulations to you, Rockstar.

@jeepgun

Everyone except Nintendo fans

I'm glad Limbo won Best Independent Game.

I was pulling for ME2, but RDR was just as good.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga I think it would've been fantastic for an RPG to win GoTY instead of yet another pure action game.

@wcarnation

I hope you see the irony in that statement. ME2 is even more of an action game than RDR. If you wanted an RPG to win, then the award probably should've went to Fallout: New Vegas or something.

Still, my personal GOTY is easily ME2.

@EatSleepChuck Yes, dialog options, choices, character classes, etc. are all hallmarks of action games.

Huh. This being Spike, I figured that either Halo or CODBLOPS would win.

@Gibbeynator

Humour +1
You got a chuckle out of me for "CODBLOPS."

@Gibbeynator

Halo should have won. Reach is GotY in my book. I haven't put nearly as much time in any othe game thi year as Reach. It's the end of the decade defining franchise and it's the best of the series.

@ItsameMatt03 I think that what you're suffering from is what psychologists commonly refer to as an "opinion"... Sometimes contagious, but alas there have been reported cases of people having far worse symptoms than you... Unfortunately, there is no cure...

@piez I usually just go with BLOPS but you had to go with the CODBLOPS

@Gibbeynator - If you look at the list of awards given out, it is almost like it is designed so that everyone gets at least one or two awards. By making a category for "Best Xbox 360 Game" and "Best PS3 Game", you are essentially making room for whatever two games didn't win game of the year. How could Red Dead Redemption be GOTY, yet not the best game on either platform?

Not that it matters. The only reason the VGA's are worthwhile is the game announcements.

@BananaBoat Because it's a multi-platform game... Not a console exclusive...

@Turbogame

And Mass Effect 2 is not technically an exclusive either. It's "Microsoft-exclusive", as in you need a Microsoft-made OS (Windows or Xbox 360 with fancy NXE OS) to play it currently, but it's not an exclusive.

I'm surprised Reach didn't get it for the 360, not that I'm complaining about ME2 winning though. Both are huge games. I just figured they'd do the usual and give it to the big name first/second party game.

@Turbogame - I know, but that isn't the point though. The point is that those two categories essentially open up two spots for games that didn't win GOTY, in an arbitrary fashion. This would be like the academy awards having a category for films shot digitally, and for those shot on film, in addition to having a best picture category.

I know it's dumb to try to apply logic to the VGA's, but I can't help myself.

I agree w/ RDR winning Game of the Year. W/ all the crap R* San Diego had to go thru and possibly not making a dime from releasing the game. The game was great. 1 of the best games this year. Kudos to them.

I still don't agree w/ Black Ops winning best character. I mean, WTF?

I only watch the VGAs for the reveals and they did NOT disappoint. Not at all!

@MLC
It is sad that blops won any award other than the sold a shit load award. The game was fun but Bad Company 2 as a whole is a much better game.

@golfs4panzys

I guess you missed the part where COD Black Ops rightfully won "Best Shooter" and "Best character/characterization?"

@Brian Griffin

No I saw what it won and am arguing the "rightfully" part. The story was terrible and fell flat on its face in terms of character development. I'm not trying to champion Battlefield, I own blops I just don't think it was worthy of any award other than for selling a lot of copies.

Well, I can't say I'm disappointed, i enjoyed it. Glad that Black-ops didn't win it.

It definitely deserved it.

I approve this choice. For me it's probably a split decision between RDR and ME2 right now, but I still need to spend more time with AC:B.

Red Dead was my second out of the choices, so I'm pleased.

But sad for Mass Effect 2.

how does AC2 beat RDR for best action game, but not nominated for GOTY that RDR wins... goes to show you how much thought that put into the awards..

I am glad Limbo and Far Away won.

Read Dead Redemption is an excellent game, but that doesn't excuse Mario Galaxy 2 from not being nominated for several of these categories. You can't not pretend to conduct an orchestra while listening to galaxy 2's soundtrack.

Fantastic, well done RDR and Rockstar. Got my vote.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception trailer reveals 11/1/11 release

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Joyswag: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition 915 comments
Joyswag: Grasshopper Manufacture prize pack -- with NMH2 Hopper's Edition, OST & erotic comic 621 comments
Spike VGAs 2010: The liveblog 330 comments
Red Dead Redemption wins VGA 'Game of the Year' 149 comments
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception coming in 2011 137 comments