BioShock, Portal top GDC Award noms

While the vast majority of Best of 2007 awards already adorn their creators' mantles, a few of the more prestigious ceremonies remain for the month ahead. Last week, organizers of the D.I.C.E. Summit threw their support behind 2K Boston/Australia's BioShock with an impressive 12 Interactive Achievement Awards nominations, followed closely by Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with 10 nods.

Today, the CMP Game Group issued its list of nominees for the 8th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be held in concert with the Independent Games Festival on February 20 as part of this year's Game Developers Conference. Not unlike the IAAs, 2K Boston/Australia's BioShock tops the list of nominees with five nominations. Sharing BioShock's limelight is Portal, the unexpectedly sharp first-person shooter packed in with Valve's Orange Box, which received a similar quintet of award nods. Both BioShock and Portal were named as Game of the Year contenders, alongside Call of Duty 4, Harmonix's Rock Band, and Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy.

Whereas Psychonauts creator and Double Fine Studios head Tim Schafer was master of ceremonies at last year's award show, CMP has tapped Jak and Daxter creator and Naughty Dog founder Jason Rubin to host this year's event. The Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony will be held in concert with the Independent Games Festival on February 20. GDC 2008 will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from February 18-22.

This year's nominees are listed in full below.

Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4
Portal
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Best Game Design:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4
Mass Effect
Portal
Super Mario Galaxy

Best Visual Art:
Assassin's Creed
Team Fortress 2
Crysis
BioShock
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Technology:
Halo 3
Crysis
Call of Duty 4
Portal
Assassin's Creed

Best Writing:
Portal
God of War II
Mass Effect
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
BioShock

Best Audio:
Call of Duty 4
Everyday Shooter
BioShock
God of War II
Mass Effect

Best Debut:
Crackdown (Realtime Worlds)
flOw (ThatGameCompany)
The Witcher (CD Projekt)
Everyday Shooter (Queasy Games)
Aquaria (Bit Blot)

Innovation:
Rock Band
Portal
flOw
Peggle
Mass Effect

Best Handheld Game:
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Phase
Contra 4
Peggle (for iPod)

Best Downloadable Game:
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Everyday Shooter
Peggle
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (XBLA version)
flOw