Rock Band tops Game Critics Awards

Nearly three weeks after the 2007 E3 Media and Business Summit closed up shop, its best games are still being lauded. One week after GameSpot gave its own E3 kudos, a jury of game journalism's most prominent members has handed out the Game Critics Awards to the event's top titles.

With Will Wright's two-year title holder Spore absent at this year's E3, the Best of Show award passed to Rock Band. Nominated a record five times, Harmonix's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 rhythm game picked up two other awards: Best Hardware for its peripherals and Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game. The only other multiaward winner was BioWare's sci-fi role-playing game Mass Effect. It was nominated in three categories, and walked away with Best Console Game and Best Role-Playing Game.

While multiple award winners have been common in previous years, the sheer quantity of big-budget, high-quality titles imminently poised to flood the market has dispersed the awards more evenly this year. However, many games received several nominations, including Activision's modern-day shooter Call of Duty 4 and Irrational Games' underwater shooter BioShock with four apiece, as well as Bethesda's postapocalyptic Fallout 3 and Sony's quirky LittleBigPlanet with three a pop.

Whereas Nintendo's platforms walked away as the definitive winner of last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, they ranked dead last this year. The Wii and Nintendo DS garnered a combined 16 nominations and two wins, compared to Microsoft's Xbox 360 alone receiving 38 nominations and 11 wins and Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable tallying a combined 33 nominations and eight wins.

Now in its ninth season, the Game Critics Awards annually name the best-in-show winners in various categories for E3. The selection panel comprises 36 gaming journalists drawn from a pool of print and online gaming news sources such as GameSpot, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times.

A complete breakdown of this year's nominees is listed below, with winners marked in bold.

Best of Show
BioShock (Irrational Games/2K Games for PC, Xbox 360)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision for PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Mass Effect (Bioware/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)
Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Original Game
BioShock (Irrational Games/2K Games for PC, Xbox 360)
de Blob (Blue Tongue/THQ for Wii)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule/SCEE for PS3)
Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Wii Fit (Nintendo for Wii)

Best PC Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Crysis (Crytek/Electronic Arts)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Splash Damage/id/Activision)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
World in Conflict (Massive Entertainment/Sierra)

Best Console Game
BioShock (Irrational Games/2K Games for Xbox 360)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Mass Effect (BioWare/Microsoft Games Studio for Xbox 360)
Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo for Wii)

Best Handheld Game
Contra 4 (WayForward/Konami for Nintendo DS)
Dead Head Fred (Vicious Cycle/D3 for PSP)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (Ready at Dawn/SCEA for PSP)
Silent Hill: Origins (Climax/Konami for PSP)
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo for Nintendo DS)

Best Hardware
PSP-2000 (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Rock Band Instruments (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Wii Balance Board (Nintendo for Wii)
Wii Zapper (Nintendo for Wii)

Best Action Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Crysis (Crytek/EA for PC)
Halo 3 (Bungie/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Retro Studios/Nintendo for Wii)
Unreal Tournament 3 (Epic Games/Midway for PC, PlayStation 3)

Best Action/Adventure Game
Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft for PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
BioShock (Irrational Games/2K Games for PC, Xbox 360)
Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory/SCEE for PlayStation 3)
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo for Wii)
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Naughty Dog/SCEA for PlayStation 3)

Best Fighting Game
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft for Xbox 360)
Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega for Xbox 360)
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 (Yuke's/THQ for Nintendo Wii)

Best Role-Playing Game
Eternal Sonata (Namco Bandai Games for Xbox 360)
Fable 2 (Lionhead/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Hellgate: London (Flagship Studios/EAP for PC)
Mass Effect (BioWare/Microsoft Games Studio for Xbox 360)

Best Racing Game
Burnout Paradise (Criterion Games/EA for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Need for Speed ProStreet (EA Black Box/EA for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Bizarre Creations/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)
Stuntman: Ignition (Paradigm/THQ for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)

Best Sports Game
Madden NFL 08 (Tiburon/EA for All Systems)
Skate (EA Black Box/EA for PS3, Xbox 360)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Tiburon/EA Sports for PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (Neversoft/Activision for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Strategy Game
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (Firaxis/2K Games for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (Relic/THQ for PC)
Halo Wars (Ensemble Studios/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)
Universe at War: Earth Assault (Petroglyph/Sega for PC, Xbox 360)
World in Conflict (Massive Entertainment/Sierra for PC)

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Neversoft/Red Octane/ATVI for PS2, PS3, 360, Wii)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule/SCEE for PS3)
Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Wii Fit (Nintendo for Wii)
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Capcom for Wii)

Best Online Multiplayer Game
Burnout Paradise (Criterion Games/EA for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Splash Damage/Nerve/id/ATVI for PC, PS3, 360)
Halo 3 (Bungie/Microsoft Games Studio for Xbox 360)
Little Big Planet (Media Molecule/SCEE for PlayStation 3)
Unreal Tournament 3 (Epic Games/Midway for PC, PlayStation 3)