One can easily argue that the Spike Video Game Awards are probably a great deal more useful for their exclusive reveals than they are for actual award giving. Still, there are awards being given at the show, though if you're following Geoff Keighley on Twitter, you'd only barely notice it, since those announcements are more or less buried under the pile of exclusive teases he's amassed for himself, like a chipmunk hoarding delicious, exclusive acorns.
Keighley teased a few notably big exclusives via his Twitter feed today. Most notably, he exclaimed that the "truth" regarding Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Kojima Productions' barely spoken of side venture featuring the deeply polarizing character Raiden, would be unveiled at the show. Obviously we don't know what that truth is, but one can presume given that Hideo Kojima himself will be on hand to reveal it, it's probably some kind of new trailer, and maybe a release date. That said, it'd be pretty funny if he just showed up to say, "Oh, that game? It's canceled. I'm busy working on this transfarring thing."
Another reveal involves Alan Wake, Remedy's critically-acclaimed horror/action game from 2010. Apparently some kind of new Alan Wake something or other will be shown during the broadcast. It's possible this will be the Alan Wake thing that was supposed to manifest itself at E3 this year, but inexplicably didn't.
Lastly, Keighley teased a new BioWare game from "a new studio." Feel free to start chewing through that sentence looking for clues, or just wait for the December issue of Game Informer, which will apparently have some teaser images.
Now then, onto the awards, which have only partially been revealed. Most notably, the nominees for Game of the Year have been posted, and they include the following 2011 gems:
- Batman: Arkham City
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
- Portal 2
- Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
"But wait!" you exclaim, "How can these games that aren't even out yet be nominated for a GOTY award?!?" Fun fact: VGA judges get copies of these games in advance of voting, ensuring they get a chance to play them. So don't worry your pretty little noggins about this situation, all games have very likely been played.
Lastly, the hilarious award for "Most Anticipated Game" still exists, and features the following five titles:
This is a fan-voting category, though on the plus side, the nominees were picked by the voting officials, so at least these aren't, like, "sponsored" nominees, or what have you. Still, it's hard to get too excited for a category that essentially amounts to voting for which game has the most appealing PR campaign--which, by the way, you can do if you head over to official VGA site.