GDC Announces Nominees for 2010 Choice Awards

The Game Developer Conference has released their nominees for the 2009-2010 GDC Choice Awards ceremony to be held March 11th, 2010.   Unlike many other video game awards, these are peer based.   Like the Academy Awards, it is people in the game development industry choosing who they believe did the best work for the year.  

The Game Developers Choice Awards are open to any video game, with no restrictions or payment for game submission, and Main Competition finalists are chosen via a combination of open game industry nominations and the votes of the leading creators in the Choice Awards Advisory Committee. Starting this year, winners are now being selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is a new invitation-only group, comprised of 500 leading game creators from all parts of the video game industry. Choice Awards organizers believe that, in tandem with their goal of having the most focused, impartial awards in the game industry, this additional voting transparency will further boost the awards' reputation. SOURCE

For the complete list, please visit this LINK.

Best Game Design 
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady) 
Assassin's Creed 2 (Ubisoft Montreal) 
Flower (thatgamecompany) 
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog) 
Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap) 

Best Visual Art
Borderlands (Gearbox Software)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Flower (thatgamecompany)
 
Best Writing
Brutal Legend (Double Fine)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Halo 3: ODST (Bungie)
 
Innovation
Scribblenauts (5th Cell)
Flower (thatgamecompany)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Demon's Souls (From Software)
 
Game Of The Year
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Demon's Souls (From Software)
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)

Blasphemy for L4D2 not being nominated for Best Writing. I think L4D2 should replace ODST cuz it  had awful dialogue.

Nice, Demon's Souls noms.  Decent nominations all around.

only one I would question is best visual art for Modern Warfare 2...I'm sure there are plenty of other games that have better art direction and/or graphics.  Brutal Legend, Ratchet and Clank, and Demon's Souls all come to mind.  Street Fighter 4 as well actually...that got snubbed completely unless I missed it, guess it doesn't fit into any of the categories very well.

How can Demon's Souls be on there?  That's just some niche market that the bulk of gamers don't have access too. That's utterly ridiculous.  They might as well have nominated the UNIX text-version of Hack for GOTY.

" How can Demon's Souls be on there?  That's just some niche market that the bulk of gamers don't have access too. That's utterly ridiculous.  They might as well have nominated the UNIX text-version of Hack for GOTY. "