D.I.C.E. 07: Gears grabs gold

via gamespot

On the surface, the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (IAAs) seemed a lot like the Ninth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Same venue (The Joint at Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel & Casino), same host (actor/comedian Jay Mohr), and same elbow-rubbing with industry celebs.

However, this year's coinciding D.I.C.E. Summit, put on by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), has grown, and in turn so has the IAA show. This year's awards show was of particular interest, as it is the first AIAS awards show to include all three new game consoles.

Journalist Heather Chaplin interviews AIAS president Joseph Olin on the red carpet.
The awards show went off with just one technical hitch, which was filled with Mohr's semi-humorous tales of his cat fornicating. But as far as awards shows go, the AIAS pulled off a winner. Though there were plenty of people pulling for their own creations, the crowd, made up of industry big wigs and not the randoms off the street like Spike TV's Video Game Awards, clearly appreciated a worthy winner.

The real fight to watch was between two of the most critically acclaimed games of the year--Epic Games' Gears of War and Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion took home the top prize at December's Spike TV Video Game Awards, both were matched up tonight for Game of the Year, and both will go head-to-head at the GDC Awards in March.

Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski and Michael Capps accept Game of the Year honors in Las Vegas.
Over the course of the show, it was a dominating performance by Gears of War, which walked away with eight awards. The shooter took the very first two awards, prompting host Mohr to say, "Let's not get all sour after we're here for one-and-a-half hours for Gears of War. Don't get pissy. Just get a cocktail."

Gears won the awards for Outstanding Character Performance - Male, Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Online Play, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, Action/Adventure Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, and Overall Game of the Year.

Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime stands guard over the Lifetime Achievement Awards handed out earlier in the night to Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln.
One of the more surprising victors of the evening was Nintendo's pack-in Wii game, Wii Sports. If a category dabbled in innovation or game play, Wii Sports grabbed it. The game took home the awards for Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Outstanding Innovation in Gaming.

However the award for best reception of an award goes to Cliffy B, accepting the prize for Gears' win for Outstanding Achievement in Online Play. The prize was presented by Sony president of worldwide studios Phil Harrison, and when Gears was announced as the winner, many an eye widened in the crowd.

Sid Meier introduces the Hall of Fame award, given this year to M.U.L.E. designer Dani Bunten. Dani's two sons accept the award on their father's behalf.
As Cliff accepted the award, he made sure to mention how robust the Xbox 360's online capabilities were--a not-too-veiled dig at Harrison's PlayStation 3. Harrison took the jab in good humor even when Cliff left the stage without an acknowledgement to Harrison, and chuckled as he approached the microphone to present the next award. These are the moments that make award shows like this.