Uncharted 2 Nominated For Majority Of AIAS Awards

Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, receiving 15 nominations across 27 categories including Overall Game of the Year alongside Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed II and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The list of honored games was released today by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in advance of the award show to be held next month in Las Vegas during the D.I.C.E. Summit. Uncharted 2 was nominated for every category in which it would be possible for an online-enabled PlayStation 3 action/adventure game to be nominated, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Gaming, and Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering. Thirteen of the categories pertain to genres, platforms, and features not applicable to Uncharted 2, like Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack (for non-original music tracks), Portable Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Portable Game Design. Those were the only awards for which the game was not nominated. Uncharted 2 was also the only game to receive two nominations for any award; it got nods for Outstanding Character Performance on behalf of both the "Nathan Drake" and "Chloe Frazier" characters. Other highly-nominated games include Assassin's Creed II with 10 nods, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with nine, and Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum with eight; each of those games was nominated for Overall Game of the Year. The only game in that category with fewer than eight nominations is BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins, with two. The full list of nominees is available from the AIAS' official site (PDF link). Highlights follow: Overall Game of the Year - Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 - Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog), PlayStation 3 Outstanding Achievement in Game Design - Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Alphadream), NDS - Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap Games), PC - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog), PlayStation 3 Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 - Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Brutal Legend (Double Fine Productions), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 - Flower (Thatgamecompany), PlayStation 3 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog), PlayStation 3 Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Demon's Souls (From Software), PlayStation 3 - FarmVille (Zynga), PC/web - Flower (Thatgamecompany), PlayStation 3 - Scribblenauts (5th Cell Media), NDS - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog), PlayStation 3 Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering - Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 - Forza Motorsport 3 (Turn 10 Studios), Xbox 360 - Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve Software), Xbox 360/PC - New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo), Wii - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog), PlayStation 3 Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Machinarium (Amanita Design), PC - Resident Evil 5 (Capcom), Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog), PlayStation 2