The dark futuristic action-horror game from Epic Games was nominated for 10 awards and walked away from eight at the ceremony at the Hard Rock Casino Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The "Gears of War" trophy haul included overall game of the year, action-adventure game of the year and console game of the year.
Nintendo's Wii Sports was second on the night with three Interactive Achievement Awards. That will comfort Nintendo somewhat after its showcase title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess won in just one (story and character development) of six nominated categories.
The big win for Gears of War will be celebrated at Microsoft. The game is exclusive to the Xbox 360 console.
"Gears" is the brainchild of creative director Cliff Bleszinski but the Epic team in Cary, N.C., had plenty of Canadian content.
Epic vice-president Mark Rein is from Toronto and four other Canucks worked on the project: producer Rod Fergusson of Ottawa, engine programmer Dave Burke of Charlottetown, and level designers Dave Ewing of Walkerton, Ont., and Warren Marshall of Hamilton.
There were also Canadian wins for Vancouver developer Relic Entertainment and Ubisoft's Montreal studio.
Relic's Company of Heroes was named strategy game of the year. The real-time strategy game for the PC was nominated in four other categories.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas, from Ubisoft Montreal, was named first-person action game of the year.
"Gears of War" also won outstanding achievement awards for animation, art direction, online game play and visual engineering and won for outstanding male character performance.
The only nominations it failed to convert into trophies were game play engineering and innovation in gaming, which both went to "Wii Sports." The Nintendo game also won for outstanding game design.
Released in early November, "Gears of War" has sold more than three million copies. Gears was the top-selling title in Canada in November and December and finished the year third overall in sales.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Guitar Hero 2 and LocoRoco each won two awards.
The awards are administered by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a non-profit group made up of some 9,000 members of the entertainment software industry.
The finalists were selected by senior members of the group and the winners chose in a vote of all members, according to the Academy.
The awards are administered by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a non-profit group made up of some 9,000 members of the entertainment software industry.
The finalists were selected by senior members of the group and the winners chosen in a vote of all members, according to the Academy.
The Academy honoured Minoru Arakawa, the former president of Nintendo of America, and Howard Lincoln, chairman emeritus of Nintendo of America, with Lifetime Achievement Awards.
It also inducted video game pioneer Danielle Bunten Berry (born Dan Bunten) as the 10th member of its Hall of Fame. Bunten died of cancer in 1998, six years after undergoing a sex change.
In 2000, Will Wright dedicated his game The Sims to her memory.
