Game Rant’s E3 2012 Awards: Nominations

Published 2 years ago by , Updated September 5th, 2012 at 9:13 am,

Best of E3 2012 Awards Nominations

Leading up to E3 2012, many of the big game announcements were unveiled early, from Star Wars 1313 to Gears of War: Judgment. Still, there were a few pleasant surprises during the five major press conferences — Watch Dogs and Beyond: Two Souls to name just two — in a year that focused heavily on software as the current console generation approaches the end of its life cycle.

After checking out nearly every single game available at the expo this year, the votes are in and Game Rant has selected the nominees for our Best of E3 2012 Awards.

Best Shooter

  • Aliens: Colonial Marines (Gearbox Software)
  • Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software)
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Treyarch)
  • Crysis 3 (Crytek)
  • DUST 514 (CCP Games)
  • Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
  • Halo 4 (343 Industries)
  • Medal of Honor: Warfighter (Danger Close Games)
  • Warface (Crytek)

Best Action/Adventure

  • Assassin’s Creed 3 (Ubisoft)
  • Dead Space 3 (Visceral Games)
  • Devil May Cry (Ninja Theory)
  • Gears of War: Judgment (People Can Fly)
  • God of War: Ascension (Sony)
  • Pikmin 3 (Nintendo)
  • Rayman Legends (Ubisoft)
  • Resident Evil 6 (Capcom)
  • Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics)
  • Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (High Moon Studios)

Best Sports/Racing

  • FIFA 13 (EA Sports)
  • Forza Horizon (Playground Games)
  • Madden 13 (EA Sports)
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Criterion Games)
  • NHL 13 (EA Sports)

Best Motion Controls

  • Dragon Ball Z Kinect (Spike ChunSoft)
  • Fable: The Journey (Lionhead Studios)
  • Game & Wario (Nintendo)
  • Just Dance 4 (Ubisoft)
  • Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth (Ubisoft)

Best Multiplayer

  • Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
  • God of War: Ascension (Sony)
  • Halo 4 (343 Industries)
  • Hawken (Adhesive Games)
  • Star Trek (Digital Extremes)
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Criterion Games)
  • PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SuperBot Entertainment)
  • Guardians of Middle-earth (Monolith Productions)

Best RPG

  • Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software)
  • Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (Square Enix)
  • South Park: The Stick of Truth (Obsidian Entertainment)
  • The Last Story (Mistwalker, AQ Interactive)

Best MMO

  • Dust 514 (CCP Games)
  • Neverwinter (Cryptic Studios)
  • PlanetSide 2 (SOE)
  • The Elder Scrolls Online (ZeniMax Online Studios)
  • Wizardry Online (Gamepot)

Best Indie Game

  • Joe Danger: The Movie (Hello Games)
  • Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
  • Pid (Might and Delight)
  • Sound Shapes (Queasy Games)
  • The Moonlighters (Red Dragon)

Best Original Game

  • Beyond: Two Souls (Quantic Dream)
  • Dishonored (Bethesda)
  • Project P-100 (Platinum Games)
  • Quantum Conundrum (Airtight Games)
  • The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)
  • Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)

Best Handheld Game

  • Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation (Ubisoft)
  • Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning (Natsume)
  • New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo)
  • Paper Mario: Sticker Star (Intelligent Systems)
  • Scribblenauts Unlimited (5th Cell)

Best Hardware

  • A50 Gaming Headset (Astro)
  • Razer Artemis for MechWarrior Online (Razer)
  • Tritton Warhead 7.1 Wireless Xbox 360 Headset (Mad Catz)
  • Wii U (Nintendo)
  • World of Warcraft Wireless Mouse & CS: GO Line (SteelSeries)

Most Innovative

  • Quantum Conundrum (Airtight Games)
  • SimCity (Maxis)
  • Xbox SmartGlass (Microsoft)
  • Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
  • Wii U (Nintendo)

Best in Show

  • Assassin’s Creed 3 (Ubisoft)
  • Dishonored (Bethesda)
  • Halo 4 (343 Industries)
  • Splinter Cell: Blacklist (Ubisoft)
  • Star Wars 1313 (LucasArts)
  • The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)
  • Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)

The nominations were decided by all 9 of the Game Rant staff in attendance at E3 and are based upon our previews, demos and hands-on experiences with all of the available titles at the event this year.

Share your thoughts on the picks and tell us what you believe deserves to win each category!

Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.

TAGS: 1 Vs 100, 2K Games, 343 Industries, 3DS, 5th Cell, Activision, Adhesive Games, Airtight Games, Aliens: Colonial Marines, All-Stars Battle Royale, Assassin's Creed 3, Astro, Bethesda, Beyond Two Souls, Black Ops 2, Borderlands 2, Call of Duty, Capcom, CCP Games, Criterion Games, Cryptic Studios, Crysis 3, Crystal Dynamics, Crytek Studios, Danger Close Games, Dead Space 3, Devil May Cry, Die Gute Fabrik, Digital Extremes, Dishonored, Dragon Ball Z Kinect, DUST 514, E3 2012, EA Sports, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Fable: The Journey, Far Cry 3, FIFA 13, Forza Horizon, Game and Wario, Gamepot, Gearbox Software, Gears of War Judgment, God of War: Ascension, Guardians of Middle-earth, Halo 4, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, Hawken, Hello Games, High Moon Studios, Intelligent Systems, Joe Danger 2 The Movie, Johann Sebastian Joust, Just Dance 4, Kinect, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Lionhead Studios, LucasArts, Mad Catz, Madden NFL 13, Marvel, Maxis, MechWarrior Online, Medal of Honor 2, Microsoft, Might and Delight, Mistwalker, Monolith, Move, Namco Bandai, Natsume, Naughty Dog, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Neverwinter, New Super Mario Bros. 2, NHL 13, Ninja Theory, Nintendo, Obsidian Entertainment, Paper Mario 3DS, Paramount Digital Entertainment, People Can Fly, Pid, Pikmin 3, PlanetSide 2, Platinum Games, Playground Games, Project P-100, PS3, Quantic Dream, Quantum Conundrum, Queasy Games, Rayman Legends, Razer, Red Dragon, Resident Evil 6, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Sega, SimCity, Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, Sound Shapes, South Park, Spike Chunsoft, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Square Enix, Star Trek, Star Wars 1313, SteelSeries, SuperBot Entertainment, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Last of Us, The Last Story, The Moonlighters, THQ, Tomb Raider, Transformers Fall of Cybertron, Treyarch, Turn 10 Studios, Ubisoft, Visceral Games, Vita, Warface, Warner Bros. Interactive, Watch Dogs, Wizardry Online, Xbox 360, ZeniMax Online Studios, ZombiU

9 Comments

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  1. Best Shooter
    Dust 514 – very open world concept from what I can tell, could be interesting.

    Best Action/Adventure
    AC3/GOW:A/TR – not sure which one will interest me more leading up to the releases, but each has unique aspects to them, AC3 might be my favourite though because of the naval aspect.

    Best Multiplayer
    I’m split between ST and Battle Royale, I know more about Royale and I’m drawn to it more because of the characters (still waiting for them to verify Jak/Daaxter, and Ratchet/Clank) although if the ST game is done well it could be fun too.

    Best Indie Game
    Soundshapes – nuf said

    Best Original Game/Most Innovative/Best in Show
    Choosing from your list I’d have to go with a 3 way tie: Watch Dogs (Ubisoft), Beyond: Two Souls (Quantic Dream) and The Last of Us (Naughty Dog), but if I had to I’d go so each has a category:
    Best Original Game – Beyond: Two Souls (Quantic Dream)
    Most Innovative – Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
    Best in Show – The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

  2. Best in show was, in my opinion Halo 4. Not a big fan of the franchise, but it looks like they are actually adding new and fresh gameplay to this game. The AI looks completly amazing too. Most of the other games seem to be adding the same old stuff. I will be keeping my eye out on Halo 4. The game I am mostly excited for is Aliens: Colonial Marines!

  3. Best Shooter – Far Cry 3

    Best Action/Adventure – Assassin’s Creed III definitely, soo much awesomeness packed into this game, it’s definitely as epic as Red Dead Redemption by now, which is REALLY tough to get to, in my books.

    Best Sport/Racing – Need for Speed – Most Wanted

    Best Motion Controls – Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth

    Best Multiplayer – Honestly can’t choose..FC3, Battle Royal, GoW, Halo 4

    Best RPG – Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance(Haven’t ever played it, but I have read one of the comics, it was strange but something completely out of this world and amazing with all those Disney characters. Also a trailer for this game looked really cool to me too)

    Best MMO – Dust 514

    Best Indie Game – Sound Shapes..?

    Best Original Game – REALLY hard…Watch Dogs – The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls….they ALL blew me away, though Watch Dogs might’ve been the most mindblowing one, while Beyond was the one that made my mouth gawp for the graphics, and while The Last of Us was really suspenseful.

    Best Handheld Game – Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation hands down, I am so close to buying a Vita, and when I do, it’s definitely going to be the epic ACIII:L PSVITA bundle.

    Best Hardware – lol, Wii U wins cause it’s bigger than the other stuff listed

    Most Innovative – Watch Dogs…that game’s whole trailer then gameplay was just mind blowing. o_o

    Best in Show – Assassin’s Creed III hands down, as if everything I saw in the Ubisoft conference wasn’t enough, NAVAL BATTLES!!!

    • And they showed some sweet stuff involving a tablet in our behind-closed-doors segment… :)

      • I’m guessing you are referring to Watch Dogs? Yes I heard about the tablet integration, but not much info on it. Do please write here anything you can tell me briefly. Or were you talking about ACIII having TABLET integration o_o

  4. Best Shooter- Halo 4

    Best Action/Adventurer- Rayman

    Best Sports- N/A

    Best Motion Controls- N/A

    Best Miltiplayer- Halo 4

    Best RPG- South Park

    Best MMO- N/A

    Best Indie Game- Pid

    Best Original- Watch Dogs

    Best Handheld- Paper Mario

    Best Hardware- Wii U

    Most Innovative- Wii U

    Best in Show- Halo 4

    I honestly don’t get people’s hype for The Last of Us. I mean, it looks like a cool game, and it come from a respected developer. But as my friend put it: “I don’t want to pay 60 bucks for a movie”

    • That is pretty sad, when you are playing the game more than 80% of the time with cutscenes here and there. Oh wait, maybe you just don’t like how reallistic it is and what a fine job they did on it that it looks as good as a movie. In which case, referring it to a movie would be a huge complement as to what an amazing job they have done with the game that it actually is better than most movies out there now-a-days. Oh right, cause it’s not set in some super sci-fy world it is considered a “move” than a game..cause otherwise Halo is just as much as a MOVIE as TLOU is lol…

      • I… I couldn’t really follow what you were saying, sorry.

        • which part?

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