By Dave Rosen

"Gears of War Wins Big at The 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards at The Joint"

Comedian Jay Mohr hosted the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino inside The Joint. It was his second year hosting, and the event’s second year at the Hard Rock.

More popularly known as the DICE Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain), the awards show is one of the most prestigious honors in the video game industry, celebrating the years’ best in home console, PC, and portable games.

The red carpet leading into the event was filled with celebrities of the video game world from Sony World Studios president Phil Harrison to gaming pioneer Lord British, and men of the night former Nintendo of America founder and vice president, Minoru Arakawa (known throughout the building as Mr. A) and Howard Lincoln. The two were awarded the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Awards for their part in bringing the video game industry to America.

The show kicked off with a 30-minute stand-up introduction by Jay Mohr. He was dead on, although, like he told me on the red carpet, he didn’t really have any subject-specific material. “I pretty much have Rachael Ray jokes and Pearl Harbor jokes… that woman will eat anything,” he told me before we all got seated.

Jay Mohr

Regardless of being off-topic, he was still hilarious. “There’s not as many Japanese people here at there were last year… what’s going on?” He joked. While some may have argued the actual day-of Anna Nicole Smith’s death was a little too soon for joking, Mohr begged the differ. “She’s a junkie… that’s what junkies do – they die!” The crowd was a mixture of applause, laughter, and shock… but no boo’s.

He did have a little gamer-related material though. He rhetorically asked, “Am I gamer? Yea I’m a gamer… I get high all the time and take my team to the Super Bowl in Madden!” He also said that he has a little experience in the gaming industry as he recently did some voice-acting for the new “Scarface: The World Is Yours,” video game. When the makers of the game applauded him, he said, “what are you applauding for, it’s not winning anything!”

The first two awards of the evening were given for Outstanding Achievement in Animation and Art Direction. Kicking off the first two of it’s eight for 10 near-sweep, “Gears of War” picked up both, with the game’s main creator and current videogame-superstar Cliffy B accepting. “Don’t get sour at Cliffy when Gears of War is winning everything for the next two hours,” Mohr joked.

Howard Lincoln & Minoru Arakawa, Both Formerly of Nintendo of America - Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award (Together were responsible in bringing Nintendo to America and making videogames what they are today)

Up next were the handheld and cellular games of the year. Handheld was always going to be a toss-up between Nintendo games’ “Brainage” and “New Super Mario Bros.,” and the arguably surprise winner was “Brainage.” Mr. A himself went up to the podium to accept the award and joked, “Drinking too much alcohol like tonight doesn’t help my brain age.” Cellular game of the year went to “Orcs and Elves.”

CEO of Electronics Arts Larry Crost announced the Lifetime Achievement Awards for Lincoln and Mr. A. He wouldn’t let them take the stage, however, until he had a moment to mention their one true disaster, the critically and commercially panned Virtual Boy. Still, the applause was huge for two of the most important people in videogame history (I remember growing up and seeing Howard Lincoln’s picture in the back of my Nintendo Power Magazine’s every month). Mr. A thanked the fans and added, “Nintendo will be forever and the videogame industry will be forever.”

“Guitar Hero 2” and “Loco Roco” picked up a couple awards a piece including Best Soundtrack and Best Family Game for the former and Best Original Music and Best Children’s Game for the latter. After were new awards for best Male and Female performance in a videogame. Of course, male went to “Gears of War,” while female performance went to Rare’s quirky “Viva Piñata.” After Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime collected the Best Story/Character Development for the long-awaited, “The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess,” the much-coveted Role-Playing Game of the year was awarded to “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.”

Gameplay Engineering and Game Design were both picked up by the motion-controlled, “WiiSports,” to thunderous rounds of applause. An interesting category that didn’t even exist a few years back, Downloadable Game of the Year, went to Pop Cap’s “Bookworm Adventures.” Some of the most fun new games aren’t even sold in stores anymore, and are only available online via the internet.

Next was Online Game of the year, and for many, the best moment of the evening. The Presenter was Sony’s Phil Harrison, the winner was “Gears of War.” Once Cliffy B took the stage again, he thanked Microsoft for creating “such an amazing piece of hardware” for gaming – an obvious dig at Sony’s Playstation 3, and Harrison. The joke drew a lot of laughter from the crowd but no remark from Harrison. To most of the videogame world, Sony’s Playstation 3 is currently the more-expensive and less-exciting loser in the war between Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (the console which has “Gears of War”).

Cliffy B, Lead Designer / Creator of "Gears of War" (The biggest videogame of the year and winner of 8 awards at this show)

“Burnout Revenge,” won Best Racing Game, “Tony Hawk Project 8,” won Best Sports Game, and Best Simulation Game went to Microsoft’s “Flight Simulator X” for the PC. Strategy Game of the Year went to “Company of Heroes,” which was a huge underdog fan favorite and drew one of the biggest cheers of the night. First Person Shooter went to “Rainbow Six: Vegas,” a team-based shooter that imagines a terrorist attack on Las Vegas and needs to be seen to believed due to its intense level of graphics and realism. MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) Game of the year went to “Guildwars: Nightfall,” assumedly because “World of Warcraft” came out the year before.

“Fight Night: Round 3” won Best Fighting game, despite being a boxing game and not technically being a fighting game, and Action/Adventure Game was snagged yet again by “Gears of War,” with Cliffy B happily in tow.

After a heartfelt tribute to Danny Bunten, creator of such early classics as “M.U.L.E.,” and “Seven Cities of Gold,” it was on to the biggest awards of the evening.

PC Game of the Year was a shoe-in for “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,” but the big question was Console Game and Overall Game of the year. “Gears of War,” “The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess,” “WiiSports,” and “Guitar Hero 2” were four of the five nominees for both categories, with the only difference being “Viva Piñata” for console game’s fifth spot and “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” for the Overall Game’s final slot. Completing its’ domination of the evening and making for quite an unsurprising finale, “Gears of War” picked up both, and Cliffy B finally remembered to thank his mom for letting him stay up playing videogames all night.

It was a night full of very few surprised, but was still a great time. Jay Mohr was an excellent host, providing a lot of laughs, and doing a great job of stalling during some technical difficulties. Towards the end of the evening he asked if everyone wanted him back again next year. The crowd roared in approval, to which he responded, “good, cause you’re not gonna get Dane Cook next year so you might as well have me back!”