The National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers Corp. has announced the nominees for its eighth annual awards honoring the best of the interactive entertainment industry in the fields of art, technology, and production. A voting body of 950 eligible video game media critics, analysts, and journalists determined the final 209 nominees in 45 categories.
This year, the academy also announced special Honorary Awards to be given out for the first time in the organization's history. The first-ever recipients will be Mike Acton, Andy Burke, and Geoff Evans for their outstanding community contribution and dedication to Insomniac's NOCTURNAL INITIATIVE, a free open-source code, tools, and information sharing effort begun in 2008 that encourages better communication and lower development costs through the sharing of resources.
The nominees for Game of the Year are GEARS OF WAR 2, LEFT 4 DEAD, LITTLEBIGPLANET, METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOT and MIRROR'S EDGE, which leads with 12 nominations. Electronic Arts has more nominations -- 37 -- than any other publisher this year.
A complete list of nominees is available at http://www.navgtr.org/.
