Spike TV Announces 2004 Video Game Award Winners

American cable TV channel Spike TV has announced the winners of its “Video Game Awards 2004”, in a live telecast held last night. Hosted by hiphop star Snoop Dogg, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas won the most 'Vector Monkey' awards, with four wins to its name. Despite some curious award categories, such as Best Performance By A Human, Cyber Vixen Of The Year and Best Song in A Video Game, and a presentation format which had some 'hardcore' gamers unhappy at the celebrity and sponsor-driven presentation, most of the winners appeared to be largely deserving of their accolades. The victors were chosen by Spike TV’s advisory board, made up of a group of gaming industry experts, headed by former AIAS boss Gordon Bellamy, and numbering journalists including Geoff Keighley (Business 2.0, GameSpot), Chris Morris (CNN Money), and Noah Robischon (Entertainment Weekly). This was augmented by consumer voting in three separate categories. The full winners of the Spike TV awards are as follows: GAME OF THE YEAR Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games) BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (Vivendi Universal Games) BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN – FEMALE Brooke Burke – Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts) BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN – MALE Samuel L. Jackson – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games) CYBER VIXEN OF THE YEAR BloodRayne – BloodRayne 2 (Majesco Games) BEST DRIVING GAME Burnout 3: Takedown (Electronic Arts) BEST SPORTS GAME Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts) BEST FIGHTING GAME Mortal Kombat: Deception (Midway) BEST ACTION GAME Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games) BEST FIRST PERSON ACTION Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios) BEST SONG IN A VIDEO GAME Green Day “American Idiot” – Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts) BEST SOUNDTRACK Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games) DESIGNER OF THE YEAR Jason Jones and Bungie Studios, for Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios / Bungie Studios) MOST ADDICTIVE GAME – VIEWERS CHOICE Burnout 3: Takedown (Electronic Arts) BEST GAMING PUBLICATION – FAN FAVORITE Game Informer BEST GAMING WEB SITE – FAN FAVORITE www.gamespot.com BEST MILITARY GAME Call of Duty: Finest Hour (Activision) BEST PC GAME Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games) BEST WIRELESS GAME Might and Magic (Gameloft) BEST GRAPHICS Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games) BEST NEW TECHNOLOGY Nintendo DS (Nintendo) BEST HANDHELD Metroid: Zero Mission (Nintendo) BEST MASS MULTI-PLAYER GAME City of Heroes (NCsoft) BEST RPG Fable (Microsoft Game Studios)