Busy Night At The VGA's; Uncharted 3, Elder Scrolls V, Forza 4

It's been a big weekend for videogame announcements in the run-up to Christmas, with Spike TV's Video Game Awards (or the VGA's) taking place last night. But it wasn't just the awards which had us all enticed to the sometimes immature and mediocre scene of events at the yearly show, which saw Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption pick up the gong for 'Best Game of the Year', in spite of the exceptional quality of rival games (most notably Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2) and Limbo awarded 'Best Independent Game', despite a 2 out of 5 rating from us at DTG.


There were plenty of surprises in store with brand new announcements for long-rumoured but as-yet loosely detailed titles, with a brand new Elder Scrolls revealed by Bethesda, entitled The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (see our full news story), more details on Uncharted 3, subtitled 'Drake's Deception' and coming to the PS3, exclusively again, on the 1st November 2011. The game will heavily feature water on Drake's new quest to find the “Atlantis of the Sands”.


Meanwhile, Forza Motorsport 4 was announced by Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios, alongside a packshot and a reveal trailer that was mostly live-action, but also documented a 'Fall 2011' release window, as well as including the Kinect support (for car-lovers everywhere), and, oddly enough, a 'Top Gear' logo on the end screen. Will we be seeing the Top Gear Test Track for the second time after GT5's inclusion?


Mass Effect was the next high profile target on the VGA agenda, from Bioware but of course now not exclusive for Microsoft platforms, with Mass Effect 2 making its way to Sony's PS3 early 2011. A Christmas 2011 release has been pencilled in for the third in Commander Shepard's sci-fi saga.


But there was still plenty more in store; Batman: Arkham City added to its villain roster with Hugo Strange, Prototype 2 was confirmed, and SSX: Deadly Descents received a full announcement and trailer that seems to  be taking the snowboarding franchise into much darker territory with a revamped look and feel. The description of the game justifies the video - “the first goal is to survive. The second, in true SSX fashion, is to look good doing it”.


Finally, Resistance 3 was shown off once more with a trailer that was equal parts live-action and gameplay screens, with lead character Joseph Capelli lovingly glancing at his loved one's portrait, but then becoming enthralled in Chimera-scorching action, with the trailer cutting at the end before we get to see some Red Faction-like hammer action. 


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