Adventure title leads Spike Video Game Awards with 3 trophies

‘Uncharted 2′ nabs top prize at VGAs

LOS ANGELES — The cinematic action adventure “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” nabbed three prizes including game of the year at the Spike TV Video Game Awards.

The PlayStation 3 exclusive was named top game for that console and honored for its graphics at the awards show Saturday night at the LA Live complex in downtown, which featured appearances from Stevie Wonder, Green Day and Jack Black. Snoop Dogg and The Bravery performed.

“I want to see the companies that make these video games make them accessible so that people like myself can enjoy them too,” Wonder said before presenting the best music game award to “The Beatles: Rock Band.”

Green Day announced that they would be featured in a similar standalone title by game maker Harmonix, “Green Day: Rock Band,” to be released next year.

Jake Gyllenhaal promoted his Jerry Bruckheimer-produced action movie based on the “Prince of Persia” games, due out next summer, and presented the game of the year award.

“Uncharted 2″ earned raves from critics when it was released in October, and from attendees Saturday ranging from actor Zach Braff to “Gears of War” designer Cliff Bleszinski.

“We knew when we were making this game it was going to be good, but nobody could have predicted this kind of success,” said Nolan North, the voice actor who plays “Uncharted 2’s” lead character Nathan Drake.

He said he and developers at Naughty Dog studios had celebrated the game’s big sales “by kicking around ideas for ‘Uncharted 3,’ because that’s what we want to do.”

Zachary Quinto of “Star Trek” said he’d be lending his voice to the upcoming massively multiplayer online game “Star Trek Online.” Mike Tyson made an appearance alongside the cast of MTV’s new “Jersey Shore” reality show, who hogged attention backstage.

“Everybody in the green room is pushing all these mega-celebrities out of the way,” Braff said. “Get out of the way Sam Jackson, I think ‘The Situation’ is coming in.”

Besides the awards, the show’s focus was on never-before-seen previews of upcoming titles, including the rebooted, Afghanistan-set “Medal of Honor,” ”Batman: Arkham Asylum 2,” ”Crackdown 2,” ”The Force Unleashed 2″ and “Halo: Reach.”

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On the Net:

www.spike.com/event/vga2009