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Finalists & Winners

Honoring the Best Games of 2004

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Eugene Jarvis

Legendary arcade game developer

First Penguin Award

Richard Allan Bartle, Ph.D

Founding father of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs)

Maverick Award

Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj

Founders and leaders of Blast Theory, an internationally renowned interactive media artists' group

IGDA Award for Community Contribution

Sheri Graner Ray

Revered advocate of women's interests in game development

Best Game

Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Ken Birdwell, Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly

Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion Games / Electronic Arts)
- Paul Glancey, Chris Roberts, Paul Cross, Fiona Sperry, Alex Ward

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games)
- Leslie Benzies, Adam Fowler, Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, Alexander Roger, Obbe Vermeij

Katamari Damacy (Namco)
- Keita Takahashi

World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Mark Kern, Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo

New Studio

Crytek (Far Cry)
- Avni Yerli, Cevat Yerli, Faruk Yerli

Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes)
- Michael Lewis

inXile entertainment (The Bard's Tale)
- Brian Fargo, Matthew Findley

Obsidian Entertainment (Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords)
- Chris Avellone, Chris Jones, Darren Monahan, Chris Parker, Feargus Urquhart

The Behemoth (Alien Hominid)
- John Baez, Tom Fulp, Brandon LaCava, Dan Paladin

Excellence in Audio

Halo 2 (Bungie Software / Microsoft Game Studios)
- C Paul Johnson, Marty O'Donnell, Jay Weinland

Call of Duty: Finest Hour (Spark Unlimited / Activision)
- Jack Grillo, Caleb Sweazy

Doom 3 (id Software / Activision)
- Christian Antkow, John Carmack, Tim Willits

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games)
- Craig Conner, Allan Walker

Katamari Damacy (Namco)
- Yu Miyake

Character Design

Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Ted Backman, Dhabih Eng, Bill Fletcher, Bill Van Buren

Katamari Damacy (Namco)
- Keita Takahashi

Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Entertainment)
- Nicolas Bouvier, Mickael Labat

Sly 2: Band Of Thieves (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- Travis Kotzebue, Dev Madan

World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Brandon Idol, Chris Metzen

Game Design

Katamari Damacy (Namco)
- Keita Takahashi

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games)
- Leslie Benzies, Adam Fowler, Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, Alexander Roger, Obbe Vermeij

Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly

Pikmin 2 (Nintendo)
- Masamichi Abe, Hino Shigefumi

World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Chris Metzen, Rob Pardo

Technology

Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Yahn Bernier, Brian Jacobson

Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion Games / Electronic Arts)
- Alex Fry, Ciaran Rooney, Paul Ross, Hamish Young

Doom 3 (id Software / Activision)
- John Carmack, Robert Duffy, Jan Paul van Waveren

EyeToy: AntiGrav (Harmonix Music Systems / Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew

Far Cry (Crytek / Ubisoft Entertainment)
- Timur Davidenko, Vladimir Kajalin, Andrey Khonich, Anton Knyazyev, Cevat Yerli

Visual Arts

World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Sam Didier, William Petras, Justin Thavirat

Doom 3 (id Software / Activision)
- Andy Chang, Seneca Menard, Kenneth Scott

Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Viktor Antonov, Randy Lundeen

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)
- Hiroyuki Hayashi, Chie Kawabe

Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Entertainment)
- Mickael Labat, Patrick Limoges

Writing

Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Marc Laidlaw

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games)
- Dan Houser, James Worrall

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (High Voltage Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
- Matt Entin, Ed Kuehnel, Eric Nofsinger

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)
- Nate Bihldorff, Ryota Kawade

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Obsidian Entertainment / LucasArts Entertainment)
- Chris Avellone

Innovation

Donkey Konga (Namco / Nintendo)
- Hiroshi Igarashi, Hiroyuki Onoda

I Love Bees (4orty2wo Entertainment / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Elan Lee

Katamari Damacy (Namco)
- Keita Takahashi