Saturday night Spike aired the 2010 Video Game Awards hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.  Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption beat out CoD: Black Ops, God of War III, Halo: Reach, and Mass Effect 2 for the coveted Game of the Year award; Redemption also won Best Original Score and Best DLC for “Undead Nightmare.”  Mass Effect 2 managed to prove its worthiness by taking home Best RPG and Best Xbox 360 Game; game developer Bioware was crowned Studio of the Year.  Other notable winners include: God of War III (Best Graphics, Best PS3 Game), CoD: Black Ops (Best Shooter), Halo: Reach (Best Multiplayer Game), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Best Wii Game), and Limbo (Best Independent Game).

In addition to handing out awards, the VGAs are also used as a platform for game developers and studios to premiere titles and announce surprises about future releases.  The biggest announcements include: Mass Effect 3 is slated for a Holiday 2011 release; Professor Hugo Strange has been confirmed as Batman: Arkham City‘s main villain (in a new fantastic CGI trailer it is revealed that Strange knows Batman’s true identity); Bethesda Studios put together a teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the game’s set to release November 11, 2011; Insomniac Games’ Resistance 3 ships September 6, 2011; Activision officially announced a sequel to Prototype and it’s expected to drop in 2012; Turn 10 is bringing Forza Motorsport 4 to Xbox 360 in Fall 2010 with Kinect support; EA resurrected the SSX franchise with SSX: Deadly Descents, and gone are the cartoony graphics–they have been thrown out and a more realistic approach to the snowboarding genre has been implemented; Thor: God of Thunder will complement the superhero’s spring theatrical release on May 3, 2011; Kratos, the protagonist of the God of War franchise, is confirmed as a playable character in the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot game (he’s a PS3 exclusive); developer Volition (Red Faction, Saints Row) is teaming up with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Hell Boy, Pan’s Labyrinth) to create a horror game called Insane due out at in 2013; and finally Naughty Dog closed out the show with an extended trailer for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and revealed it’s release date: 11/1/11.

Hop after the break to see the full list of winners and watch game trailers for the titles mentioned above.

[Via Spike; IGN; CraveOnline]

Studio of the Year
•    BioWare
•    Blizzard Entertainment
•    Bungie Studios
•    Rockstar San Diego

Best Wii Game
•    Donkey Kong Country Returns
•    Kirby’s Epic Yarn
•    Metroid: Other M
•    Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best Xbox 360 Game
•    Alan Wake
•    Fable III
•    Halo: Reach
•    Mass Effect 2

Best PS3 Game
•    God of War III
•    Heavy Rain
•    ModNation Racers
•    Red Dead Redemption

Best PC Game
•    Fallout: New Vegas
•    Mass Effect 2
•    Sid Meier’s Civilization V
•    StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Best Handheld Game
•    God of War: Ghost of Sparta
•    Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
•    Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
•    Super Scribblenauts

Best Shooter
•    Battlefield: Bad Company 2
•    BioShock 2
•    Call of Duty: Black Ops
•    Halo: Reach

Best Action-Adventure Game
•    Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
•    God of War III
•    Red Dead Redemption
•    Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best RPG
•    Fable III
•    Fallout: New Vegas
•    Final Fantasy XIII
•    Mass Effect 2

Best Multiplayer Game
•    Battlefield: Bad Company 2
•    Call of Duty: Black Ops
•    Halo: Reach
•    StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Best Individual Sports Game
•    EA Sports MMA
•    Shaun White Skateboarding
•    Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
•    UFC Undisputed 2010

Best Team Sports Game
•    FIFA Soccer 11
•    Madden NFL 11
•    NBA 2K11
•    MLB ’10: The Show

Best Driving Game
•    Blur
•    ModNation Racers
•    Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
•    Split/Second

Best Music Game
•    Dance Central
•    DJ Hero 2
•    Def Jam Rapstar
•    Rock Band 3

Best Soundtrack
•    Def Jam Rapstar
•    DJ Hero 2
•    Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
•    Rock Band 3

Best Song in a Game
•    Basket Case by Green Day
•    Black Rain by Soundgarden
•    Far Away by José González
•    GoldenEye by Nicole Scherzinger
•    Replay/Rude Boy Mashup by Iyaz & Rihanna
•    Won’t Back Down by Eminem

Best Original Score
•    God of War III
•    Halo: Reach
•    Mass Effect 2
•    Red Dead Redemption

Best Graphics
•    God of War III
•    Heavy Rain
•    Kirby’s Epic Yarn
•    Red Dead Redemption

Best Adapted Video Game
•    LEGO: Harry Potter: Years 1-4
•    Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
•    Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
•    Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
•    Transformers: War for Cybertron

Best Performance by a Human Male
•    Daniel Craig as James Bond
•    Gary Oldman as Sgt. Reznov
•    John Cleese as Jasper
•    Martin Sheen as Illusive Man
•    Nathan Fillion as Sergeant Edward Buck
•    Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man
•    Rob Wiethoff as John Marston
•    Sam Worthington as Alex Mason

Best Performance by a Human Female
•    Dame Judi Dench as M
•    Danica Patrick as Herself
•    Emmanuelle Chriqui as The Numbers Lady
•    Felicia Day as Veronica
•    Jennifer Hale as Commander Sheppard
•    Kristen Bell as Lucy Stillman
•    Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan
•    Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson

Best Downloadable Game
•    Costume Quest
•    Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
•    Monday Night Combat
•    Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Best DLC
•    BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den
•    Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
•    Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
•    Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare

Best Independent Game
•    Joe Danger
•    Limbo
•    Super Meat Boy
•    The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom

Most Anticipated Game
•    Batman: Arkham City
•    BioShock: Infinite
•    Gears of War 3
•    Portal 2

Game of the Year
•    Call of Duty: Black Ops
•    God of War III
•    Halo: Reach
•    Mass Effect 2
•    Red Dead Redemption