The 4th annual Canadian Video Game Awards was held last Saturday, April 20, 2013 in conjunction with the second Fan Expo Vancouver at the Vancouver Convention Centre. These awards are to celebrate the games developed  in Canada and released in 2012. Winners were chosen by industry experts and insiders from across the country. This year I had a chance to attend as part of the audience (who's job was to clap real loud but we really didn't need any encouragement)!

 The CVA rolled out the red carpet for VIPs!

 VIPs sat at fancy tables in the front while the general public had seats in the back.

To the back of the room, XBox stations were set up so people could try out some games that were recently released including Gears of War: Judgement.


The award ceremony started off with an intro from Victor Lucas, creator and co-host of The Electric Playground.

Then quickly went on to a super hilarious video intro about this year's CVA host: Elias Toufexis. Who IS Elias Toufexis? He is an actor in both television and in videogames (and will do any kind of work - especially dog food). Elias is best known for playing the voice of llead character of Adam Jensen in Deus Ex: Human Revolution! The first time I saw him, I thought he looks a lot like Elijah Wood for some reason. lol He did an amazing job hosting the award ceremony. Super funny!

The first award of the night was for Best Visual Arts and that went to Far Cry 3 by Ubisoft Montreal.

The evening was littered with appearances from well known actors and celebrities from games and television series including Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale (Commander Shepard and FemShep from Mass Effect 1/2/3),

Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh, Battlestar Galactica), Aaron Douglas (Galen Tyrol, Battlestar Galactica), David Hayter (Solid Snake, Metal Gear),

 and Michael Mando (Vaas, Far Cry 3).

There were a few skits inbetween awards, the funniest was the "Videogame Hero Support Group" where Elias Toufexis, David Hayter, Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale sat down to discuss their woes from playing heroes in video games. They also poked fun at Michael Mando, who arrived in a super hero costume.

Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale's game Mass Effect 3 bagged three awards - Best Writing, Best Original Music and Best Console Game. (Doh! I got the PC version)

Another skit was with Elias Toufexis singing about his love of Nintendo...a little odd since there were no games nominated from Nintendo...but fun and nostalgic for sure.
 
Whenever Mark of the Ninja was mentioned, loud cheers erupted. Throughout the night they won a total of two awards - Best Downloadable Game and Best Indie Game.

I was kind of hoping the G-List was going to interrupt the ceremony this year as I've heard about them doing that in the past. No such luck but Christopher Bennett, aka MisterA, founder of the GList, was a presenter.

It was a big night for Far Cry 3 as it won 6 of the awards including Future Shop Fans' Choice Award, which was voted on by the public on Future Shop's site, and Game of the Year. Ubisoft's table was overflowing with awards as half of the all awards went to them! Assassin's Creed III won them the two other awards.


Hmm, maybe it's time to pick up a copy of Far Cry 3 for myself!

Here is a list of all the winners this year:

Best Visual Arts - Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Best Technology - Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft Montreal)
Best Audio - Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft Montreal)
Best New Character - Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft) - Vaas
Best Downloadable Game - Mark of the Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft)
Best Writing - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)
Best Game on the Go - Sound Shapes (Queasy Games/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Best Social/Casual Game - The Secret World (Funcom Games/Electronic Arts)
Best Game Innovation - Sound Shapes (Queasy Games/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Best Original Music - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)
Best Game Design - Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
Best Animation - Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
Best Console Game - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware/Electronic Arts)
Best Indie Game - Mark of the Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft)
Future Shop Fan's Choice Award - Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
Game of the Year - Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)

If you missed out on attending live, the Canadian Video Game Awards will be airing on television this week on Citytv Saturday April 27th 9-11pm and on G4 Sunday April 28th, 4-6pm, 8-10pm & 10-12am. Worth catching it! It was very entertaining! Congrats to all the winners and nominees!