Gaming industry's darling picks up even more awards

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Uncharted 2 once again swept the board at the Game Developers Choice Awards at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on the night of Thursday, March 11, winning five out of 11 categories.

The PlayStation 3 title won not only Game of the Year but also Best Visual Art, Best Technology, Best Writing, and Best Audio.

That only adds to the slew of silverware that Naughty Dog's game has picked up, which to date include Game of the Year awards from sites such as Yahoo!, Giant Bomb, Destructoid, Joystiq, Eurogamer, and Kotaku, as well as from the Spike Video Game Awards and the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

Batman: Arkham Asylum for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 won Best Game Design, while Scribblenauts on the DS won in the Best Handheld Game and Innovation categories.

The Best Debut went to Torchlight on PC and Mac, Flower on PS3 was judged to be the year's Best Downloadable Game, and the Best New Social / Online category was won by runaway Facebook hit FarmVille.

The Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Independent Games Festival awards, whose purpose is to celebrate the best in games produced by independent developers, usually without the use of proprietary game engines common in big budget commercial endeavors.

Previous finalists and winners have gone on to secure worldwide publishing deals, such as World of Goo, Castle Crashers, Audiosurf, Braid, and the game that eventually became the acclaimed Portal.

This year, frantic four-player heist game Monaco won the top prize, and psychedelic platform game Tuning scooped up the Nuovo award for innovation.

Though Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor had to concede Best Debut and Best Handheld Game at the GDCAs, its makers did not leave the Moscone Convention Center empty-handed, as it won the IGF Mobile Best Game award.

The GDCA ceremony was broadcast online by Gamespot and the archive video can be seen at gdc.gamespot.com

The full list of IGF Award Winners can be found at IGF.com