Summer vacation totally sucks; youre not in a strict learning environment and you regularly have the soul-crushing decision of either staying in bed until noon or waking up early to trick youngsters into painting fences for you. Before you even think about hitting that mid-July slump, Microsoft has already tasked its super-scientists with conquering the flesh-eating disease that is Summer Boredom with combat-space-shooter, Project Sylpheed and the stealth-horror-shooter, Vampire Rain. Project ...
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Here are the winners and runners-up for all the categories:

Game of the Year: BioShock
Runners-up: Rock Band, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, The Orange Box

Most Innovative: Rock Band
Runners-up: Portal, Assassin's Creed, Crush, Super Paper Mario

Best Writing: Mass Effect
Runners-up: BioShock, Portal, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Adrenaline Rush: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Runners-up: God of War II, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Project Gotham Racing 4, Halo 3

Best Jiggle Factor: Heavenly Sword
Runners-up: Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Conan, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Guiltiest Pleasure: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Runners-up: Stranglehold, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Overlord, Mario Strikers Charged

Best Portable Game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Runners-up: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, Silent Hill: Origins, Dead Head Fred

Worst Game: Vampire Rain
Runners-up: Jackass: The Game, Lair, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, The Eye of Judgment, Hour of Victory

[ Judges: Scott Alexander, Damon Brown, John Gaudiosi, Scott Jones, Marc Saltzman, Scott Stein and Scott Steinberg ]
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente writes:

"Our first-ever Game of the Year awards was a pretty straight forward deal. I asked all of the writers to submit a list of three games for each category and the three that showed up most in each category made it as a finalist. Once we had the list of finalists I asked each writer to go through and order the finalists and then tallied the vote. The one with the most points was named Game of the Year, the runner-up was named Not Quite Game of the Year. The game with the most votes for Worst Game of the Year received that dubious honor."

Super Mario Galaxy won Kotaku's Overall Game of the Year award. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune came as second, it won the Not Quite Game of the Year award. (Kotaku posted the overall results as a separate post, see the link at the Alternative Sources below for more details.)
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Vampire Rain Demo
The price is free
Availability Not available in Germany, Korea, Taiwan or the United States
Size 844.71 MB
(ESRB: M (MATURE) Blood and Gore, Intense Violence] Vampire Rain combines stealth, survival horror and shooter aspects of your favorite games as you lead a black ops unit to secretly eliminate the deadliest supernatural enemies you've ever faced.
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AQInteractive thank fans for supporting Vampire Rain by releasing a bonus mission for Free! You can download this content via Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace (New Arrivals).

VR Bonus Level 2
Thanks for supporting Vampire Rain. Ready for another gathering mission? Play as Duane Hanson in this bonus level to see how fast you can pick up all required equipment for your mission. Difficulty: 3 stars. Requires full retail game.
Price: Free
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After last week's mini release resurgence, which perhaps topped out with Starbreeze Studios' incredibly atmospheric pseudo RPG-edged, first-person shooter The Darkness (PS3, Xbox 360), this week sees a typical trough arriving hot on the heels of a modest peak. And so, it's off back to the summer doldrums following a tantalisingly brief glimpse of what the gaming scene really should look like.

GamerSquad has the full listings.
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Microsoft Brings the Rain

"Vampire Rain" for Xbox 360 goes gold, unleashing an assault on Nightwalkers everywhere with the launch of the game's official website, Fan Site Kit and new trailer

Microsoft today announced that "Vampire Rain," the frighteningly entertaining Xbox 360 title developed by Artoon, has gone gold and will be shipping to stores on July 3 with an estimated retail price of $59.99.

"Vampire Rain" combines stealth, survival horror and shooter aspects of your favorite games as you lead a black ops unit to secretly eliminate one of the deadliest supernatural enemies you will ever face. Known as Nightwalkers, this highly evolved new breed of Vampire is intensely fast with super agility and they are converting humans to their kind at an alarming rate. Gamers prepared to enlist in an elite hit squad to rid the world of Nightwalkers can find additional information at the game's official website, which launched today at www.vampirerain.com.

For the truly courageous, and those who aren't afraid to go out in the rain without their umbrellas, the game's official Fan Site Kit is also available and can be downloaded at www.vampirerain.com. The Fan Site Kit includes artwork, skins, screenshots, forum avatars and more assets for webmasters to create their very own "Vampire Rain" fan site.

Still not scared of the Nightwalkers? Check out a new trailer of the game, which will surely make players want to sleep with the light on. The trailer is available for free download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and at www.vampirerain.com.

Nightwalkers beware, it's about to rain, or better yet, it's about to pour!
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If you are a brave soul, you might want to check out the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace for the Vampire Rain demo. Of course, there were rumors circulating for a while that MS was banning accounts that downloaded outside their region so, be careful.
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Summer is a notoriously slow time for game news and releases; when everyone is talking about something as poor as Spider-Man 3, you know you're in trouble. Microsoft has a plan, though: dump three games developed in Japan on the same day, June 29. If nothing else it'll be good for a story (ahem) and it will show that Japan hearts the 360. It's a stretch, but it's the summer. What can we expect to see?
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Gamervision reports: "In what appears to be an ongoing trend this year, GameStop has removed This is Vegas from their computers. The Midway title was supposed to be released last year, but was pushed back around the same time The Wheelman was. Since then, The Wheelman was released, and until this point, the release of This is Vegas was up in the air. Amazon still lists the title for a November 30th release, but with no screenshots, trailers, previews, or news in the past few months, GameStop is likely acting on more than a hunch.When asked for a comment, WB PR was quick to reply."
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