AIAS 2011 nominees revealed, Uncharted 3 and Portal 2 lead the pack

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has revealed its list of contenders for the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, naming the Nolan North, Cole Phelps, and GLaDOS vehicles as this year's biggest nominees.

Leading the pack is Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog), which earned a total of 12 nods, followed closely by Portal 2 (Valve) with 10 mentions, and L.A. Noire (Team Bondi) with 9. Oddly enough, despite its showing, L.A. Noire is not listed among the nominees for Game of the Year. Instead, both Uncharted 3 and Portal 2 will compete for the top prize against Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady Studios), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda), and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo).

The full list of AIAS Award nonimees includes other notable categories and nominations including:

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Battlefield 3 (DICE)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games)
Gears of War 3 (Epic Games)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Media Molecule)
Star Wars: The Old Republic(BioWare Austin)

Downloadable Game of the Year
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
Drawn: Trail of Shadows (Big Fish Games)
Insanely Twisted Shadown Planet (Shadow Planet Productions)
Ms. Spolosion Man (Twisted Pixel Games)
Orcs Must Die! (Microsoft Games)

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Dark Souls (From Software)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare Austin)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (CD Projekt)

Sports Game of the Year
FIFA 12 (EA Canada)
Madden NFL 12 (Tiburon)
MLB 11 The Show (SCE San Diego Studio)
NBA 2K12 (Visual Concepts)
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition (EA Canada)

Fighting Game of the Year
Fight Night Champion (EAC)
King of Fighters XIII (SNK Playmore)
Mortal Kombat (NetherRealm Studios)
Super Street Fighter 4: 3D Edition Ultimate (Capcom)
Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Capcom)

The 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards will also feature the induction of Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney in to the AIAS Hall of Fame, and awarding of arcade visionary Ed Logg with AIAS' 2012 Pioneer Award.

The big show goes February 9 in Las Vegas. Let us know which games you're rooting for in the comments below.

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.