Nathan Drake hoping to take home more shiny trinkets at AIAS awards

We're in the thick of awards season, and video games are no exception. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced its finalists for the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ("The 'Racties" -- we're kidding but that's what they should be called), and, as you might have guessed, award hog Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the pack with 15 nominations. The rest of the nominees include more of the usual suspects from 2009: Assassin's Creed II with 10 noms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with nine and Batman: Arkham Asylum with eight. This year's awards also features three new categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Portable and Social Networking Games of the Year.

You can find a list of selected categories and their nominees after the break, or check out the Academy's full list in PDF form. The awards will be given out at the DICE Summit on February 18 in Las Vegas, where Activision's Bobby Kotick is scheduled to keynote. We can only guess that he'll go all Kanye on the podium if Modern Warfare 2 doesn't win.

Overall Game of the Year:
Assassin's Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Action Game of the Year:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Prototype
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Shadow Complex

Casual Game of The Year:
Drawn: The Painted Tower
Flower
Flight Control
Plants Vs. Zombies
Scribblenauts

Role Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year:
Borderlands
Champions Online
Demon's Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Social Networking Game of the Year:
Bejeweled Blitz
Farmtown
FarmVille
Restaurant City

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Demon's Soul's
Farmville
Flower
Scribblenauts
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Adventure Game of The Year:
Assassin's Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Portable Game of the Year:
LittleBigPlanet
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Scribblenauts
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks