Sure, it can't compare with the excitement of our liveblog of the event, but we figured you might like to know that G4 will be broadcasting highlights from the Game Developers Choice Awards tonight at 6:30 Pacific / Eastern time with a rebroadcast at 8:00. The highlights will be shown as a special episode of X-Play, meaning you'll also get your daily dose of vitamin Sessler.

Sure, it's over two weeks after the fact, but how many times do you get to see Tim Schafer cracking wise in a tuxedo? Not enough, that's how many.

No matter how many times the Mega64 guys dress as beloved video game characters and go into public, we never fail to be entertained. But their take on Metal Gear Solid 4, which debuted at the GDCAs last week, takes a turn towards the surreal and becomes something far more epic than simple spoof.

We want to tell you more, but, frankly, we've said too much already. You should probably just watch the whole thing for yourself right after the break.

We're live at the IGF slash GDCA awards, from the very same Moscone Center room that housed this morning's Nintendo keynote. Andy Schatz from Pocket Watch reprises his role as IGF host, with Tim "Freaking" Schafer taking host duties for the Game Developer Conference Awards. Check out the whole liveblog, updating from bottom to top, after the break.

Are you bummed that you'll be stuck at home over the next week, far away from the action and excitement of the 2009 Game Developers Conference? Fret not -- we've got your back as far as GDC-related news is concerned, but if you want to see footage of the glitzy, glamorous Game Developers Choice Awards (which will take place this Wednesday), you can fulfill your peculiar desire by flipping your teevee-box to G4, where X-Play will be airing the ceremony in its entirety.

Bizarrely, they'll be broadcasting the event on April 10, more than two weeks after the awards will be handed out. The program might be a bit too tardy to be worth watching, but since we'll have told you all the winners by that point, you could easily score a few bucks from some unaware acquaintances in a GDCA prediction pool.

In case our live coverage of the Game Developer Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival Awards wasn't enough to sate your appetite for GDC's prestigious ceremony, G4TV will be showing coverage of the event tonight.

A 30-minute recap of the two-hour event will air tonight at 8:00 PM EST (5:00 PM PST), as part of a special episode of G4's X-Play program. If you miss it, the episode will re-air several times on Saturday, March 1, Sunday, March 2 and Monday, March 3. Check out the episode guide for the full list of times.

For those with a distaste for digests, the award shows' organizers will be hosting full-length streaming video coverage of both events on their respective websites sometime in the next week. We'll keep an eye out for when those streams become available.

Playing (and being) Too Human

Elsewhere that day, Silicon Knights' boastful Denis Dyack held a press conference showing off the latest build of Too Human (photos) and, lo and behold, the framerate was consistent and the game looked much improved from previous demonstrations. Our hands-on impressions were decidedly mixed, however; as one commenter aptly put it, "the controls hindered Baldur's gait."

Besides Microsoft, the other keynote of the conference was futurist Ray Kurzweil who, among other mind-blowing points, confirmed that by 2023 we will be injecting ourselves with plasmids. Speaking of which ...

BioShockTacular!

One of the Big Daddies of the conference (yes folks, plenty more puns to come!) was BioShock, with total rock star Ken Levine drawing quite a crowd. Levine et al. showed off early footage of the game, advised to keep story simple, talked Steamworks and even sent a splicer to check up on us.

GDCA and IGF Awards

BioShock was a major winner at the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), walking away with honors for audio, visuals and writing (Ayn Rand woke from the dead to claim the writing award). Also announced that night were the Independent Games Festival awards, with World of Goo winning three nods and Crayon Physics Deluxe earning the Seamus McNally award. Cheer up, World of Goo fans, they already have a distribution deal for the Nintendo Wii. The best part of the award presentations were probably Mega64 and Zero Punctuation's hilarious videos.

Despite three accolades, BioShock didn't win Best Game. That award went to Portal along with design and innovation nods.


Portal: This was a Triumph

Remember last year when Portal was just a bullet point during the Experimental Games session? A lot has changed since GDC 2007, with almost everyone singing the game's praises. The night of their GDCA win, Valve revealed that Jonathan Coulton's Portal song "Still Alive" would be featured in Rock Band. Though we missed that performance (Coulton only hit 95% on vocals), we did happen to catch his concert on Friday where he, along with Leo LaPorte and Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont, managed to fail the song live on stage (video).

As one of the last sessions of the conference, designer Kim Swift and writer Erik Wolpaw delivered a Portal post-mortem (photos) for an overpacked crowd (did you see the line to get in?). Among other little details, the duo talked about the origins of the Weighted Companion Cube and the various final levels they tested.

It's hard not to love Jonathan Coulton (or JoCo), especially if you're a fan of Valve's Portal. The recent news that Still Alive will be coming to Rock Band as downloadable content was accompanied by JoCo's appearance at Valve's party on Wednesday. Mr. Coulton posted to his personal blog about the experience yesterday, noting that he 'only' got 95% vocals on the song he created. The question we've been asking ourselves is: who is singing the song on the track - Coulton or GLaDOS?

He also noted that Portal snagged the Game of the Year, Best Game Design, and the Innovation Award nods from the GDCAs. Coulton observed that BioShock had won the GDCA award for Best Writing, a merit he thinks should have gone to Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw's work on that quirky game about tests, thinking, and cake. Luckily for Wolpaw and Faliszek, they're the first winners of the (soon to be coveted) Jonathan Coulton award; maybe the GDCAs should rename the prize for Best Audio?

6:34 pm PT -- We've arrived at the GDC's annual IGF and GDCA award show. This year we've moved up to the the tables in the front Very snazzy. So far, we've heard Pixies and Muse play overhead. We think we're hearing right now a very trance remix of the Wii Shop Channel music ... and it's wonderful.

6:37 pm PT -- Lights fade, clouded scene gets up. Someone from Mega64 thanks everyone for attending IGF until it cuts into a metal music explosion. "Do not get up" We're pretty sure it's a play on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie Introduction. Simon Carless and Jamil Moledina takes the stage.

6:38 pm PT -- "The show will be televised on national television" He means G4TV -- close enough, we suppose. Introducing the folks from developer Flashbang. A round of applause for the indie developers, the "heart and soul" of the industry.

Next week, the Joystiq crew will pack their precious belongings (a laptop, some clothes, and a towel) before flying off to the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. So now seems about as good a time as any to reflect back on last year's GDC for a taste of what's to come. Sure, there's a dearth of playable demos when compared to E3 or TGS, but what other trade show can say they redefined the role of adhesive in internet conversations?

Keep reading for our remembrances of the keynotes (what's Game 3.0 again?), last year's big news (Harmonix and EA are doing what?), the sessions and interviews (the Wii is how many Gamecubes duct-taped together?), and the whole culture of GDC (Miyamoto made quite a splash).

Please, step back in time with us. Let's say it's February 2007, one year ago. A bedraggled, foul smelling man, wearing a sign that reads "The End is Nigh," approaches you and grabs you violently by the collar. He leans in close, his sour whisky breath burning your nostrils, and whispers, "One year from now, Pac-Man will be nominated for a Game Developers Choice Award!" The breath is so strong that you shut your eyes tight. Upon reopening them, the man is gone. You question your sanity, wondering if he was even real. A Pac-Man game nominated in 2008? Preposterous!

Rest assured, he was real, and he was right. Namco Bandai Games have announced that Pac-Man Championship Edition, released in June 2007, has been nominated for Best Downloadable Game in the eighth annual Game Developers Choice Awards, which are set to take place during the Game Developers Conference later this month. Best Downloadable Game of 2009? Dig Dug. You heard it here first.

It's nice when your peers recognize your work. So, Miyamoto and co. must be beaming with happiness to hear that Super Mario Galaxy got the nod in several categories for the Game Developer's Choice Awards. If our opinion means anything (it doesn't), we liked the game a lot.

Overall, Super Mario Galaxy gets its hat tossed into two categories, although many* might consider them to be the best two categories: Best Game Design and Game of the Year. It's up against some tough competition, however, as undersea romp Bioshock and Portal, which has seemed to help pie's ugly cousin cake propel itself into the stratosphere of popularity, will undoubtedly give Mario a run for his coin (or stars).

Head past the break for all of the nominees.

Wait! Before you flip your desk over in a fit of disgust, give us just one minute to talk you down, okay? First, that's a really nice desk (is that mahagony?) and we wouldn't want you to pull something flipping it over. Second, these aren't just any Game of the Year awards. Yes, fine, we did say the same exact thing yesterday about the Game Critics Awards but these are different. These awards are determined by designers themselves so, if you want an inside peek into the cheek-slapping that goes on in the virtual locker room we call "the game industry," then you'll want to read this post.

There, you're still with us? To be honest, we really wanted to share the nominations with you because they reminded us of something ... what was it again? Oh, that's right, Joystiq's own totally definitive Game of the Year awards. You know why? Not simply because game developers – the people that actually hand carve every game you enjoy so much – had the audacity, the temerity even, to include Portal (note: not The Orange Box) as the most nominated game (a distinction it shares with BioShock) but because they also gave Peggle an impressive three nominations. Yeah, the same Peggle some people thought we were crazy for including in our list.

Did we really just ask you to read this entire post so we could feel vindicated, our selections having been affirmed by the craftspeople we so admire? ... well, yeah, but we included all of the nominees after the break so you don't feel totally ripped off. We'll be liveblogging the GDCA slash IGF ceremony from GDC so keep your eyes peeled for that.

A skit that went great until some guy... Mega64 contributed a few new skits to the Game Developers Choice Awards last week to much applause and laughter, including a pretty poignant piece on Feel the Magic XX / XY (we're still waiting for that one to pop up on the internet). One in particular made the crowd scream more than anything else that night. The YouTube description reads thusly: "A skit that went great until some guy made it all awkward."

We won't spoil the rest, so check out the video after the break.

6:20 p.m.: The Joystiq crew walks the red carpet, because we're just that important.

6:33 p.m.: Gnarls Barkley's cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" is blasting as we find seats in the press section. Cushy seats with recline-able chairs.

6:42 pm: Sam and Max introduce the start for the independent games festival. The mention of projectile vomiting is disturbing, but welcoming somehow.

6:43 pm: Jamil Moledina and Simon Carless march onto stage, noting that the show is being broadcast to the entire world. We sense somewhat sinister undertones.