Say what you will about Spike’s Video Game Awards and their choices of winning titles, but it is one of the places to see the premiere trailers for some of the biggest games of the following year. Six months separated from E3, the VGAs are the biggest nationally televisions gaming event in the latter half of the year in the US. As a result, games that were quiet during E3 get revived interest while other games that were spotlighted at E3 get one last big push before their releases early in the next year.

So far, Spike has revealed three teasers for game’s that will be getting the ultimate spotlight on this year’s VGAs. Gears of War: Judgment will be coming to the VGAs only six months after its E3 announcement and will focus on the character Baird in the early parts of the Locust War. The Last of Us actually made its debut at last year’s VGAs and quickly grew a rabid fan base. Coming from the same studio that brought us Uncharted, The Last of Us has an intense blend of action and survival in an apocalyptic setting while also focusing on the relationship between its two diverse main characters. Finally, after a plethora of delays, Bioshock Infinite will make its way to the VGAs to help prepare for its February 2013 launch.

Check out all the teasers below after the jump and catch the Spike Video Game Awards on Friday night, December 7th at 9 PM on Spike TV.

The Bitcast returns this week with their record setting 8th Episode featuring the Flickcast’s own version of Mario & Luigi, though JC and WallE will both always lay claim to being the star of the episode.

In the News of the Week, JC and WallE discuss the upcoming Spike Video Game Awards show and speculate on the upcoming announcement from Epic Games, the makers of Gears of War and the Infinity Blade franchises. They also discuss the 10th Anniversary of Grand Theft Auto III coming to iOS before getting into detail with South Park: The Game coming from Obsidian. They even talk Beta numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic and announce the current and upcoming DLC for Goldeneye 007: Reloaded, sadly with the absence of Sean Bean.

In the Long Grind in Skyrim this week, JC gets in detail on both the dragons and music of the Elder Scrolls V.

For the Topic of the Week, WallE shows that he can handle both movies and gaming as he discusses the scores composed for some of the most influential titles in gaming history.

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The Video Game Awards are an interesting thing. Like most basic cable award shows it often plays like a two- hour long advertisement for next year rather than a celebration of the current one. On the other hand, the Video Game industry does warrant a night to honor it’s very best, and the people who run the show clearly are interested putting forth the industry’s best foot in prime time.

This year’s show is going to have one huge advantage to keep the show credible and enjoyable. Zachary Levi, the geeky lead in Chuck and video game voice actor, has just been announced as the host for this year’s show.

“Zac Levi is an avid gamer who is truly a part of gaming culture and understands the fans,” says Casey Patterson, Executive Producer and Executive Vice President, Event Production, Talent & Studio Relations for Viacom Entertainment Group. “He has great ideas about this year’s show. Zac is all about honoring the year in gaming and ushering in the future by showcasing massive world premieres at this year’s event. We’re excited to be working with Zac.”

It is great for the show that it’s host is both a charming, likable guy and some one well versed in gaming culture. As the industry becomes more main stream it will need to rely on people who truly understand it’s culture and not just icons whom geeks decide to love.

The show will premiere live at 8:00 PM EST, Saturday December 10th on Spike TV, MTV 2 and SpikeTV.com

Award shows are all the rage these days. When people get burned out on the big three, the Oscars, Emmy’s, Golden Globes, they turn to more fun and entertaining (albeit less important ones) award shows. One of the more fun ones is definitely Spike’s annual Scream Awards.

Starting off celebrating the world of horror, the award show has since become a haven for all things pop culture and geeky, giving awards to the likes of Frank Miller or Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd for Back to the Future. This year, two modern icons are finally getting some love.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Robert Downey Jr. will attend to accept SCREAM’s prestigious Hero Award. With wildly successful films like “Sherlock Holmes” and “Iron Man,” Downey has captivated fans and critics alike with his daring and iconic interpretations of some of cinema’s most beloved characters.

We’ve seen ninjas take on pirates, knights take on vikings, and mobsters take on the army on Spike TV’s biggest “What If?” show on the network, Deadliest Warrior. This season, things are taking a bit of a different turn, as the focus is mainly on real historical celebrities and even one of their first fantasy match ups between Vampires and Zombies.

Here’s a breakdown of what we can look forward to this season.

The debut episode, “George Washington vs. Napoleon Bonaparte,” features two larger-than-life generals who both fought in the age of revolutions, now meeting for the first time on the battlefield.   America’s first great general, George Washington, who defeated the British empire against all odds to become known as the father of the world’s most powerful nation, will square off against Napoleon Bonaparte, the brutal French warlord turned emperor who terrorized Europe in his quest to conquer the world.

Other highly-anticipated matchups this season include the series’ first female warrior Joan of Arc vs. William the Conqueror, Genghis Khan vs. Hannibal, Saddam Hussein vs. Pol Pot, U.S. Army Rangers vs. North Korean Special Operations Force, Crazy Horse vs. Pancho Villa, Ivan the Terrible vs. Hernan Cortes, French Foreign Legion vs. Gurkhas and our first fantasy matchup Zombies vs. Vampires.

This new season will also bring some pretty awesome new segments like the all new Armory segment, X-Factor, Chalk Talk, and guest experts such as Navy SEAL Richard Machowicz. Also promoted for the upcoming third season is a brand new digital combat engine that will help us determine who is the deadliest warrior of all.

Check out the first of many new teasers for the new season in which we get a glimpse at Vampires vs. Zombies, and be sure to catch season 3 of Deadliest Warrior on Spike TV July 20th.

One of the great things about producing a series for the web is that quite often, you get to do a project that has tremendous geek-appeal, yet whose economics are such it would never make it to television or the movies. Felicia Day is living that dream as the star of a new six-episode web-series based on Bioware’s successful Dragon Age video game.

Felicia day is, of course, already well-known to video game fans as the creative force behind The Guild web series, a hilarious sit-com now in its fifth season. The web-series follows a group of players of a fictitious MMORPG (largely based on WoW) and focuses on both their in-game and out-of-game hi jinx.

Felicia is reportedly writing, producing, directing and starring in the new series as sexy elven assassin, “Tallis.” The events take place around the same time period as Bioware’s forthcoming sequel, Dragon Age II. Fans of the original game can look forward to a demo of Dragon Age II on February 22 for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 as well as a PC-version. The game will be available in stores in North America on March 8, 2011 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 console, PC and Mac.

It is award season, and we’re neck deep in nomination talk, last minute promotions, and musical performances. Some people, however, are already over this year’s Academy Awards and are looking to something more entertaining. For them, we introduce you to Comedy Central’s first annual Comedy Awards.

Awarding excellence in the fields of both TV and Film comedy, the award show is set to be a night of laughs and more laughs as some of the best and brightest comedians, writers, and directors are being nominated for their projects in comedy from the past year.

The awards are set to air across multiple MTV networks including Comedy Central, Spike TV, VH1, CMT, TV Land, Logo, and Nick at Nite on Sunday April 10th, and could set a precedent for future award shows and how they are broadcast.

The list of nominees has finally surfaced, and there are some great names on the list such as Louis C.K., Edgar Wright, Alec Baldwin, and dozens of other names that you can’t help but root for in this show. Check out the complete list of nominees after the jump and become apart of the voting process as you can vote for the best viral video at their website www.thecomedyawards.com.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was one of the best titles in the early days of the XBox 360, giving players hundreds of hours of gameplay when there was little else in terms of content available for the system. The early concept of a living world filled with characters who would hold conversations amongst themselves and go on their daily routine without interaction from the player coupled with an awesomely fun first person combat roleplaying game earned Oblivion a spot as an early highlight in this generation of console’s lifecycle.

Finally, Bethesda has released official word on the next installment to the Elder Scrolls saga entitled The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Whether or not Patrick Steward will lend his voice to the next iteration of the game remains to be seen but the events of Oblivion look to tie in directly to the release of the denizens of Skyrim on the Elder Scrolls world.

When Sega announced they would be working on the Thor video game, the video game community responded with an astounding, “Please, not another Iron Man 2.” Now, with the full force of the Thor movie marketing to help drive it, the Thor: God of Thunder video game will make its way to consoles on May 3rd.

Interestingly enough following the announcement of both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston taking on the vocal roles of their on screen counterparts, only Hemsworth’s voice is present in the trailer.

Take a look at the trailers for both games after the jump. Also, be sure to check out our coverage of the Uncharted 3 and Batman: Arkham City trailers from earlier today.

We’ve got so much to cover from Saturday night’s live Video Game Awards, put on by Spike TV, we had to break it up into a few posts. Starting with two of the biggest geek announcements from the show we get a first glimpse at Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Batman: Arkham City.

Coming November 1st of next year, PlayStation 3’s biggest franchise returns with the just announced, but much expected, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Since its release, there hasn’t been a PlayStation 3 exclusive that has gotten such critical praise as the Uncharted series. While the first Uncharted was not a huge commercial success, the sleeper hit did prove itself worthy of many people’s attention which resulted in fantastic sales and further critical approval for the sequel.

Also, we’ve got the very first full-length trailer for the sequel to last year’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, which was not only a hit for video gamers, but a huge leap in faith for comic book lovers, as they finally had a decent game featuring the Dark Knight. This next game is going a bit more “open world” as Gotham City is now playable to patrol and take down baddies like Hugo Strange. City is expected to hit shelves late next year.

Check out both full trailers after the jump, and keep it here for more trailers and news from the VGA Awards.

Not many people snynomize Neil Patrick Harris with video games. They do, however, consider him one of the greats when it comes to awards show hosts. Which is why Spike TV’s decision to hire him as the host of this Saturday’s Video Game Awards.

G4 may have their own version of the awards, but Spike’s show is considered the be-all, end-all of video game award shows. You can expect to see guests like the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Guillermo Del Toro, Nathan Fillion, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Munn, and a musical performance by My Chemical Romance.

You can check out the full awards show live on Saturday, December 11th at 8pm ET/ 5pm PST. Here’s the full press release announcing the new host.

New York, NY, December 6, 2010 – Acclaimed television, film, stage and video game star Neil Patrick Harris has been handed over the controller and will host Spike TV’s 2010 “Video Game Awards.”  Broadcasting in over 175 territories worldwide from Los Angeles, the “VGAs” will celebrate the best in gaming on Saturday, December 11 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.