'Halo' tops 2002 video game awards

Fifth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards

"Halo: Combat Evolved," in which a cyber-enhanced soldier is deployed to try to keep an alien race from Earth, took game of the year and console game of the year at the Fifth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- "First person shooters" may still rule the video game world, but the Fifth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards last week showed that themes and story lines are as vast as civilization.

"Halo: Combat Evolved" took two top awards -- game of the year and console game of the year. The game is rated for mature players and deploys a cyber-enhanced soldier whose mission is to keep a threatening alien race from Earth.

"We tried to make a game that was really fun, that really entertained us for the years we were working on it," said lead designer John Howard, after winning the award at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas Thursday night.

The game is one of the flagship products for Microsoft's Xbox, which was introduced into the market last fall.

QUICKVOTE Do you think it would be good to have more games along the lines of "The Sims" -- away from action-adventure -- to open the field to a wider audience? Yes. No. I'm a neutral operative on this one. View Results   EXTRA INFORMATION The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' voters considered a deepening market of games for awards this year. Click here for an interactive gallery  of scenes from various games. Some observers say that the more the industry moves away from action-adventure, the wider its audience will be.

"The game does a number of things really well," said Stuart Moulder, general manager of PC games at Microsoft. "It has some interesting tactical decision-making for the player, and it's got an interesting story line," he said.

The other top video game honor -- computer game of the year -- went to "Black & White," from Lionhead Studios.

Here, players act through characters -- tigers, apes -- and can be either benevolent or evil. The story unfolds depending on the ethical decisions made by players. There's an element of artificial intelligence, as well. If, for example, you pet and scratch your tiger's belly after it eats a villager, it will "learn" that eating villagers is a good thing -- and continue to do it.

"I think the game picks and chooses from a lot of genres and manages to blend them together as a cohesive whole, and that's why we're quite happy," said Lionhead's Paul McLaughlan.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences presented awards in 29 craft, console, computer and online categories.

The awards were given in conjunction with the DICE Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) for game developers.

'The Sims': Widening the audience

Many in the video game industry would like to expand the traditional young-male demographic to include a wider audience.

Will Wright, creator of "The Sims," was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. Unlike the many military or heavy action-adventure games, the Sims series is about real people, and real life situations.

"I think the primary thing that's made the Sims popular is that they're accessible," said Wright. "They're about cities and households and families. So you don't have to know about the military or purple dragons or magic to get in and play them," he said.

Wright says the industry already is expanding beyond the young-male marketing demographic that's traditionally the target of video game producers. "These games contain elements of all the other mediums before -- books, movies, television, theater, toys, and architecture."

But it's a constant challenge to keep turning out fresh story lines, says Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto.

"We've already heard of sales in the video game industry outpacing that of

Hollywood. I think to keep the growth of the industry, we always have to think of new ideas, and come up with new styles of game play to keep things going," said Miyamoto.

All the winners of the Fifth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards can be found on the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Web site.

For more on this year's awards, see Marsha Walton's report on Next@CNN, Saturday at 1 p.m. EST and Sunday at 4 p.m. EST.