Call it Okami's revenge.

　　The Capcom game noticeably absent from the nominee pool at this week's AIAS-sponsored Achievement Awards shares the distinction of being the most-nominated game in the upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards competition.

　　Okami shares the honor with Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Each title is nominated in four categories, including Best Game.

　　"The GDC derives its authenticity from the developers themselves, who teach and share at the show--the Game Developers Choice Awards is then the natural validation of their collective artistic effort, voted on and awarded to individual game creators," GDC executive director Jamil Moledina said in a statement. "Since the Choice Awards have an open nomination process and reflect the judgment of peers, the awards have earned the highest respect of the community."

　　The awards take place on Wednesday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. in the Esplanade Ballroom of Moscone South. DJ Chris and Mega64 are performing. The awards are part of the Game Developers Conference, scheduled for March 7 to 9 in San Francisco.

　　The full list of nominees is as follows:

　　Best Game

　　Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)

　　Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

　　Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)

　　Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya

　　The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)

　　Todd Howard

　　The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

　　Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto

　　Wii Sports (Nintendo)

　　Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki ****

　　Audio

　　Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)

　　Crispin Hands, John Johnson, Jennifer Lewis, John Tennant

　　DEFCON: Everybody Dies (Introversion Software)

　　Alistair Lindsay, Michael Maidment

　　Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)

　　Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

　　Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive)

　　Troels Folmann, Karl Gallagher, Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens

　　LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)

　　Kemmei Adachi, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Kouji Niikura, Nobuyuki Shimizu

　　Character Design

　　Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)

　　Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida

　　LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)

　　Tsutomu Kouno, Keigo Tsuchiya

　　Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)

　　Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

　　Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier Studio / Ubisoft Entertainment)

　　Michel Ancel, Charles Beirnaert, Hubert Chevillard, Florent Sacre

　　Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)

　　Ryan Stevenson

　　Game Design

　　Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)

　　Michael Skupa

　　Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)

　　Hideki Kamiya

　　The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)

　　Todd Howard

　　Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)

　　Justin Cook, Gregg Mayles

　　Wii Sports (Nintendo)

　　Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki ****

　　Technology

　　Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)

　　Drew Dunlop, Shelby Hubick, David Swinerd, Ian Thomson

　　Dead Rising (Capcom Entertainment)

　　Shinya Ikuta, Tomofumi Ishida, Yasuhide Sawada, Tomohiro Ueda

　　Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)

　　Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

　　Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar San Diego / Rockstar Games)

　　Ted Carson, Eugene Foss, Wil Paredes, Steve Reed

　　Wii Sports (Nintendo)

　　Takuhiro Dohta, Takeshi Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Kenta Sato

　　Visual Arts

　　Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)

　　Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida

　　Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)

　　Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna

　　Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)

　　Naoki Katakai, Kenichirou Yoshimura

　　The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)

　　Matthew Carofano, Christiane Meister, Istvan Pely

　　Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)

　　Ed Bryan, Ryan Stevenson

　　Writing

　　Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)

　　Dan Houser, Jacob Krarup

　　Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom / Aspyr Media)

　　Dag Scheve, Ragnar Tørnquist

　　Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (Telltale Games / GameTap)

　　Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell

　　The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)

　　Ken Rolston

　　The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

　　Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

　　New Studio

　　Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms)

　　Jacob Van Wingen, Don Wurster

　　Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)

　　Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan

　　Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz)

　　Joshua Glazer, Tian Mu, Sam Thibault

　　Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter)

　　Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya

　　Wadjet Eye Games (The Shiva)

　　Chris Femo, Dave Gilbert, Peter Gresser, Ian Schlaepfer