New Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, SSX, Prototype; del Toro horror game confirmed; some awards too.

It may have been an award show by name, but Saturday night’s Spike Video Game Awards was as ever more notable hosting a bout of new game announcements.

As well as Mass Effect 3 (more on this shortly), EA used the event to unveil a new entry in its SSX snowboarding series, subtitled Deadly Descents. The game, the first in the series since SSX Blur in 2007, will be set on some of the most dangerous mountain ranges on the planet, the first time the series has used real-world locations.

Activision confirmed rumours that its open-world superhero game Prototype would be getting a sequel. The creatively-titled Prototype 2, set for release in 2012, will once again be set in New York, the twist being that the game sees a new lead character, Sergeant James Allen, tasked with taking down original protagonist Alex Mercer.

Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro pitched up to show a debut trailer for inSane, a collaboration with publisher THQ. The trailer shows precious little in the way of detail but a horror setting would appear to be a safe bet. In an interview with MTV in September del Toro said: “It's a very different type of horror game. It's not survival horror. It's truly a strange, geeky mix. It's a Lovecraftian thing. Let's leave it at that.” InSane is being developed by Volition and is slated for a 2013 release.

Elsewhere, a new trailer for Turn 10’s Forza 4 confirmed support for the Kinect motion sensor; snarling God of War lead Kratos is to appear in the PS3 version of the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot; supervillain Hugo Strange was added to the cast of villainry in Batman: Arkham City; and there were announcements for hotly-anticipated sequels Mass Effect 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

There was also the small matter of the awards themselves. Red Dead Redemption walked off with the Game of the Year award, Rockstar’s Western opus also taking the prize for Best Song in a Game for that Jose Gonzalez-soundtracked moment in Mexico. Bioware won Best Studio, with Mass Effect 2 taking Best RPG. Playdead’s Limbo took the Best Indie Game award, with the mandatory Call of Duty prize given to Black Ops for Best Shooter.