Mass Effect win Elans awards

The Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts - better known as the Elans - took place in Vancouver over the weekend and the headline winner was Mass Effect, which took home five awards in total.

The sci-fi adventure, from newly-acquired developer Bioware, won the Best Game, Best Art Direction, Best Game Design and Best Writing for a Game Production categories, while Commander Shepard was awarded Best Character in Videogaming.

Assassin's Creed also picked up two awards, for Best Console Game and Best Original Music Score while there were also notable victories for Skate and Company of Heroes.

Don Mattrick was inaugurated into the Hall of Fame, while Crysis won Best International Videogame.

The Elans, now in their second year, were set up to reward achievement in the videogames and animated arts genres for companies based in Canada.

The full list of videogame winners is as follows:

Game of the Year

Mass Effect (Bioware)

Best Console Game

Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)

Best PC Game

Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment)

Best New Videogame Company

Blue Castle Games

Slant Six Games

Best Sound Design

Skate (Electronic Arts)

Best Original Musical Score

Assasin's Creed (Ubisoft, Jesper Kyd)

Best Character

Commander Shepard (Mass Effect: Bioware)

Best Art Direction

Mass Effect (Bioware)

Best Handheld Game

Socom U.S. Navy Seals: Tactical Strike (Slant Six Games)

Best Game Design

Mass Effect (Bioware)

Best Mobile/Casual/Arcade Game

Skate (Electronic Arts)

Best Writing for a Game Production

Mass Effect (Bioware)

Award for Outstanding Innovation

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (Relic Entertainment)

International Videogame of the Year

Crysis (Crytek)

Hall of Fame

Don Mattrick