The folks behind the Game Developers Conference reveal the complete list of finalists for the ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards to be held on March 25th during this year's GDC event.  You'll find this year's list of titles competing for accolades across the nominations won't differ too greatly from those seen in the Spike and X-Play award shows, but the GDC Award recipients do have the distinction of being chosen by game developers themselves.  Not all developers are mild-mannered of course, but the GDC Awards do pride on straying away from the usual fanboy frat/frag fests typical of the more consumer-oriented shows.

"Truly great games are the product of years of hard work by teams of incredibly dedicated and talented developers. It's an underlying principle of GDC that we recognize these talents and honor their achievements," says Meggan Scavio, director of Game Developers Conference. "The awards given out at the Game Developers Choice Awards are more than just trophies; they are recognition of great work by the developer community. The open peer-based selection process ensures that the people with the final say are the people who work within the craft of game development, and we can't wait to see who they choose. Best of luck to all the teams who have gotten this far!"

Current favorite is Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet, with no less than seven nominations it stands to earn including that of Game of the Year.  Also contending for the grand prize are Bethesda's Fallout 3, Valve's Left 4 Dead, Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV, and Lionhead Studios' Fable 2.  The full list of nominees are as follows:

Best Game Design
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Braid (Number None)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Visual Art
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Prince Of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Technology
Spore (Maxis)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Writing
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
Braid (Number None)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Audio
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Debut
Braid (Number None)
Sins Of A Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)

Innovation
Spore (Maxis)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
Braid (Number None)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Handheld
Patapon (Pyramid/SCE Japan)
Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)
Echochrome (SCE Japan)
The World Ends With You (Jupiter/Square Enix)

Best Downloadable Game
Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
Braid (Number None)
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
N+ (Metanet/Slick Entertainment)
Pixeljunk Eden (Q-Games)

Game of the Year
Fable 2 (Lionhead Studios)
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

Some nominations could be more hotly contended than others!  Which of the big name titles will the developers themselves end up favoring later this March?