The winners of the 2nd annual ELANS Awards (The Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts) have been announced and with five awards, this years big winner is BioWare. Their sci-fi RPG Mass Effect walked away with the Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Game Design, Best Writing for a Game Production, and Best Character (Commander Shepard) awards.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed did well too and brought home two awards - Best Console Game and Best Original Musical Score (Jesper Kyd). Other notable winners include Company of Heroes (Best PC Game), Skate (Best Sound Design), Crysis (International Videogame of the Year) and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts ( Award for Outstanding Innovation).

Those wanting to expand their Mass Effect experience have the “Bring Down the Sky” downloadable content to look forward to. For 400 Microsoft Points, the DLC will deliver 1.5 hours worth of new game time. The PC version of Mass Effect was announced recently as well.

As for Assassin’s Creed, PC gamers will get to step into the shoes of Altair also, and even perform four new types if investigations - a total of seven compared to three in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

[See also: Mass Effect gallery, Assassin’s Creed gallery]