By Alec Meer on February 16th, 2010 at 11:06 am.
We don’t have Oscars in the UK. Instead, all the major film directors gather on a hillside in Gloucestershire, and roll enormous wheels of cheese towards the fields below. The director who concusses the most cows (or sheep, but they’re only worth half a point) with his cheese wins a BAFTA. Who can forget the scandal in 2006, when Martin Scorsese knocked out an unprecedented 13 bullocks, but was later disqualified when judges discovered he’d rubbed a particularly drowsy brand of cough medicine into the rind of his Red Leicester? The relatively new game-centric BAFTA competition, however, uses a far less conventional form of judging known as ‘voting.’ How curious. The nominations are in, and they’re a surprising, thrilling roster of snnndszzzzzn. Grummfwhut? Oh, sorry, I fell asleep there.
The list is below. Very little in the way of PC games there and, quite frankly, very little that isn’t A Heavily-Hyped Console Game That Sold Really Well Around Christmas either. In fact, it goes to great lengths to ensure every Heavily-Hyped Console Game That Sold Really Well Around Christmas gets at least one nomination, but indie and B-list doesn’t get a look in. Which is a shame. Big awards ceremonies are by nature rich-get-richer affairs, but you can’t help but hope one of ‘em will be interested in thoughtful outliers once in a while, purely for diversity’s sake.
I mean, ‘Artistic Achievement – Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2′? Come on, be sensible! Give it best action game, give it best game if you absolutely must (and inevitably will), but just because it’s a successful, respected action game that all the judges have played doesn’t mean it has to be nominated for every single sodding category going. Is there no way Artistic Achievement could have been filled with pretty, strange, different things instead of the same clutch of high-budget action games? The token inclusion of Flower doesn’t help. I’m amazed that seeing the same four names crop up again and again doesn’t make someone think “hang on – are we really covering the length and breadth of videogaming in 2009 adequately here?” The inevitable perils of relative democracy, I suppose. It has ever been thus, and I’m a damned fool to naively hope for more variety from such things.
I suspect MW2 will be the trophy-snagger across the board (bar story, which, by a miracle of reason, it doesn’t seem to have been nomimated for), but there’s a chance Arkham Asylum could do well – and it’s the repeat-nomination I’d be most comfortable with being put on this particular pedestal too. It found some enormously clever ways to lift a stagnant sub-genre into new glory – a rare instance of putting the mechanics ahead of the gloss, and the end result was probably the best superhero action game you could name. Left 4 Dead is a worthy enough winner in several of its fields too, much as it didn’t hold my attention for long.
PC gamers – ooh, that’s you! – should probably be most rooting for Dragon Age in the Story category and Plants vs Zombies in the amusingly confused gaggle that is Strategy. Other than that, hmm.
Action
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
inFAMOUS
Left 4 Dead 2
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesArtistic Achievement
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Flower
Streetfighter IV
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesBest Game
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
FIFA 10
Left 4 Dead 2
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesFamily & Social
The Beatles: Rock Band
Buzz! Quiz World
EyePet
Guitar Hero 5
New Super Mario Bros Wii
Wii Sports ResortGameplay
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
New Super Mario Bros Wii
PixelJunk Shooter
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesMultiplayer
Battlefield 1943
The Beatles: Rock Band
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Halo 3 ODST
Left 4 Dead 2
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesOriginal Score
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
PixelJunk Shooter
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesSports
Colin McRae: DiRT 2
FIFA 10
Football Manager 2010
Forza 3
Wii Fit Plus
Wii Sports ResortStory
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut
Brutal Legend
Dragon Age: Origins
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesStrategy
Command and Conquer 3: Uprising
Empire: Total War
FIFA Manager 10
Football Manager 2010
Halo Wars
Plants vs ZombiesUse of Audio
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
DJ Hero
Flower
Left 4 Dead 2
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesUse of Online
Battlefield 1943
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
FIFA 10
LIttleBigPlanet (PSP)
Singstar TakeThat
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesBAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital
Colour Coded
Murray Sinclair, Faye Wright, Liam Wong, Sean Donnelly, Nnanna Kama
(PixelPirates)
Quick as Thieves
William Wright, Michael Doig, Andrew Knight, Jamie MacKinnon, Lee Cresswell
(Gentleman of Fortune)
Shrunk!
Vykintas Kazdailis, Andrew Macdonald, Michael Cummings, Jacek Wernikowski, Stuart Kemp
(The Butterflyers)GAME Award of 2009
(The only award to be voted for by the public)Assassin’s Creed II
Batman Arkham Asylum
The Beatles: Rockband
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
FIFA 10
GTA China Town Wars
Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks
Street Fighter IV
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Wii Sports Resort
Dave Tosser says:[urrrk . Huurk.] What? Noooo… Let me die, dieeee…. [gnnf.] It is only right that financially successful games are
16/02/2010 at 11:11 Baboonanza says:
I’m not sure they really understand ‘Artistic achievment’. They seems to think it means ‘has the prettiest pictures’.
16/02/2010 at 13:14 Jayt says:
I know, how sad.
16/02/2010 at 16:57 Nathan says:
What would be your nominations for that slot then? For some of them I must agree, but resent the lack of titles such as, say, Machinarium.
16/02/2010 at 11:12 Ian says:
Big OverHype Game Sequel 4: The Returnening deserves all the credit it gets Meer, you miserable old coot.
16/02/2010 at 11:14 Rich says:
And the nominations are… all the big games that came out last year!
At least the ‘real’ BAFTAs have a little variety.
16/02/2010 at 11:28 Ian says:
Not until you say that journalists are to blame for taking backhanders from The Man.
16/02/2010 at 11:15 noom says:
What a Shame
16/02/2010 at 11:17 Chris D says:
I don’t approve of this voting nonsense. Cheese rolling was a much fairer system.
Also no mention of The Void for artistic achievement? Madness. Does that officially make me an angry internet man now?
16/02/2010 at 11:20 Kommissar Nicko says:
I think Tosser needed to comment here. I miss him a little bit.
16/02/2010 at 13:19 Jayt says:
I’m glad you were listened to
16/02/2010 at 11:25 Zaphid says:
No Dragon Age except for 1 award ?
16/02/2010 at 11:37 Droniac says:
Yes, no mention of Dragon Age in Gameplay, Original Score or Best Game categories – all of which it should have won. Not to mention Dawn of War 2 being excluded from the Strategy category despite it being the best or second best strategy game of the year (depending on whether you prefer Empire, I don’t)…
16/02/2010 at 15:20 neems says:
Dawn of War 2 is a strategy game? I thought it was Diablo with Space Marines.
16/02/2010 at 16:15 Flameberge says:
@ neems, God, I wish it really WAS Diablo with Space Marines :p
16/02/2010 at 17:20 Nova says:
@Zaphid
Pretty obvious. They only ‘count’ console games and Dragon Age sucked a bit on them.
16/02/2010 at 11:33 rocketman71 says:
UK, prepare to receive Sr. Super Douche 402 in your neighbourhood. Look out for the lies.
16/02/2010 at 11:38 UCHU says:
Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2. Everywhere I turn my head. Uncharted 2.
16/02/2010 at 13:02 Skurmedel says:
Which is a very good game, which is not something you can say about CoD in general.
17/02/2010 at 04:49 UCHU says:
Eh…I dunno. To me, both Uncharted games honestly felt like Gears of War except with the saturation meter turned to 11 and a twenty-something brown-haired douchebag as the protagonist plus some really bad puzzles thrown in….but to each his own, I guess.
I do agree on CoD, though.
16/02/2010 at 11:39 The Diddler says:
“Artistic” Achievement : CoD Modern Failware2 ?!
For shame, guys…..for SHAME !!! >:|
16/02/2010 at 11:47 Morph says:
But you get to shoot civilians in an airport. That’s art! Art!
Maybe not.
16/02/2010 at 13:39 Baboonanza says:
@Didler
‘CoD Modern Failware2′
Do you have to do that? Really?
Ok then, but at least use a better one. ‘Modern Whorefair’ maybe?
16/02/2010 at 18:35 sana says:
If you cannot appreciate the talent behind the – very obviously – strikingly beautiful and clear visuals of Modern Warfare 2, no matter how shallow the actual game is, there’s something wrong with you. Is it not pixelated and pseudo-artsy enough?
16/02/2010 at 19:51 Lilliput King says:
If you cannot appreciate the talent behind the – very obviously – strikingly beautiful and clear visuals of Modern Warfare 2, no matter how shallow the actual game is, there’s something wrong with you. Is it not pixelated and pseudo-artsy enough?
I can’t actually tell if you’re being sarcastic here. The sinking feeling in my gut suggests you are not.
16/02/2010 at 11:45 lhzr says:
“it goes to great lengths to ensure every Heavily-Hyped Console Game That Sold Really Well Around Christmas gets at least one nomination, but indie and B-list doesn’t get a look in.”
so these Baftas of yours are pretty much like the Oscars of theirs.
btw, Avatar was nominated for 9 Oscars, one of which was for “Best Motion Picture of the Year”.
16/02/2010 at 11:48 Auspex says:
Wait does Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut’s nomination mean we now have to refer to John as the “Bafta nominated John Walker”?
16/02/2010 at 11:52 simonkaye says:
Did ME2 miss the deadline or something?
16/02/2010 at 12:00 qrter says:
Probably because it didn’t come out last year?
16/02/2010 at 12:05 The Dark One says:
What makes a man yearn for indie PC game nominations? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of pretentiousness?
16/02/2010 at 12:09 lhzr says:
some extra gold never hurts.
unless it’s the sort from one of stalker’s “bad” endings.
16/02/2010 at 12:14 jon_hill987 says:
Those nominations are a joke. Particularly the artistic achievement award. Street Fighter IV or Flower (wasn’t that a tech demo?) could get it but the others?
16/02/2010 at 12:14 Colthor says:
I’ve not played any of the games* in the first eight categories. Clearly I just don’t care about games at all.
* All four of them /snark
16/02/2010 at 12:25 Rich says:
Come to think of it, the only games from the whole set of list that I’ve played are CnC 3: Uprising Empire: TW and Halo 3: ODST. Those are probably the only ones I would have wanted to play too.
16/02/2010 at 12:39 MadMatty says:
Give the prizes to whoever sold the most.
hmm…. apparently the mainstream´s got great taste- theres no denying it.
16/02/2010 at 12:44 tapanister says:
What the fuck, Dragonage is only nominated in one category? What is wrong with these people?
16/02/2010 at 12:57 MadMatty says:
Yes indeed, clearly they could see Dragon Age topping the charts!
16/02/2010 at 12:54 LimeWarrior says:
My Picks:
Action
Left 4 Dead 2
Artistic Achievement
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(one of the few console games I enjoyed last year. Would have enjoyed it better on pc)
Best Game
Assassin’s Creed II
(I know the PC version isn’t out until this year. It’s still a good game.)
Family & Social
Wii Sports Resort
Gameplay
Batman: Arkham Asylum
(the only option in this category that tried a different style of combat)
Multiplayer
Left 4 Dead 2
(This should be obvious, it’s built around multiplayer)
Original Score
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Sports
Wii Sports Resort
(Is this really a sports game… whatever)
Story
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(The story in this game was unmatched by any of the other options. It’s also the reason i gave this game “artistic achievement”)
Strategy
Plants vs Zombies
Use of Audio
Left 4 Dead 2
(for the crazy loss of sound during the hard rain campaign. I mean, even the voice chat blows out!)
Use of Online
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
(There are no good choices here! so I decided to choose Call of Duty for RUINING a fun multiplayer experience.)
16/02/2010 at 14:51 Rinox says:
You seriously think CoD2 isn’t going to win both action and best game? I wouldn’t bet money on the outcome if I were you! :-)
16/02/2010 at 12:58 Huw says:
MW2 in the “best use of online” category? Are they deliberately baiting PC gamers here?
16/02/2010 at 12:59 Dr Ham says:
Most ironic nomination:
Use of Online
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
This surely has to be some sort of joke? Surely…?
16/02/2010 at 12:59 Vandelay says:
Pretty terrible selection of nothing but mainstream. They could at least do some sort of Indie category, so that the smaller games could get some publicity. This would be like BAFTA giving nominations to Transformers, Dance Flick or What Katie Did Next in their film and television categories. If they are wanting to show how diverse and mature gaming is becoming, then they have failed completely.
They really should have given the nomination choices to people that know something about games and not just people in the office, who happen to own a console. I hope that every gaming website that reports on this follows the same thoughts as you, so that maybe BAFTA will notice they are doing something wrong.
16/02/2010 at 13:09 archonsod says:
So did anyone actually play these games before nomination, or is the selection criteria the traditional slightly baffled drunken old coot who listed the videogames he vaguely remembered flicking past in The Telegraph at some point?
16/02/2010 at 13:11 Jockie says:
I feel like some kind of traitor for saying this, but of those nominees, I hope Uncharted 2 wins a bucketload, because it was pretty phenomenal. And because it isn’t MW2.
16/02/2010 at 13:15 JohnArr says:
Alec, you missed the “Best Journal/Hint System” category, nominations:
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Probably go for MW2 myself.
16/02/2010 at 13:18 tapanister says:
Yeah, they should have FIFA 10 in there, the journal hint system in FIFA is almost as good as the artistic achievement the game produced.
16/02/2010 at 13:16 Jayt says:
I died a little inside reading that list
16/02/2010 at 13:24 Jayt says:
“Use of Online
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″
But it’s not April Fools yet?
16/02/2010 at 13:21 Down Rodeo says:
Meer, you’re brilliant.
16/02/2010 at 13:31 GriddleOctopus says:
I’m annoyed that Time Gentlemen, Please – which we, the fans, paid real money to nominate and is a genuine British game – doesn’t get a look-in. BAH.
16/02/2010 at 13:32 Lilliput King says:
The actual worst crime here is the “Original Score” shortlist.
I mean, my God. Only PixelJunk actually has a score worthy of note, and even then it’s outclassed in every way by Machinarium.
It’s like they don’t have a clue what they’re on about.
16/02/2010 at 13:37 James G says:
I’ve recently realized that I’m the gaming equivalent of people who continuously complain about the nominations for the NME, Q and Brit awards. Well okay, I tend not to complain too much in public, because it tends to make you look a twat if you’re not careful, but I do a lot of inner eye-rolling.
16/02/2010 at 13:59 CMaster says:
I use to think the BAFTA game award was pretty good when they just gave out one of them.
Not so much these days – it resembles all too much a “me-too” setup, where they just scan for hype and other media’s GOTYs and put them up.
16/02/2010 at 14:10 The Unbelievable Guy says:
No win for the Void? Not even in Artistic Achievement? Couldn’t they at least have tried making it’s own category, like Best Game Depicting A Bleak Lifeless Purgatory Developed In Russia? Couldn’t they at least have heard of it?
16/02/2010 at 14:12 The Unbelievable Guy says:
Actually if the category-of-its-own thing was tried I guess it would look like this:
Assassins Creed 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Dante’s Inferno (?)
Uncharted 2
Call of Duty again because it was just so great you guys
16/02/2010 at 14:41 Gorgeras says:
Kane & Lynch got nominated once.
That is all.
16/02/2010 at 17:36 Springy says:
Was it for story? That was worth a nomination.
16/02/2010 at 17:40 Springy says:
No, wait, it was for Best Game.
http://www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/video-game-awards-nominations,99,BA.html
You probably don’t need to say any more than that.
16/02/2010 at 14:43 Labbes says:
It’s interesting that I have played only two of these games, Dragon Age and Plants versus Zombies. That probably sums up my opinion of the other games pretty well, especially because the Heavily-Hyped Console Game That Sold Really Well Around Christmas ones don’t run on my PC.
Gah! I’m not the mainstream audience! What have I become??
16/02/2010 at 14:49 innokenti says:
Oh I laugh.
How I laugh…
And then ignore it.
16/02/2010 at 15:03 Kenny says:
It’d be interesting to know how many indies entered their game for consideration. Without that information all the mud being thrown in this thread looks rather childish.
16/02/2010 at 15:26 neems says:
Hopefully Uncharted 2 will win all the awards instead of Cod 6, as it’s the dog’s bollucks. Or they could have just given the award to Demon’s Souls in every category and save everybody a lot of time and hassle.
16/02/2010 at 15:28 Mungrul says:
You know, I know it’s not a PC game, and even worse, it didn’t see a UK release, but if multiplayer were judged purely on excellence and innovation, it would have to be Demon’s Souls.
But of course, it’ll go to the title that single-handedly ruined multiplayer by making every triple-A developer under the sun think that they need to include some kind of psuedo-RPG levelling system. Bloody Modern Warfare.
What’s even more scary are the sales figures for the first and second Modern Warfare games. It’s like “The Sun” of videogames :E
16/02/2010 at 18:25 FunkyBadger says:
Tio be fair, MW2 is *really* good, though.
16/02/2010 at 22:29 Rinox says:
Yes, but it’s not the game of the year – there were some clearly better games on both consoles and PC that came out. But the MW2 just thrives on the legacy of the CoD franchise, inspiring people who do not really know what is going on in the games world but like to pretend they do to pick it.
16/02/2010 at 16:01 Tei says:
At one point all the civilized world (even Kotaku!), stoped publishing the TOP 10 most sell games, because It was pointless to see a list of the latest Sims and Fifa titles there, everywhere.
Popularity in videogames mean some true awnfull games. The type of games you will not play for more than a few days, and that about a 90% of his appeal die wen his graphics become outdated.
So I am surprised BAFTA output is something else than a list of “EA Sims” or “IMAGINE” titles with dubious intentions.
16/02/2010 at 16:05 Rei Onryou says:
From the BAFTA site, detailing the selection process of the GAME award shortlist:
The ten shortlisted titles were chosen by a hand-picked expert panel of games journalists and passionate gamers. They began by looking at the top selling games of the year sold in GAME stores and arrived at the final shortlist through furious game-playing and fierce debate.
OK, who do I point my “finger of pointing +2 vs. game journalists and passionate gamers” at? An awarded biased towards what was bought the most from the sponsor?
I think the selection process of these shortlists seems to be ridiculous and shortsighted to say the least. There’s so much variation and unique experiences on offer, yet they all seem to be ignored.
How do you boycott an award?
16/02/2010 at 16:11 neems says:
You’re having a laugh. Please tell me you made that up, that is just… can you imagine if the BAFTA or Oscar panel just went to blockbusters to see which films were the most popular? Or maybe the academy nipped down to their local Odeon, asked them which films they should nominate (‘er, Avatar is pretty popular’).
16/02/2010 at 16:25 phuzz says:
@neems
Using Avatar as an example just makes it sound more likely.
ITS ALL A BLOODY CONSPIRACY I TELLS YEH!
16/02/2010 at 19:25 Hmm says:
Just to clarify, that’s for the Game Award, and not all the categories.
Everything is eligible for the other awards as long as you pay the fee for it to be considered. Which is probably an unnecessary expense for most small devs or indie studios.
16/02/2010 at 16:06 John says:
Well this is scary. Only one market (which is, of course, the most popular one) is explored. I fear this is becoming far too common.
16/02/2010 at 16:22 phuzz says:
Congratulations BAFTAs, you are the, erm, BAFTAs of games awards.
What we want is the gaming equivalent of the Mercury award, ie just one award, for best game released last year, complete with token ‘weird’ and ‘old fashioned’ nominations.
If I could be bothered I’d now draw poorly conceived comparisons between last year’s Mercury nominees and some of the games nominated above, such as
“Left 4 Dead 2 is totally the Florence and the Machine of the gaming world, in that lots of people profess to hate everything it stands for, never the less it was incredibly popular and is actually very good”
or something, Gillen, this one’s yours.
(Bonus points, who is the Speech Debelle of gaming?)
(pps, Eufloria == Laura Marling)
16/02/2010 at 16:46 HermitUK says:
Nice to see Pixeljunk Shooter up for a fair few awards. While it’s a PS3 game, still has to be one of my favourite indie games of last year. Brilliant liquid physics.
16/02/2010 at 16:51 Eldritchreality says:
@Neems
“Dawn of War 2 is a strategy game? I thought it was Diablo with US Marines in space.”
Fixed that for you
16/02/2010 at 17:23 Stabby says:
Gotta say, Batman Arkham Asylum was a pretty awesome game.
16/02/2010 at 17:46 Shalrath says:
If these are the best games of 2009, man that was a shitty year.
16/02/2010 at 18:20 Michael says:
Assassin’s Creed II
Oh, FFS…
16/02/2010 at 18:57 TeeJay says:
It would be interesting to know who these people actually are. Is anyone going to “name names”?
First round shortlisting of top six games in each category:
“voted on by selected industry professionals and Games-voting BAFTA members”
Final winner:
“carefully selected jury, specialising in that category … comprise between seven and nine industry practitioners across a range of developers and publishers and will be chaired by a member of the BAFTA Video Games committee … balanced in age and experience, and with a track record of achievement in the field … mindful of the diversity of the jury, and jurors will not be exclusively from one discipline.”
The current Video Games Committee for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts:
RAY MAGUIRE (Chair) – Managing Director of Sony Entertainment UK (speciality = sales and marketing)
IAN LIVINGSTONE (Deputy Chair) – Co-founder of Games Workshop & Life President, Eidos plc
DAVID BRABEN – Co-writer of Elite and chairman of Frontier Developments
JOHN BROOMHALL – Independent Audio Director & Consultant
CHARLES CECIL – Managing Director, Revolution Software (eg Broken Sword series)
HARVEY ELLIOTT – General Manager, EA Casual (Eg Harry Potter series)
MILES JACOBSON – (Sports Interactive managing director)
MARK MASLOWICZ – (Director – Xbox360/GfW Europe)
SANJAY MISTRY – (creative designer / EA Games)
ANDY NUTTALL – (Executive Producer, Zoe Mode (eg various music and party games))
ANDY PAYNE – (managing director Mastertronic / Chairman of ELSPA & GamesAid / founder ‘Get Games’ (with Eurogamer))
ROB SAUNDERS – (Senior PR Manager, Nintendo)
KRISTIAN SEGERSTRALE – (General manager of Playfish (now owned by EA) (eg various facebook ‘social games’))
The impression I get is this committee seems weighted more towards corporate sales/marketing/PR executives rather than the creative and development side of things. Of course these aren’t the actual “jury” or “voters”.
16/02/2010 at 20:28 FunkyBadger says:
The first year this was on, they announced Crysis as up for the Game of the Year, about 3 months before it was released. Industry Junkets are Industry Junkets I guess.
16/02/2010 at 21:31 Mr. Versipellis says:
No love for Dragon Age, I see? :angryface:
16/02/2010 at 21:52 Psychopomp says:
Well, at least Uncharted 2 got nominated for game of the year. Fantastic game, that.
16/02/2010 at 22:46 Carra says:
Best story: Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut
Best strategy game: Command and Conquer 3: Uprising
Come on? A slightly enhanced version of a twelve year old game gets a nomination?
Where’s Anno 1701 for best strategy game. Meh, even best game of the year. Why no Dragon Age in the best game of the year?
Oh heck, I’ll put in my penny for Batman: Arkham Asylum.
17/02/2010 at 08:03 Rick says:
The only saving grace for originality there is that Brutal Legend got a nomination for story. It won’t win though. No doubt it will go to the more sales-successful “Call of Assassin’s Asylum ODST: We’re doing the same again”.
17/02/2010 at 08:43 Psychopomp says:
…Arkham Asylum was derivative? Did you even play it, or are you just railing against Popular Game?
17/02/2010 at 08:39 iQue says:
Use of online: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
LOL
17/02/2010 at 08:51 The Sombrero Kid says:
“quick name the five biggest budget games and we’ll try and squeeze them into every category, then after lunch we’ll fill in the gaps with slightly lower budget games.”
I suspect the people deciding haven’t actually played a lot of games this year, which raises an interesting question, in the film industry it’s quite easy to watch almost every film released that year if you’re a critic and so become an informed judge of the best, but in the games industry i don’t think it’s possible to play a very high percentage of games released in a year and so maybe this isn’t entirely their fault at how unsuitable the list is.
17/02/2010 at 13:02 Taillefer says:
Sombrero Kid, as I understand it, the games must be entered to be considered for an award. The devs submit their game for consideration along with an entry fee – and it’s only those games which are judged. It doesn’t matter how good a game is; if it isn’t entered, it can’t win anything.
17/02/2010 at 10:32 Hmm-Hmm. says:
One wonders who:
1) Provides the funding for these awards
2) Do the voting and how these folk are chosen
And why these are specifically British awards, and how that can be seen in any shape, way or form.
And where we can complain (or at least the British among us).
17/02/2010 at 20:03 TeeJay says:
@ Hmm-Hmm
You will find some the answers on the BAFTA website: http://www.bafta.org/
re. funding
They charge £360 annual membership fees and have over 6000 members. They charge c. £400 (varies) registration and entry fee for nominations. They are also a charity which has been gifted large amounts of money by various rich patrons and they have a parallel trading arm which generates income.
re. voting
For video games at least: 1) payment made to submit a game 2) First round shortlisting of six games in each category by “selected industry professionals and Games-voting BAFTA members” 3) Final winner chosen by “carefully selected jury, specialising in that category … comprise between seven and nine industry practitioners across a range of developers and publishers and will be chaired by a member of the BAFTA Video Games committee … balanced in age and experience, and with a track record of achievement in the field … mindful of the diversity of the jury, and jurors will not be exclusively from one discipline.”
The connection with the UK is that games/films/etc have been released in the UK. I don’t think anyone would notice a UK emphasis, but then again there is maybe less variation of videogames across a lot of the world – except for the far east (china/korea/japan) – ie unlike TV and films you don’t get many games that are totally unique to France/Spain/Germany/Turkey/Brazil/West Africa/India etc.