GAME British Academy Video Game Awards

Nominations and reasons for voting

So with the BAFTA Game awards on the horizon, I thought it might be an interesting idea to make some predictions based on who I think will win each of the awards so scroll down and see what you think!

Action

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Battlefield: Bad Company
Bioshock 2
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
God Of War III
Halo: Reach

The Halo brand has always taken pride in its take on the first person shooter and Halo: Reach has been bought and enjoyed by millions of Xbox users and should, in my opinion, win this one hands down.

 

Artistic Achievement

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
God Of War III
Heavy Rain
LIMBO
Mass Effect 2

This one was a tough one to call as Heavy Rain has some gorgeous visuals and a bleak artistic direction but Mass Effect 2 shades it with some of the most detailed alien models I've ever seen and some brilliantly rendered planets.

Best Game

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Fifa 11
Heavy Rain
LIMBO
Mass Effect 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2

Out of the candidates, Mass Effect 2 was one of the best games from 2010 on Xbox and is one of the best console action-rpgs and is well deserving of the game of the year award although Super Mario Galaxy might snatch it.

 

Family

Dance Central
Kinect Adventures
Kinect Sports
Kinectimals
Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4
Toy Story 3

Having had the opportunity to play around on the Kinect system this past weekend I must say I was blown away by the hardware. This is a step up from the wii and moves beyond the Playstation move as the next gen gadget to get. Fantastic and well deserving of this award.

Gameplay

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
God Of War III
Heavy Rain
LIMBO
Mass Effect 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2

A unique game to play with matching buttons on the screen. The unique blend of matching buttons and the ease of use make this the sleekest game to play this past year.

Handheld

Cut the rope
God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Professor Layton & the lost future
Sonic Colours
Super Scribblenauts

The Professor Layton games are consistently some of the best games for the DS and although some of the puzzles can be frustratingly hard, the series continues to please millions of people.

Multiplayer

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Halo: Reach
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty

Hands down Call Of Duty has always been and should remain the best online game in the world with millions of players and the added features implemented this year make it an even more impressive feature.

Original Music

Alan Wake
Heavy Rain
Fable III
James Bond 007: Bloodstone
Mass Effect 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2

The music is fun and chirpy and stands out among the competition with some brilliant tracks.

Social Network Game

Bejeweled Blitz
Farmerama
FIFA Superstars
My Empire
Zoo Mumba
Zuma Blitz

Who doesn't love a bit of Bejeweled? This one is my favourite social network game and is one of the most addictive.

Sports

F1 2010
FIFA 11
Football Manager 2011
Gran Turismo 5
International Cricket 2010
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011

Fifa proved this year that not only can they listen to fan feedback, they can make a good game into a mind blowing innovative title. This year Fifa blew the competition out the water with the brilliant installment.

Story

Alan Wake
Bioshock 2
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Fallout: New Vegas
Heavy Rain
Mass Effect 2

Deep and character-driven, Mass Effect 2 was always going to be a strong contender to win this one and although Heavy Rain could win this, I think more people would be inclined to vote for Mass Effect 2.

Strategy

Civilization V
Fallout: New Vegas
FIFA Manager 11
Napoleon: Total War
Plants VS Zombies
Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty

Civlization is deep and although having not played the 5th installment, the previous games have been brilliant and hopefully this one will bring home the award.

Technical Innovation

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Halo: Reach
Heavy Rain
Kinectimals
Super Mario Galaxy 2

The Kinect for Xbox really is a breakthrough for technology and Kinectimals is one step better than the originality of Eyepet and is a jaw-droppingly good and innovative game.

Use Of Audio

Alan Wake
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Call Of Duty: Black Ops
DJ Hero 2
Limbo

In terms of innovation DJ Hero should win this one but although the soundtrack really does suck, the way the audio is used is ingenius.

BAFTA Ones To Watch

Mush
Sculpty
Twang!

Although having only seen trailers, Twang! looks to have some real promise.

GAME Award of 2010

Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Dance Central
FIFA 11
Halo: Reach
Heavy Rain
Limbo
Mass Effect 2
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Red Dead Redemption
Super Mario Galaxy 2

This is the one I'm not sure about as it depends on what other people think but the winner of this award should go to Mass Effect 2 for how deep, mature and impressive the game is as a whole but Super Mario Galaxy has had all kinds of praise and might win this one.


So those are my nominations and this year really will be a close run thing for Game Of The Year but come March 16th the awards will be given out and it will be interesting to see which games got voted for in each of the categories. When this happens, I will update this page to see how many I got right compared to the actual results.