The BAFTA Game Awards are upon us once again, and as usual, the UK-based awards are a tad skewed in favor of UK-based games.
UK PC games Everybody's Gone To The Rapture and Her Story lead the category nominations, despite being a little thin on actual gameplay. Everybody's Gone To The Rapture goes up against the likes of Fallout 4 in the category of best game, while interactive live action movie Her Story takes on the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for best game design.
Windows Central's Matt Brown will be on the red carpet, bringing us the latest and greatest that the game industry luminaries have to offer (either that, or enjoying all the free booze).
The full nominations are as follows! (via Metro).
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
ASSASSIN'S CREED SYNDICATE Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT Development Team – Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN Development Team – Kojima Productions/Konami
ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST Development Team – Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Lucjan Wiecek, Pawel Mielniczuk – CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment
AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT
ASSASSIN'S CREED SYNDICATE Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT Development Team – Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN Development Team – Kojima Productions/Konami
STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT Development Team – EA Dice/Electronic Arts
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Marcin Pryblowicz, Pawel Daudzward, Krzysztof Lipka – CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment
BEST GAME
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
FALLOUT 4 Development Team- Bethesda Game Studios
LIFE IS STRANGE Development Team – Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN Development Team – Kojima Productions/Konami
ROCKET LEAGUE Development Team – Psyonix/Psyonix
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Adam Badowski, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Piotr Krzyonosiuk – CD Projeckt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment
BRITISH GAME
BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT Development Team – Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/ Sam Barlow
PRISON ARCHITECT Development Team – Introversion Software/Introversion Software
TEARAWAY UNFOLDED Development Team – Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
UNTIL DAWN Development Team – Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
DEBUT GAME
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/ Sam Barlow
KEEP TALKING AND NOBODY EXPLODES Ben Kane, Brian Fetter, Allen Pestaluky – Steel Crate Games/Steel Crate Games
LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS SPACETIME Matt Hammill, Jamie Tucker, Adam Winkels – Asteroid Base/Asteroid Base
MINI METRO Development Team – Dinosaur Polo Club/AGM Playism
ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST Development Team – Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios
PRUNE Joel McDonald – Joel McDonald, Kyle Preston/Joel McDonald
FAMILY
DISNEY INFINITY 3.0: PLAY WITHOUT LIMITS John Blackburn, John Vignocchi, Bob Lowe – Avalanche Studios, Disney Interactive Studios/Disney Interactive Studios
FIFA 16 Development Team – EA Canada/EA Sports
GUITAR HERO: LIVE Development Team – Freestyle Games/Activision
LEGO DIMENSIONS John Burton, James McLoughlin, Nick Ricks – TT Games/WB Games
SUPER MARIO MAKER Development Team – Nintendo/Nintendo
ROCKET LEAGUE Development Team – Psyonix/Psyonix
GAME DESIGN
BLOODBORNE Development Team – FromSoftware/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
GROW HOME Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/Sam Barlow
LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS SPACETIME Matt Hammill, Jamie Tucker, Adam Winkels – Asteroid Base/Asteroid Base
ROCKET LEAGUE Development Team – Psyonix/Psyonix
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Grzegorz Mocarski, Marcin Blacha, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz – CD Projeckt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment
GAME INNOVATION
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/Sam Barlow
LIFE IS STRANGE Development Team – Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN Development Team – Kojima Productions/Konami
SPLATOON Development Team – Nintendo/Nintendo
UNTIL DAWN Development Team – Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
MOBILE & HANDHELD
ALPHABEAR Development Team – Spry Fox/ Spry Fox
FALLOUT SHELTER Development Team – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/Sam Barlow
LARA CROFT GO Development Team – Square Enix Montreal/Square Enix
PRUNE Joel McDonald – Joel McDonald, Kyle Preston/Joel McDonald
THE ROOM THREE Development Team – Fireproof Games/Fireproof Games
MULTIPLAYER
DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING Development Team – Bungie/Activision
LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS SPACETIME Matt Hammill, Jamie Tucker, Adam Winkels – Asteroid Base/Asteroid Base
ROCKET LEAGUE Development Team – Psyonix/Psyonix
SPLATOON Development Team – Nintendo/Nintendo
TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
WORLD OF WARSHIPS Development Team – Wargaming.net/Wargaming.net
MUSIC
ASSASSIN'S CREED SYNDICATE Development Team– Ubisoft/Ubisoft
BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT Development Team – Rocksteady Studios/WB Games
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Jessica Curry – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
FALLOUT 4 Development Team – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
HALO 5: GUARDIANS Kazuma Jinnouchi, Nobuko Toda, Peter Cobbin – 343 Industries/Microsoft Studios
ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST Gareth Coker – Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios
ORIGINAL PROPERTY
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/Sam Barlow
LIFE IS STRANGE Development Team – Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST Development Team – Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios
SPLATOON Development Team – Nintendo/Nintendo
UNTIL DAWN Development Team – Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
PERFORMER
ASHLY BURCH as Chloe Price in Life is Strange
DOUG COCKLE as Geralt of Rivia, Witcher in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
MERLE DANDRIDGE as Kate Collins in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
OLIVER DIMSDALE as Stephen Appleton in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
MARK HAMILL as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight
MASASA MOYO as Vella in Broken Age: Act 2
PERSISTENT GAME
DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING Development Team – Bungie/Activision
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN Development Team – Square Enix/Square Enix
GUITAR HERO: LIVE Development Team – Freestyle Games/Activision
LEGO DIMENSIONS John Burton, James McLoughlin, Dave Dootson – TT Games/WB Games
PRISON ARCHITECT Development Team – Introversion Software/Introversion Software
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Adam Badowski, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Piotr Krzywonosiuk – CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment
SPORT
DiRT RALLY Development Team – Codemasters/Codemasters
FIFA 16 Development Team – EA Canada/EA Sports
FOOTBALL MANAGER Development Team – Sports Interactive/SEGA
FORZA MOTORSPORT 6 Ryan Cooper, Bill Giese, Dave Gierok
PES 2016 Development Team – Konami Digital Entertainment/Konami Digital Entertainment B.V.
ROCKET LEAGUE Development Team – Psyonix/Psyonix
STORY
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE Development Team – The Chinese Room/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
HER STORY Sam Barlow – Sam Barlow/ Sam Barlow
LIFE IS STRANGE Development Team – Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
UNDERTALE Development Team – Tobyfox/Tobyfox
UNTIL DAWN Development Team – Supermassive Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Marcin Blacha, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz – CD Projekt Red/Bandai Namco Entertainment
BAFTA ONES TO WATCH AWARD, IN ASSOCIATION WITH DARE TO BE DIGITAL
SELFIENATION Cheri Skivington, Daniel Prihodko, Ricardo Barros, Zolton Tompa, Reka Lux, Hajnalka Szanto Irina Kovalova – Pictrail
SUNDOWN Steven Li, Aaron Hong, McLean Goldwhite, Theodore Park, Kenny Regan, Cynthia Cantrell, Gracie May, Jade Kim – Mild Beast Games
THE WALL SHALL STAND Edward Burton, Edward Grimes, Cameron Richards, Steven Sparkes – Pixel Tailors
AMD eSPORTS AUDIENCE AWARD
CALL OF DUTY:BLACK OPS 3 Treyarch/ Activision
COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE Hidden Path Entertainment/Valve
DOTA 2 Valve/Valve
HEARTHSTONE: HEROES OF WARCRAFT Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS Riot Games/Riot Games
SMITE Hi-Rez Studios/Hi-Rez Studios
I personally find some of the nominations a little perplexing. Halo 5: Guardians is surely more deserving than some of the multiplayer games nominated, but I'm glad to see Mark Hamill recognised for his nail-biting portrayal of the Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Moon Studios for their work on Ori and the Blind Forest.
What do you think of the BAFTAs? Legitimate accolades or shallow marketing ploys? Hit the comments!
