This year’s host Dara O’Briain, an avid gamer himself, recently described these times as a ‘golden age’ in video games, and this year’s nominations showcase the breathtaking imagination and creativity of the development talent working in the Video Games industry today. The Awards recognise the very best in artistic, creative and technical innovation in video games, and will be held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on March 10.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, GTA IV, and Fable II were all nominated in Action & Adventure, Story & Character and Best Game. Call of Duty also received nominations in Artistic Achievement, Gameplay, Multiplayer and Use of Audio. In addition, GTA IV was recognised in Gameplay, Use of Audio and Technical Achievement. Fable II was also nominated in Original Score and Technical Achievement. LittleBigPlanet received recognition in Artistic Achievement, Casual, Original Score, Technical Achievement and Use of Audio. Assassin’s Creed, Dead Space, and Fallout 3 have garnered four nominations each, while Gears of War 2, Rock Band, and Super Mario Galaxy all have three.
The British Academy recognises creative achievements across Film, Television and Video Games and the synergies between these three art forms of the moving image could not be better exemplified than by the designer of year’s Boom Blox, nominated in the Casual category. In addition to his prodigious film credits and his highly successful television serial Band of Brothers, Steven Spielberg can now add a BAFTA Video Games nomination to his credits.
Other nominated games include Advance Wars: Dark Conflict, Buzz! Quiz TV, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, FIFA 09, Football Manager 2009, Geometry Wars: Galaxies, God of War: Chains of the Olympus, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Left 4 Dead, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Mario Kart Wii, Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Motorstorm Pacific Rift, Ninjatown, Patapon, Prince of Persia, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Pure, Race Driver: GRID, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution, SingStar Vol. 2, SOCOM: US Navy Seals Tactical Strike, Soul Bubbles, Spore, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise and Wii Fit.
This year’s Awards will include the one publicly-voted award of the evening – the GAME Award of 2008. Its shortlist was compiled by a panel of games journalists and gaming enthusiasts, and comprises Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, GTA IV, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Left 4 Dead, LittleBigPlanet, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Wii Fit and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Voting is now live at www.baftagameaward.com
Whilst the Academy recognises those individuals at the top of their game, it also wishes to nurture the developers of tomorrow by recognising up-and-coming talent. The nominations for BAFTA’s new talent award, The BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital are Boro-Toro, Origamee and VegeMe.
This year’s Fellowship, the highest accolade the Academy bestows is being received by legendary Pong creator and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.