BAFTA Game nominations announced

By Fred Dutton Published 16 February, 2011

AC: Brotherhood, Mario, COD slug it out.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops dominate this year's BAFTA Game nominations, released today.

Assassin's Creed has the most nods with six, followed by Black Ops and Galaxy 2 with five each. Kudos to indie underdog LIMBO for picking up four.

Wondering why GOTY contender Red Dead Redemption doesn't feature more prominently? Developer Rockstar Games decided not to enter it into competition.

The winners will be announced on 16th March at the London Park Lane Hilton.

Here's the full list, as revealed on the official BAFTA site:

Action

  • Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA/DICE)
  • BioShock 2 (2K)
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision/Treyarch)
  • God of War III (SCE Santa Monica Studio)
  • Halo: Reach (Bungie)

Best Game

  • Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  • FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts)
  • Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe)
  • LIMBO (Playdead Games)
  • Mass Effect 2 (EA/BioWare)
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
  • Toy Story 3 (Disney/Avalanche Software)

Gameplay

  • Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  • God of War III (SCE Santa Monica Studio)
  • Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe)
  • LIMBO (Playdead Games)
  • Mass Effect 2 (EA/BioWare)
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)

Multiplayer

  • Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA/DICE)
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision/Treyarch)
  • Halo: Reach (Bungie)
  • Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA/Criterion Games)
  • Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment)

Original Music

  • Alan Wake (Petri Alanko, Remedy)
  • Fable III (Russell Shaw, Lionhead Studios)
  • Heavy Rain (Normand Corbeil, Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe)
  • James Bond 007: Bloodstone (Richard Jacques, Bizarre Creations)
  • Mass Effect 2 (Jack Wall, BioWare)
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Koji Kondo, Nintendo)

Technical Innovation

  • Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision/Treyarch)
  • Halo: Reach (Bungie)
  • Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe)
  • Kinectimals (Frontier Developments Ltd)
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)

Artistic Achievement

  • Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard/Treyarch)
  • God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio)
  • Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe)
  • LIMBO (Playdead Games)
  • Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts/BioWare)

Family

  • Dance Central (MTV & Harmonix)
  • Kinect Adventures (Microsoft Games Studios/Good Science Studio)
  • Kinect Sports (Microsoft Games Studios/Rare)
  • Kinectimals (Microsoft Games Studios/Frontier Developments)
  • LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/TT Games)
  • Toy Story 3 (Disney Interactive Studios/Avalanche Software)

Handheld

  • Cut the Rope (Chillingo/Zeptolab)
  • God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment/Ready at Dawn)
  • LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/TT Games)
  • Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo/Level 5 Games)
  • Sonic Colours (SEGA/Sonic Team)
  • Super Scribblenauts (Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/5th Cell)

Social Network Game

  • Bejeweled Blitz (PopCap Games)
  • Farmerama (Bigpoint)
  • FIFA Superstars (EA Sports/Playfish)
  • My Empire (Playfish)
  • Zoo Mumba (Bigpoint)
  • Zuma Blitz (PopCap Games)

Sports

  • F1 2010 (Codemasters)
  • FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts)
  • Football Manager 2011 (SEGA/Sports Interactive)
  • Gran Turismo 5 (Sony Computer Entertainment/Polyphony Digital)
  • International Cricket 2010 (Codemasters/Trickstar Games)
  • Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Konami/Winning Eleven Productions)

Strategy

  • Civilization V (2K Games/Firaxis)
  • Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment)
  • FIFA Manager 11 (EA Sports/Bright Future)
  • Napoleon: Total War (SEGA/Creative Assembly)
  • Plants vs. Zombies XBLA (PopCap Games)
  • Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment)

BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital

  • Mush - Henry Hoffman, Ahmed Zaman, Matthew Dennis, Katherine Killick, Greg O'Brien (Angry Mango)
  • Sculpty - Druhin Mukherjee, Fabien Roussot, James Long, Fraser Littlejohn, Ronan Suess (Team Tickle)
  • Twang! - Jocce Marklund, Annette Nielsen, Linus Nordgren, Marcus Heder, Thomas Finlay (That Game Studio)

GAME Award of 2010

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard/Treyarch)
  • Dance Central (MTV/Harmonix)
  • FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts)
  • Halo Reach (Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie)
  • Heavy Rain Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe)
  • LIMBO (Playdead Games)
  • Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts/BioWare)
  • Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games)
  • Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego)
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Iain815 #1 1 year ago

    A bit disappointed Assassins Creed didn't get nominated for Best Story.

  • yeahetc #2 1 year ago

    What is technically innovative about Black Ops? Feels like the same old COD since 2007.

  • CaptainQuint #3 1 year ago

    The baftas are garbage.

    Next article.

  • greenllama88 #4 1 year ago

    I don’t mean to sound like a snob as I’m sure a lot of very talented artists put a lot of work into the game but how ( when you consider all the really unique and character filled games released last year) does Call of Duty: Black Ops merit an nomination for Artistic Achievement?

  • Cheapshot #5 1 year ago

    I thought Rockstar opted out of the nominations for Red Dead...? Ah well, they really deserve best game this year any-who.

  • Skith666 #6 1 year ago

    My bet, CoD will NOT win Best Multiplayer Game!
    ...just a guess...

  • Soton4084 #7 1 year ago

    My personal choices (only based on the selection of games I have personally played):

    Action: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or Battlefield: Bad Company 2
    Best Game: Mass Effect 2 (although Heavy Rain is a strong runner-up in my opinion)
    Gameplay: Mass Effect 2 or Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
    Multiplayer: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
    Original Music: Heavy Rain (with Mass Effect 2 as a strong runner-up)
    Technical Innovation: Heavy Rain
    Artistic Achievement: Mass Effect 2 (with Heavy Rain as a strong runner-up)
    Sports: Football Manager 2011 or Gran Turismo 5
    GOTY: Mass Effect 2 (with Red Dead Redemption and Heavy Rain as 2nd and 3rd)


    I have played COD: Black Ops, but personally don't think it is worthy of any BAFTA's. It's not a bad game by any means, but does nothing to improve upon Modern Warfare and I think it is overrated.

    Edited by Soton4084 at 16/02/11 @ 20:30

  • icematt12 #8 1 year ago

    Fingers crossed for Mass Effect 2 and Heavy Rain across the board, with Best MP for either Halo Reach or NFS: HP.
    Edited by icematt12 at 16/02/11 @ 19:42

  • arcam #9 1 year ago

    I thought Rockstar opted out of the nominations for Red Dead...? Ah well, they really deserve best game this year any-who.

    They did, but the GAME Award of 2010 is the only award that you don't have to pay to be considered for, so I guess they're OK in that category.

  • Buran #10 1 year ago

    How such a crap as BLOPS can be nominated as best in the tech department whereas Bad Company 2 or Metro 2033 are outside?

    BLOPS runs well with his tiny maps and small number of players, but BC 2 runs as well with big maps, 32 players and tons of vehicles in a cataclysm of teared apart environments under destruction 2.0

  • arcam #11 1 year ago

    Yes, we can be annoyed that Call of Duty is nominated for artistic achievement three years running, or that Kane & Lynch was nominated for best game, or that Wii Sports beat Total War to a Strategy & Simulation award, but it's easier to just say these guys don't know or don't care what they are talking about and move on :)

  • Psych0Mantis #12 1 year ago

    2010 was a great year for games, I really hope Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain and God Of War III get the recognition they deserve. But then again as already mentioned it seems like a fix. I'm starting to get so tired of COD rehashing itself year after year. We need more innovation and developers who push the envelope. Having just completed Mass Effect 2 on PS3 though it is definitely top of my list for the best game I've played over the last year (and possibly ever).

  • RexRunti #13 1 year ago

    I doubt BLOPs will pick up any awards (except perhaps multiplayer). Any way my predictions for winners (not necessarily my own opinion) are:

    Action: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (hardest category)

    Artistic Achievement: LIMBO

    Best Game: Mass Effect 2

    Family: Kinectimals

    Gameplay: Super Mario Galaxy 2

    Handheld: Cut the Rope

    Multiplayer: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

    Original Music: Heavy Rain

    Social Network Game: Bejeweled Blitz

    Sports: Gran Turismo 5

    Story: Mass Effect 2

    Strategy: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

    Technical Innovation: Kinectimals

    Use of Audio: Alan Wake

    BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital: Mush

    GAME Award of 2010: Mass Effect 2
    Edited by RexRunti at 16/02/11 @ 20:20

  • OlMaster #14 1 year ago

    Wait, wait....

    TOY STORY 3 for game of the year?!?

  • Jolly_Armadillo #15 1 year ago

    Someone can't count number of nominations? Or am I the one that can't count?

  • Lee_Morris #16 1 year ago

    How the **** is Toy Story 3 up for best game and Red Dead isn't?

    I'm surprised Bafta didn't show Ninja Theory some love and give some nominations to Enslaved. Great game and you know how they like to shine some light on the home grown.

    How is CoD up for best technical when it doesn't even run well on the PS3? Surely Need for Speed should be nominated. Also CoD for artistic achievement? Would anyone say any of the art in that game was special? Halo has much more interesting art or Castlevania. That was a pretty gorgeous game.

    EDIT I should have guessed Red Dead wouldn't pay to be up for an award. Point still stands about Toy Story 3. The DICE awards are the only awards worth caring about this year it seems.
    Edited by Lee_Morris at 16/02/11 @ 23:14

  • Dannyboy1100 #17 1 year ago

    "Assassins creed" "Best story"

    ^ you're kidding right? The story makes it worse than it actually could be.... I would even prefer a generic crappy story to all this pish about desmond.

    Anyway as long as blacks ops doesnt win anything im happy... Blacks practically killed the series, id be suprised if treyarch even got to male the next cod after mw3 (which will be awesome)z

  • darkmorgado #18 1 year ago

    Black Ops up for Artistic and Technical awards?

    Really?

  • Capa26 #19 1 year ago

    Toy Story 3... yes. A classic of our times.

    Err...

  • AGBear #20 1 year ago

    'Gameplay' as a category? What utter pish. Any reviewer who uses the word 'gameplay' as a descriptor should be sacked, in the same way I wouldn't accept 'moviewatch' or 'musiclistenosity' as valuable terms.

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #21 1 year ago

    baftas are a fix...i bet b-ops wins best multyplayer game of all time...bullshit!

  • Murton #22 1 year ago

    At least the BAFTA panel got one thing right and didn't shortlist Blops for "Best Game" shows that we have at least some understanding on the panel this year that should hopefully see at least a couple of the awards go to deserving games rather than commerical successes, but we'll see.

  • RexRunti #23 1 year ago

    Toy Story 3 isn't up for best game, Eurogamer just can't hit ctrl+c then ctrl+v properly. They're also missing the entire "Story" category. The full list is here: [link url=http://www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/video-games-awards-nominees-in-2010,1656,BA.html
    ]http://www.bafta.org/awards/video-games/...[/link]

    Also at @DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON COD:MW2 was up for as many awards last year and only won the GAME award as voted for by the general (idiot) public, so whilst the nominations are a bit of a fix the winners usually aren't (though being British tend to favour British developers).
    Edited by RexRunti at 17/02/11 @ 09:15

  • DirectAim #24 1 year ago

    Best game.. Toy Story 3?? WTF