The BAFTA Video Game Awards! They’re the British Oscars. Of video games. BAFTA stands for “British Academy of Film and Television Arts.” Oooo, was Jade Raymond wearing Stella McCartney? (For some reason that was the only fashion designer I could think of.)
Short version, they went absolutely insane over Wii Sports. If you’re curious what actually won, here’s what actually won:
ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
WILL WRIGHT
ACTION AND ADVENTURE
CRACKDOWN (Xbox 360) – Development Team (Realtime Worlds/Microsoft Game Studios)
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
OKAMI (PS2) – Atsushi Inaba (Clover(Capcom)/Capcom)
BEST GAME
BIOSHOCK (Xbox 360) – Development Team (2K Boston/2K Australia/2K Games)
CASUAL
WII SPORTS (Wii) – Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
GAMEPLAY
WII SPORTS (Wii) – Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
INNOVATION
WII SPORTS (Wii) – Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
MULTIPLAYER
WII SPORTS (Wii) – Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
ORIGINAL SCORE
OKAMI (PS2) – Atsushi Inaba (Clover (Capcom)/Capcom)
SPORTS
WII SPORTS (Wii) – Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
STRATEGY AND SIMULATION
WII SPORTS (Wii) – Development Team (Nintendo/Nintendo)
STORY AND CHARACTER
GOD OF WAR 2 (PS2) – Cory Barlog, David Jaffe, Marianne Krawczyk (SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
GOD OF WAR 2 (PS2) – Tim Moss, Christer Ericson (SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)
USE OF AUDIO
CRACKDOWN (Xbox 360) – Development Team (Realtime Worlds/Microsoft Game Studios)
BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital
RAGNARAWK – Voodoo Boogy (Malcom Brown, Robert Clarke, Peter Carr, Lynne Robertson, Finlay Sutton)
THE PC WORLD GAMERS AWARD
(The only award to be voted for by the public)
FOOTBALL MANAGER 2007 (PC) (Sports Interactive/SEGA)
A big “oi oi oi!” to Football Manager 2007 for its gutty grass-roots win! Click here for the full list, including nominees. And two questions: God of War 2 gets Technical Achievement? It’s a PS2 game! And correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Halo 3 was eligible. It doesn’t turn up even in the nominees. A No-Prize for anybody who has a blurry cell-phone shot of the Master Chief crying in the bathroom after the ceremony.