Journey picked up five Videogame BAFTAs at last night awards ceremony, with the indie game dominating big budget titles.
Dara O’Brien, self-proclaiming gamer, hosted the annual Game BAFTAs in London last night, which saw PlayStation exclusive indie game, Journey walk away with five gongs.
Originally nominated for eight awards, Journey ended up winning in five categories: Artistic Achievement, Audio Achievement, Original Music, Game Design and Online Multiplayer.
Steam-punk stealth adventure, Dishonoured, was awarded the coveted Best Game prize, beating off competition from Mass Effect 3 and FIFA 13.
Both The Unfinished Swan and multi-platform The Walking Dead picked up two BAFTAs each. The action survival title won in the Mobile and Handheld categories, whilst the PSN paint splattering exploration game took home the Game Innovation and Game Debut gongs.
Far Cry 3 received the Action Game award, whilst The Room won Best British Game and XCOM: Enemy Unknown walked away with the award for Best Strategy Game.
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes took the prize for Family game, New Star Soccer was awarded the Best Sports and Fitness game gong and SongPop won in the Online/Browser category.
Winning the prize for BAFTA’s One to Watch in 2013, an award presented in association with Dare to be Digital, was Starcrossed – a game for Windows 7 produced by a group of Finnish students under the name Kind of a Big Deal.
Finally, Danny Wallace was named Best Performer for his role as The Narrator in Windows and OS X indie puzzle platformer Thomas was Alone.
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell was also inducted into the BAFTA Fellowship during last night’s ceremony, for his dedication and services in the gaming industry.
Out of 17 award categories, 13 of those were won by games not available from retail stores. Big blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed 3, Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 all came away with nothing, losing out to indie or mobile gaming platform titles.
The ceremony seems to suggest that digital options are far more appealing to today’s gamers than physical disc-based games. This should bode well for the digital first next-generation consoles, like the recently announced PS4 and highly anticipated Xbox 720 codenamed Xbox Durango.
Do you think the best games won in their respective category? What would you have crowned the Best Game of last year? Give us your thoughts on the matter via the Trusted Reviews Facebook and Twitter pages or the comment boxes below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
