Late last week marked the annual Gaming BAFTA awards ceremony, as the game industry’s finest descended in force on London’s Tobacco Dock. God alone knows how much Champagne flowed, but it was likely a lot.
One table in particular that was likely to be overflowing with the bubbly was Bungie’s - Destiny took the coveted BAFTA award for Best Game. The internet is already losing its shit over this, because, well, it’s the internet.
The full list of nominees and winners can be found here.
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
Lumino City– State of Play Games/State of Play Games
AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT
Alien: Isolation- Creative Assembly/SEGA
BEST GAME
Destiny– Bungie/Activision
BRITISH GAME
Monument Valley– ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
DEBUT GAME
Never Alone– Upper One Games/E-Line Media
FAMILY
Minecraft (Console Editions)– Mojang/4J Studios/Microsoft Studios
GAME DESIGN
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor- Monolith Productions/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
GAME INNOVATION
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter– The Astronauts/The Astronauts, Nordic Games
BEST MOBILE GAME / HANDHELD
Monument Valley– ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
MULTIPLAYER
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft– Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
MUSIC
Far Cry 4– Ubisoft/Ubisoft
ORIGINAL PROPERTY
Valiant Hearts– Ubisoft/Ubisoft
PERFORMER
Ashley Johnson– Ellie in The Last of Us: Left Behind
PERSISTENT GAME
League of Legends– Riot Games/Riot Games
SPORT
OlliOlli– Roll7/Roll7
STORY
The Last of Us: Left Behind – Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
BAFTA Ones to Watch Award, in association with Dare to Be Digital
Chambara – Overly Kinetic
Our take on the awards:
Of all of the games nominated in the best game category, Destiny getting the win is pretty mystifying. Put side-by-side with Dragon Age: Inquisition (which we reviewed quite favorably) and Alien: Isolation (which we also loved), Destiny really didn’t stack up. There’s no doubting it’s popular - many thousands still play it every day, grinding their way towards the best gear - but Bungie’s first post-Halo game lacks content, while the in-game performance of Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage has spawned no small number of memes. In our review of Destiny, Kyle said: “It’s a shame. If Bungie could have delivered on even half the promises it made, Destiny could have been something great. Instead, we are left with the skeleton of good game – and not much more.”
Likewise with the Game Design category; while we didn’t find Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor to be a bad game, it wasn’t really as inspired as Alien: Isolation when it came to creating a stellar atmosphere. It wasn’t a bad choice, but in our view, it wasn’t as deserving of the prize as the other shortlisted candidates.
We were also a little disappointed with Minecraft‘s console port winning best in Family game category, especially since it’s very well-tread territory at this point. Compared to the couch co-op friendly Mario Kart 8, which we found quite favorable, it feels a bit odd that Nintendo has been so overlooked this year.
That said, we’re quite happy to see Monument Valley win both the Mobile and the British game categories, in no small part because we loved it. In Dale’s review, he lamented the general disposition on mobile games, speaking on Monument Valley. “Monument Valley is a beautiful game. It can’t claim to be entirely original – Fez and Echochrome already tinkered with the idea of perspective-shifting gameplay, for example – but through a combination of its wonderful artstyle and some fantastic level design, it manages to be something rather special.” Although this result may be a little biased, as we awarded it Best in Mobile this past year as well.
Hopefully some of next year’s BAFTA choices are less confusing - but we’re looking forward to them all the same. And whatever we though of Destiny, there’s no denying that Bungie remains very much a force to be reckoned with in gaming.
