It was the video game BAFTAs last night, the annual celebration of the British video game industry and there were a couple of surprising winners.
Claiming victory in the sports category was not FIFA 15 or Forza Horizon 2, but indie skateboarding sim OlliOlli from London-based studio Roll7. Lumino City saw off competition from two Ubisoft games, Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed Unity, for artistic achievement.
Hollywood star Kevin Spacey missed out on the best performance award which went to Ashley Johnson for Ellie in The Last of Us: Left Behind, and the BBC reports that there was an “audible ripple of surprise” as Destiny claimed the big prize, best game, beating Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mario Kart 8 and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
A number of big names including Mario Kart 8 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare went away empty handed, perhaps due to BAFTA re-arranging the categories and dropping best shooter, racing game and adventure. However, it’s nice to see both Valiant Hearts and Never Alone pick up an award.
| Best game | Destiny (Bungie) |
| British game | Monument Valley (UsTwo) |
| Debut game | Never Alone (Upper One Games) |
| Story | The Last of Us: Left Behind (Naughty Dog) |
| Performer | Ashley Johnson for The Last of Us: Left Behind |
| Artistic achievement | Lumino City (State of Play) |
| Audio achievement | Alien Isolation (The Creative Assembly) |
| Family game | Minecraft: Console Editions (Mojang/4J Studios) |
| Game design | Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions) |
| Game innovation | The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts) |
| Mobile and handheld game | Monument Valley (UsTwo) |
| Multiplayer game | Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) |
| Music | Far Cry 4 (Cliff Martinez, Tony Gronick and Jerome Angelot) |
| Original property | Valiant Hearts (Ubisoft Studios) |
| Persistent game | League of Legends (Riot Games) |
| Sport game | OlliOlli (Roll7) |
| Ones to watch | Chambara (Overly Kinetic) |
| Bafta fellowship | David Braben (Frontier Developments) |
Source: BBC
TURRICAN-808
It’s actually encouraging for the industry that annual gush isn’t being awarded for the sake of being awarded. It’s good that indies are getting attention for original work rather than the cut and paste drivvel of COD & FIFA.
bunimomike
Other than the odd anomaly I couldn’t agree more. Some lovely “smaller” choices in there and very happy to see them.
Tovra
I assume you mean other than Destiny…
JustTaylorNow
Wait destiny GOTY, absurd money must have exchanged lol but in all seriousness destiny really
TURRICAN-808
In short bursts Destiny is OK IMO. I just hope the sequel adds a story. But I agree, BAFTA winner? No way.
Tuffcub
Whilst I havent played it for a few week, it was the “go to” game for a hell of a lot of people for many, many months. Last year was a pretty average year for games.
Lieutenant Fatman
If the future of games is Destiny, grinding the same levels over and over for all eternity. Shooting endless enemies with poor AI for a small chance to maybe upgrade some armour. Count me out.
A game where so many people choose to stand outside a cave for hours and just fired into it continuously. To beat the system. Sometimes I wonder, why create a masterpiece when you can plough that money into marketing instead?
Tuffcub
It, like everything else, is more fun with friends
RudeAwakening
Even with friends the majority of the game was terrible, the only thing that actually was brilliant was the raids. Destiny is purely designed from the get go around grinding, grinding and then more grinding. I think there was more thought and energy put into the RNG than any actual story. It was more of a synopsis than a story!
Amphlett
Agreed. I bought Destiny a couple of weeks ago (I know, it was released last year and I’m late to the party) and have given up on it when my character has reached level 12 (or something like that). I got a couple of mates to help me through the story levels as they’re both avid players but, I just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I found it rather dull and appeared to be full of grinding to be rewarded with slightly improved kit which would then be balanced off against slightly tougher enemies. I found the whole experience rather dull and will be trading it next week.
Lieutenant Fatman
I don’t blame you, the enemies are generic as they come as well, you could fall asleep shooting at them, hardly inspiring.
RudeAwakening
Completely agree. I leveled up to 29 and the only reason I stuck it out that long was because of the raid and the TSA members I joined with for the raid.
Starman
It looks like the picked the winners out of a hat, some very odd choices.
Mark Lee
Destiny is definitely not what I would have picked for Game of the Year.
Kennykazey
Surprising and disappointing.
It’s amusing how my phone auto-corrects BAFTA to bastards.
Far Cry 4 for best music? Really? Are you sure?OK then. Pffft.
Lieutenant Fatman
Just finished FC4 the other day myself. Can’t remember the music I must admit. I guess they really do pick most of the awards out of a hat.
homerjnick
I’ve never played Destiny and have no interest in doing so…
So what should have won best game then?
Lieutenant Fatman
Dragon Age, Transistor, Velocity 2X and Alien Isolation are a few that spring to mind. None of them had an advertising budget as big as Destiny though so they do fall down there.
Kennykazey
All those as well as Mario Kart, Horizon 2, Smash Bros and Bayonetta 2 are far more worthy candidates then Destiny in my mind. Well, Alien wasn’t my cup of tea, but still.
Andrewww
Alien: Isolation, or Alien: Isolation, and most definitely Alien: Isolation…! ;o)
At least it got one of the awards, the audio is indeed fantastic in the game too, among many other things.
Lieutenant Fatman
Most disappointing game of the year gets awarded best game of the year. Whether you enjoy playing it or not, the story is quite frankly awful. Sounds like favours for favours to me, makes the baftas look a complete joke.
Forrest_01
Didn’t win ‘Best Story’ though did it? It won ‘Best Game’.
For what it’s worth, it is a damn good game & the mechanics are spot on. It’s just a shame that it shipped without a story is all.
I am quite happy using my imagination though & filling in the blanks with my own interpretation. Like a good book.
Lieutenant Fatman
Each to their own, I’m not saying it’s a terrible game and that no one should play it of course, simply that there are far more deserving games for this award. Games with better voice acting, better plots, better loot systems, less generic enemies, better AI, better music, and so on.
Mark Lee
There are plenty of games that were better than Destiny last year. South Park and Shovel Knight to name a couple. Nice to see Valiant Hearts being recognised though, that’s an amazing little game.
DR-DAVROS
I guess I’m the only one who thinks destiny is a deserved winner it’s the only game I play now and can’t see myself stopping anytime soon yes it’s addictive but it’s also a lot of fun. Not many games keep me playing for several months after release. The last of us was an awesome story but once complete I have no interest in returning mp was fun for a while but destiny beats it in terms of long term play not story…… As yet.
Forrest_01
Nope, you are not alone, as I’ll throw my hat into that ring too – It’s the only game that has kept me engaged for months on end (to the point where I have barely played anything else) & I am still looking forward to going home today, paying Xur a visit, then jumping into some bounties etc to level some new gear up.
Not to mention I have loved raiding each week & even if I have nothing left to do for that week (per se), the roc playlist & the crucible are always there begging to be played with the hope of delicious loot.
It’s a slim chance granted, but a chance nonetheless.
I should add that I used to be all about variety in my gaming & jumping in & out of games often, but that may have been because I hadn’t found that one game (like some people play nothing but CoD for example). Maybe this is my one game.
I just hope the community doesn’t die off waiting for the next DLC to drop.
simplebob
Same here, my gaming is split between trying to get through back catalogue on PS3 and Destiny on the PS4, needless to say the PS3 doesn’t get switched on very often. I have Dragon Age, and although I enjoyed the first two I have really struggled getting into the story and characters of Inquisition and now mostly forget its there. Yes, Destiny has very little story, but there’s enough there to hint at a rich game world they can expand on without spending hours on cutscenes or reading though pages and pages of lore. I love the gameplay and gun play and, although there is a level of repetition, I love having the level of choice for what I do in any session, be it PVP, PVE, Raid, Strike, missions etc. I can see why the Game of the Year BAFTA wont make sense to everyone, but I believe its well deserved.
TSBonyman
Nice to see Valiant Hearts and Never Alone getting an award, i enjoyed both of them. Destiny was good but very short-lived for me, once i completed the ‘story’ it had nothing to hold my interest.
tactical20
I liked Valiant Hearts, but Never Alone was crap. Mario Kart not winning anything is the biggest travesty here. OlliOlli winning best sports is a joke. AC Unity should have clearly won artistic merit, Paris is simply stunning. If TC thinks last year was bad for games, this year looks even worse. Batman in a few months and that’s about it until 2016!