Portal 2 Crowned BAFTA's "Best Game"

[Mike Kayatta]

Portal 2 Crowned BAFTA's "Best Game"

Portal 2, Battlefield 3, and Batman: Arkham City clean up at the 2012 BAFTA Awards, while Skyrim gets skunked.

The 2012 British Academy of Film and Television Arts recently wrapped, with Battlefield 3 taking home the award for Online-Multiplayer, and Batman: Arkham City winning for Action. Portal 2 took the ... cake, however, beating out Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, L.A. Noire, and others, for both Best Game, and Best Story.

Battlefield 3 earned the most awards, claiming the prize for the GAME Award of 2011 and Audio Achievement in addition to Online Multiplayer, while Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City, and LittleBigPlanet 2 took two awards each. Perhaps most notably, Skyrim won absolutely nothing, though nominated for six separate honors, including Best Game. Here's the full list of nominees/winners:


Action
? Winner: Batman: Arkham City
? Assassin's Creed Revelations
? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
? Deus Ex: Human Revolution
? Portal 2
? Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Artistic Achievement
? Winner: Rayman Origins
? Batman: Arkham City
? L.A. Noire
? LittleBigPlanet 2
? The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
? Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Audio Achievement
? Winner: Battlefield 3
? Batman: Arkham City
? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
? Dead Space 2
? The Nightjar
? Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Best Game
? Winner: Portal 2
? Batman: Arkham City
? FIFA 2012
? L.A. Noire
? The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
? The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Debut Game
? Winner: Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
? Bastion
? Eufloria
? L.A. Noire
? Monstermind
? RIFT

Design
? Winner: Portal 2
? Batman: Arkham City
? L.A. Noire
? LittleBigPlanet 2
? Super Mario 3D Land
? The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim

Family
? Winner: LittleBigPlanet 2
? Dance Central 2
? Kinect Sports 2
? LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
? LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
? Mario Kart 7

Game Innovation
? Winner: LittleBigPlanet 2
? Bastion
? Child of Eden
? From Dust
? L.A. Noire
? The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Mobile & Handheld
? Winner: Peggle HD
? Dead Space iOS
? Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint
? Quarrel
? Super Mario 3D Land
? The Nightjar

Online - Browser
? Winner: Monstermind
? Gardens of Time
? I Am Playr
? Global Resistance
? Skylanders Spyro's Universe
? The Sims Social

Online-Multiplayer
? Winner: Battlefield 3
? Assassin's Creed Revelations
? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
? Dark Souls
? Gears of War 3
? LittleBigPlanet 2

Original Music
? Winner: L.A. Noire
? Assassin's Creed Revelations
? Batman: Arkham City
? Deus Ex: Human Revolution
? The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
? Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Performer
? Winner: Mark Hamill (The Joker) - Batman: Arkham City
? Aaron Staton (Cole Phelps) - L.A. Noire
? Nolan North (Nathan Drake) - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
? Stephen Fry (Narrator) - LittleBigPlanet 2
? Stephen Merchant (Wheatley) - Portal 2
? Togo Igawa (Dipolomat, Advisor and Military General) - Total War: SHOGUN 2

Sports/Fitness
? Winner: Dance Central 2
? DiRT 3
? F1 2011
? FIFA 2012
? WINNER: Kinect Sports 2
? Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012

Story
? Winner: Portal 2
? Batman: Arkham City
? Deus Ex: Human Revolution
? L.A. Noire
? The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
? Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Strategy
? Winner: Total War: SHOGUN 2
? Dark Souls
? Deus Ex: Human Revolution
? Football Manager 2012
? From Dust
? Ghost Recon Shadow Wars

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital
? Winner: Tick Tock Toys
? Dreamweaver
? Joust!

GAME Award of 2011
? Winner:Battlefield 3
? Batman: Arkham City
? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
? FIFA 2012
? L.A Noire
? Minecraft
? Portal 2
? The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
? The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
? Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception



The BAFTA Awards mean as much or as little as you want them to, but as an "arts" organization (opposed to a purely game-focused group) that only just elevated videogames to the status of film and television six years ago, it's interesting to see its take on what worked and what didn't. At the very least, amidst such an of-the-moment community as gamers, it's nice to take a step back from what we all love and hate at this exact moment, and remember what we loved and hated last year as well.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/17/portal-2-arkham-city-and-bf3-clean-up-at-2012-bafta-game-awards/]

Permalink

 

[Fappy]

Skyrim didn't win in the music department? What!? How could they insult the great Jeremy Soule!?

 

[Fappy]

Skyrim didn't win in the music department? What!? How could they insult the great Jeremy Soule!?

Let's be honest here, all Skyrim had going for it in that department was what they used in that trailer, and nothing else.

I'm much more surprised by the Portal 2 "storytelling" achievement. Really, on what fucking planet?

While Skryim's not really worthy of GotY due to its bugs and such (imo) it does belong on some of those lists. Have you heard the soundtrack? Almost as good as Morrowind's.

 

[Freechoice]

Skyrim didn't win in the music department? What!? How could they insult the great Jeremy Soule!?

Let's be honest here, all Skyrim had going for it was what they used in that trailer, and nothing else.

I'm much more surprised by the Portal 2 "storytelling" achievement. Really, on what fucking planet?

The same one that worships the ground where Gordon Freeman walks. Remember the parts of Portal 2 where the gameplay would suddenly stop so the characters could take an exposition dump? Besides, the real winner was clearly Bastion which, interestingly enough, didn't win shit. So yes, fuck BAFTA.

 

[SilverUchiha]

I'm glad that Arkham City and Portal 2 won some awards... but Battlefield? Seriously? Does that really deserve anything?

 

[Hungry Donner]

It's nice to see an awards show with a different focus, but it's weird that they have awards for some genres and not others. If they're mostly stayed away from genres I would have applauded them for that, but why would a supposedly art-focused group have categories for sports/fitness, action, strategy, and browser games (of all thigns), but ignore puzzles and RPGS?

It feels like they considered standard categories and something more art and writing focused but got stuck in the middle, committing to neither.

 

[Tiamat666]

Skyrim didn't win in the music department? What!? How could they insult the great Jeremy Soule!?

Let's be honest here, all Skyrim had going for it in that department was what they used in that trailer, and nothing else.

I'm much more surprised by the Portal 2 "storytelling" achievement. Really, on what fucking planet?

Portal 2 has an interesting plot... with twists, funny dialog and such... I believe this falls under the "Story" category.

But no award for Skyrim? R.U.kiddin'ME??? This calls for massive NEEERRRRRRD RRAAAAAGE!!!

 

[newwiseman]

Skyrim, almost in spite of being a very large game was actually very small. It has less weapons, armors, spells, and music than Morrowind while increasing the size of the map and adding in graphics...

Skyrim is very good, especially compared to other design by numbers cookie-cutter games, but it fails to deliver for me an experience equal to its own prequels. The biggest selling point is the Creation Kit to add in a fix content that was just plain bad (like the UI). In the same way MineCraft is great because of what you can do with it, on it's own it sucks.

While Portal 2 is disappointingly short and lacks in repetition I do feel that it was a very satisfying game wholly deserving of a game of the year title.

I'd give best soundtrack to MineCraft c418 is great.

 

[BrotherRool]

They were good choices. Except for Deus Ex: Human Revolution as a nomination as strategy?

Little Big Planet 2 deserved the applause it got

 

[WickedFire]

I think Skyrim deserved something in the artistic achievement category, especially if you take a look at sky in the night with full aurora on show and the two moons.

I'm glad, if honestly surprised that Battlefield beat COD for the players choice award.

 

[gigastar]

A Legend of Zelda game a runner up for the "innovation" category?

Am i not the only one who thinks that was an asspull entry?

Also i like that Rayman: Origins won artistic achievement, though i fail to understand how L. A. Noire managed to outclass LBP2 in that category.

 

[tzimize]

Skyrim didn't win in the music department? What!? How could they insult the great Jeremy Soule!?

Let's be honest here, all Skyrim had going for it in that department was what they used in that trailer, and nothing else.

I'm much more surprised by the Portal 2 "storytelling" achievement. Really, on what fucking planet?

I'm not surprised at all. Portal 2 is in many cases perfect storytelling/direction.

The story is presented WHILE you play, not while you're in pause-mode. The story can be as deep or as shallow as you want, since most of it is presented in background audio or background images (the paintings for example). The story is a PERFECT example of how to tell an interesting story, while NOT breaking up gameplay.

And the ending is nothing short of perfect too.

Spoilering this just in case anyone havent played it yet: Since I cant get the tag to work I do it like this and feel like a noob :\

SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

The moment when you are directed upwards to look at the moon is probably the best single moment of game direction in the history of gaming. Maybe even the best direction moment period. I did NOT see the end coming, and the realization of what I was doing as the moon appeared and I simply instinctivly fired the gun the only "available" spot was staggering to me.

It was almost as if time slowed down, I fired, my mind went "why am I shooting at...waaaiiit a mi...oooooomg!!!!"


SPOILER FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!
The result was just pure distilled perfection. My hat is off to Valve and their skills.

 

[The Harkinator]

Skyrim didn't win anything, honestly in the categories it was in Skyrim didn't deserve to beat the winners. While being a very good game, I do think Oblivion is quite a bit better still. Skyrim was good in several aspects which earned it so many nomitations but never focused on one thing alone to be better than games with a more specific focus.

Don't remember Skyrim as the game that won nothing, remember it as a great game while remembering that there are loads of other games out there who did great too.