- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: 'Heavy Rain' dominates the 2011 BAFTA Video Game Awards in London
- Date: 18th March 2011
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 16, 2011) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** BAFTA GAME AWARD SIGN BACKSTAGE CLOSE UP OF BAFTA AWARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) BAFTA FELLOW, GAME DESIGNER PETER MOLYNEUX SAYING: "It's a sort of ocean of emotions. As I was walking up the steps I looked out on all the people and there was Sir Ben (Kingsley) standing there with the award and I honestly almost fainted."
- Embargoed: 2nd April 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVAC2YH8IFQAQ33RD5FO3J50F76Q
- Story Text: Stars from sport, music, and cinema joined leading game designers at the BAFTA Game Awards in London on Wednesday (March 16) - one of the industry's biggest nights.
"Heavy Rain" was the big winner, taking three BAFTA Awards for the best strategy game and for story and original music.
"We didn't expect so many awards of course and the competition was incredibly high and there were some fantastic games out there and winning three tonight is fantastic," said David Cage, the head of Quantic Dream, which produced the game.
"Heavy Rain", a story-driven game heavily influenced by film noir, has been described as an interactive cinematic experience as much as a traditional game.
"You're in the shoes of the character and you become the actor, the director and the writer. So I think it's a new format and new genre and hopefully there will be many games in the future and I hope it's going to be inspiring for many people out there and we'll have a lot of competition in the same genre," Cage told Reuters Television backstage after the win.
But it was action role player "Mass Effect 2" that took home the trophy for Best Game on the night.
Not resting on their laurels, the team were absent from the ceremony, hard at work on "Mass Effect 3".
"Hugely, hugely exciting. It's a privilege for me to be here on behalf of everyone at BioWare in Edmonton to pick this award up. They would have loved to have been here today in person but they are busy working on "Mass Effect 3" trying to make that as good as they possibly can and I think that winning this today should spur them on in their efforts even more," said EA games PR manager John Goddard after accepting the award.
"Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood", was at the top of the award shortlist with six nominations, but picked up only one award - the first of the night - for Best Action.
Not that there any complaints from the Ubisoft team who created the game.
"All these games are really, really excellent. Awesome, amazing games and I've played most of them myself and if I had to choose I wouldn't know which one to pick and it just feels good to take at least one home and share it with the team and for all their efforts in the past year and just push them to make more," said game producer Vincent Pontbriand.
Another leader in the field, "Call of Duty: Black Ops", picked up just one out of it's five nominations for the publicly voted GAME of the year Award.
This year's fellowship - BAFTA's highest honour - went to Peter Molyneux, the creator of games such as Theme Park, Fable and Magic Carpet.
From early days in the 1980s, designing games on floppy disk for Atari and Commodore 64 platforms, Molyneux went on to invent the "god game" genre with his 1989 seminal classic "Populous", in which gamers had build their own world and manage it's growth and population.
The model became the template for similar iconic games like Sim City, Civilization.
"The thought of fellowships or awards or anything like that was unthinkable, totally unthinkable, and you know it's just and amazing and incredible journey over the past 20 years. I still think one day I'm going to wake up and it's all going to be a dream," Molyneux said of his honour.
He was presented the award by Sir Ben Kingsley who starred in the designer's latest game, Fable 3.
"Peter very graciously told me, quite rightly - the story is completely true - that he asked for me specifically in Fable 3 and I accepted the job like a shot although Peter was a bit surprised that I accepted it, thank God I was available, but here we are together that wheel has come full circle. It's my first video game experience with the maestro and you try and keep me out of this business. I very much want to be a part of it, I think it's thrilling," Kingsley said after presenting the fellowship.
The full list of BAFTA Game Awards 2011 winners is as follows:
BEST GAME: Mass Effect 2
ACTION: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT: God of War III
FAMILY: Kinect Sports
GAMEPLAY: Super Mario Galaxy 2
ORIGINAL MUSIC: Heavy Rain
SOCIAL NETWORK GAME: My Empire
SPORTS: F1 2010
STORY: Heavy Rain
HANDHELD: Cut the Rope
MULTIPLAYER: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
STRATEGY: Heavy Rain
USE OF AUDIO: Battlefield: Bad Company: 2
BAFTA ONES TO WATCH AWARD IN ASSOCIATION WITH DARE TO BE DIGITAL: Twang
GAME AWARD OF 2010: Call of Duty: Black Ops
BAFTA FELLOWSHIP: Peter Molyneux - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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