Alex Birlo on March 30, 2021
Last week, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts held their 17th annual Game Awards for the great stuff we saw come out in 2020.
The show itself ran for almost two hours, so here is a shortened version of the entire thing.
The first award of the show was for best Game Design, and it was presented by Hideo Kojima! And the award went to the enormously popular roguelike action game Hades.
Next up was the award for best new Original Property and was presented by the host of the popular podcast “How to Kill an Hour” – Marcus Bronzy.
And the award went to Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition. A small adventure game about a secret highway going through the caves underneath Kentucky and the strange people who travel it.
Then we had the award for best Performer in a Supporting Role, presented by the new recruit for the E-sports team Liquid – Asa Butterfield.
The winner is Logan Cunningham who voiced Hades, Achilles, Poseidon, Asterius, Charon and the Storyteller in Hades.
Now it’s okay, the voice acting performance he gave was absolutely stellar and for so many characters at that. But I absolutely have to comment on that one.
While I am fine with this award winner, I am sure a load of people are going to disagree. Because amongst the nominees there were very, and I mean very strong actors that also delivered a visual performance in addition to stellar voice work.
People like the three nominees from The last of Us Part 2. Which is understandable, since whether you liked the story and twists of the game or not, there is no denying that almost all the actors in that game did a stellar job, and some of the supporting cast almost completely overshadowed the two protagonists.
Jeffrey Pierce who played Tommy, Troy Baker who showed up in flash backs as Joel and Shannon Woodward who played Dina, which in my opinion was even more interesting than Ellie in that game.
And my personal favorite Patrick Galligher, who played Khotun Khan in Ghost of Tsushima. Only his performance made this villain stand out and memorable.
So all in all, there were much stronger and more obvious contenders in my opinion.
After that nomination, there was the section for games as a service with the award for best Evolving Game, which was presented by the famous E-sports presenter Frankie Ward.
We had things like the expansion for Destiny, we had Fortnite of course and my personal favorite No Man’s Sky which are all games that had a relatively good run last year.
But the winner was another game that also made a comeback – Sea of Thieves!
Next is the category that was sponsored by the partner of the BAFTA Games Awards and voted on by the players – the EE Game of the year.
And the award went to The Last of Us Part 2. And let’s be honest, amongst the nominees were Valorant and COD Warzone. Of course, it would be either The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima or Hades again.
For me, it was definitely Tsushima. Made a huge impression on me and proved some pro-consumer points that were dead in the industry for a while.
Half an hour into the show, we got to the Game Beyond Entertainment award, which was presented by an education advocate Sasha Coward.
And the winner was Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Next amongst the awards we had the “audio related” one, the Audio Achievement Award.
This award was presented by an award-winning composer Emma Noon.
And now here I could have gone emotional and break a couple of things in the house, but thankfully the award did go to Ghost of Tsushima for its absolutely amazing sound design.
It was a long time since I have seen a game that so perfectly nails the connection between the changing scenery and action, and the dynamic open world audio system.
Congrats to Sucker Punch, love you guys!
Now let’s move to the Animation award, which was presented by the co-founder of “Kind of Funny” Greg Miller.
And this BAFTA also went to The Last of Us Part 2.
I honestly don’t know. I see why, I played the game from beginning to end, but there are so many other games that did more complex animations and choreography.
Like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales for example, with its amazing action set pieces and acrobatics.
So I know this is another nomination that is going to spark another internet war.
The next award was for Artistic Achievement and presented by a BAFTA actor nominee – Abubakar Saleem.
And the winner of that category was Hades.
The next one was on the technical side of things. This award for Technical Achievement was presented by the E-sports presenter Alex Mendez.
The winner of this category was Dreams and I think you will find little resistance there, since the game is technically-stunning. Providing the ability to create full, proper games inside of its engine, with the potential prospect of monetization for the user.
But then there were some technical problems and the stream lost audio, so they later returned to the developer of Dreams, for them to say their thank-yous for winning.
The next award was for best Family Game. This award was presented by the actress Bella Ramsey, who is also going to play Ellie in the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us.
And the winner of this BAFTA was Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
The award for best Debut Game was next. It was presented by the guys behind the podcast “Play Watch Listen”, Alanah Pierce, Troy Baker, Mike Bithell and Austin Wintory.
The winner was Carrion. A fun spin on the 2D horror style of games, where you play as the monster that escaped as an experiment gone wrong and are killing people.
Now, the mandatory award for best British Game was presented by the founder of “Black Girls Gamers” Jay-Ann Lopez.
This nomination was won by Sackboy: A Big Adventure as well.
Finally, came the time for the Music award, and it was presented, after an awkward joke that it is not Hans Zimmer, by the BAFTA winning composer Jessica Curry.
And yet after another cringy joke, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was announced as the winner.
The next award they call the “Fellowship award” which is given to people who, by their standards, push the industry forward, was presented by the co-founder of Guerrilla Games and the head of SONY Worldwide Studios – Hermen Hulst.
The award was given to Siobhan Reddy the studio director of Media Molecule.
Another important award came next, and it was the Narrative award, and it was presented by the great, award-winning actress with one of the longest IMDb lists I have ever seen, but to most of us she is known from Mass Effect – Jennifer Hale.
And the BAFTA went once again to Hades.
Now, much closer to the end of the show, we got the Performer in a Leading Role award. Which was presented by Rahul Kohli who played in Gears of War 5.
And the winner was Laura Bailey who played Abby in the Last of Us Part 2. She also took home the award for Best Performance on The Game Awards last year.
Then the Multiplayer award was presented by the drag queen Trixie Mattel.
And the winner was… you guessed it Animal Crossing New Horizons!
Let’s be serious, this game was and is a phenomenon and probably sold more Switch consoles than Zelda Breath of the Wild.
And the final award of the show, the Best Game Award was presented by the WWE superstar Xavier Woods.
And the winner was once again Hades.
In the end of it all, this was not as bad of a show as many might have thought. But it had definitely sparked hostilities online and made as many people upset about 2020 as it made happy.
Official BAFTA stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ULXippYjA
