The British Academy of Film and Television Arts held its 7th annual British Academy Video Games Awards ceremony last night in London. BioWare’s space-based role-playing game Mass Effect 2 took home the top prize for Best Game while the popular Activision-published first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops was named by fans for the GAME Award of 2010 in a public vote (GAME being the retail chain that sponsors the event).
The night’s most frequent winner was Heavy Rain, a PlayStation 3-exclusive effort from Quantic Dream, honored for it’s music, story and technical innovation. The game offers a unique interactive experience in which players assume the identity of multiple characters as they explore the mystery surrounding a serial killer. Critics were divided about the game upon its release, though most agreed that the actual, mechanical game served up some interesting, new ideas.
This year’s Video Games Awards were the subject of much discussion after Rockstar Games opted out of entering its award-winning open-world Western, Red Dead Redemption, for consideration as one of the nominees. The developer hasn’t commented on its reasoning, but Eurogamer cites “sources familiar with the matter” as saying there’s been friction between Rockstar and BAFTA since the 2009 awards, when Grand Theft Auto IV failed to win a single award.
Red Dead actually did end up appearing among the night’s nominees in the GAME Award of 2010 category, though that one is selected entirely by public vote. Check out the full list of winners right here:
Best Action Game: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Best Family Game: Kinect Sports
Best Technical Innovation: Heavy Rain
Best Social Network Game: My Empire
Best Use of Audio: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Best Handheld: Cut the Rope
GAME Award of 2010: Call of Duty: Black Ops
Best Original Music: Heavy Rain
Best Strategy: Civilization 5
Best Artistic Achievement: God of War 3
Ones to Watch: Twang (That Game Studio)
Best Gameplay: Super Mario Galaxy 2
Best Sports Game: F1 2010
Best Multiplayer: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Best Story: Heavy Rain
Best Game: Mass Effect 2
BAFTA Fellowship Award: Peter Molyneux
