Bafta game awards nominations are announced

BAFTA, the British Academy for Film, Theatre and the Arts, has released its list of nominations for its games awards. Leading the pack are Call of Duty: Black Ops and Heavy Rain.

COD:BO and Heavy Rain both have six nominations, including best story nods and others for artistic achievement and action. Mass Effect 2 has five nominations - Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Gameplay, Original Music, and Story, while Limbo and Super Mario Galaxy 2 both have four.

This is a lot of nominations already, but in total forty-four different games are up for some consideration by Bafta judges, including Alan Wake, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War III, and Halo: Reach - all of which are up for three awards, and Bioshock 2, Fallout: New Vegas, FIFA 11, Kinectimals, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, all of which are up for two.

Some Microsoft Kinect games made the list, despite it still being only a fairly recent entrant to the business, and some judicial chin stroking - not to mention arm waving and leg hopping - will be done in the direction of Kinect Adventures and Kinect Sports.

The public have once again been asked to cast their votes for the Best Game award. The shortlist here is not much different from the main awards and includes Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dance Central, FIFA 11, Halo: Reach, Heavy Rain, LIMBO, Mass Effect 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Red Dead Redemption and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Voting is live now.

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards will take place on Wednesday 16 March at the London Hilton on Park Lane. The INQUIRER plans to attend. µ