Uncharted 2 Leads Action-Centric BAFTA Game Award Nominations

Shooters and action-oriented titles dominated the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' (BAFTA) video game awards, with Sony Computer Entertainment and Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leading the way. Uncharted 2, the sequel to the 2007 original, garnered nine nominations across all of the British Academy Video Games Awards, which are sponsored by UK retailer GAME. Uncharted 2 was nominated in the action, artistic achievement, and overall best game categories, among others. Activision and Infinity Ward's first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC drew eight nominations in the categories of action, best game, multiplayer and others. Eidos and Rocksteady's acclaimed stealthy beat-'em-up Batman: Arkham Asylum received seven nominations, while Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II garnered six. Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 earned four nominations, appropriately. The common theme among the nominees this year was action-focused gameplay and high production values. The overwhelming majority of games on BAFTA's list are high-budget, heavily marketed retail titles that cater to mainly to video games' loyal young male audience. But there were some games that weren't about bullets and fisticuffs. In the artistic achievement category, there's also Flower from thatgamecompany, a downloadable game on PlayStation Network that lets the player control the wind to blow a flower petal through the air. In addition, EA Sports' FIFA 10 soccer game is up for best game, and a family and social category included The Beatles: Rock Band from Harmonix, Buzz! Quiz World from SCEE, Guitar Hero 5 from Activision, and New Super Mario Bros. and Wii Sports Resort from Nintendo. The portable category also was home to less action-oriented games such as 5th Cell's Scribblenauts and SCEE's LittleBigPlanet. Below is the full list of GAME British Academy Video Games Awards nominees: Action Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward inFAMOUS Brian Fleming, Bruce Oberg, Chris Zimmerman Sony Computer Entertainment/Sucker Punch Productions & SCE Foster City Studio Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Artistic Achievement Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward Flower Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studio Streetfighter IV Yoshinori Ono Capcom/Capcom Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Best Game Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward FIFA 10 Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson Electronic Arts/EA Canada Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Family & Social The Beatles: Rock Band Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems Buzz! Quiz World David Amor, Andrew Eades, Lee Clare Sony Computer Entertainment/Relentless Software & XDEV Studio Europe EyePet Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio Guitar Hero 5 Brian Bright, Paul Robinson, Allen Freese Activision/Neversoft Entertainment/Vicarios Visions/Budcat New Super Mario Bros Wii Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura Nintendo/Nintendo Wii Sports Resort Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita Nintendo/Nintendo Gameplay Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward New Super Mario Bros Wii Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura Nintendo/Nintendo PixelJunk Shooter Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games & SCE Santa Monica Studio Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Handheld Gran Turismo Kazunori Yamauchi, Yuji Yasuhara, Hiroki Imanish Sony Computer Entertainment/Polphony Digital Inc LittleBigPlanet (PSP) James Shepherd, Piers Jackson, Mark Green Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge & xev Studio Europe LocoRoco Midnight Carnival Kenji Sakai, Saeka Horikoshi, Hiroya Matsugami Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Japan Studio Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kubota Nintendo/Nintendo Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box Akira Tago, Akihiro Hino, Tatsuya Shinkai Nintendo/Nintendo Scribblenauts Jeremiah Slaczka, Marius Fahlbusch Warner Bros Interactive Entertainmnent/5th Cell Multiplayer Battlefield 1943 Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke Electronic Arts/Dice The Beatles: Rock Band Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward Halo 3 ODST Development Team Microsoft Game Studios/Microsoft Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Original Score Assassin’s Creed II Jesper Kyd Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince James Hannigan, Zsolt Marx, Campbell Askew Electronic Arts/EA Bright Light PixelJunk Shooter Dom Beken, Alex Paterson Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games and SCE Santa Monica Studio Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Sports Colin McRae: DiRT 2 Matt Horsman, Clive Moody, Guy Pearce Codemasters/Codemasters Studios FIFA 10 Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson Electronic Arts/EA Canada Football Manager 2010 Development Team Sega/Sports Interactive Forza 3 Development Team Microsoft/Turn 10 Wii Fit Plus Shigeru Miyamoto, Tadashi Sugiyama, Hiroshi Matsunaga Nintendo/Nintendo Wii Sports Resort Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita Nintendo/Nintendo Story Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut Charles Cecil, Neil Richards, Tony Warringer Ubisoft Entertainment/Revolution Software Brutal Legend Tim Schafer Electronic Arts/Double Fine Productions Dragon Age: Origins Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Mike Laidlaw Electronic Arts/BioWare Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Strategy Command and Conquer 3: Uprising Development team Electronic Arts/EA Los Angeles Empire: Total War Development Team Sega/Creative Assembly FIFA Manager 10 Gerald Kohler, Cord Westhoff, Bernhard Maiberg EA Sports/Bright Future Football Manager 2010 Development Team Sega/Sports Interactive Halo Wars Development Team Microsoft/Ensemble Studios Plants vs Zombies George Fan, Tod Semple, Rich Werner Popcap Games/Popcap Games Use of Audio Batman: Arkham Asylum Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward DJ Hero Jamie Jackson, Dan Neil, Tim Riley Activision/Freestyle Games Flower Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studios Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Use of Online Battlefield 1943 Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke Electronic Arts/EA DICE Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward FIFA 10 Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson Electronic Arts/ EA Canada LIttleBigPlanet (PSP) James Shepherd, Piers Jackson, Matt Porter Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge & XEV Studio Europe Singstar TakeThat Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital Colour Coded Murray Sinclair, Faye Wright, Liam Wong, Sean Donnelly, Nnanna Kama (PixelPirates) Quick as Thieves William Wright, Michael Doig, Andrew Knight, Jamie MacKinnon, Lee Cresswell (Gentleman of Fortune) Shrunk! Vykintas Kazdailis, Andrew Macdonald, Michael Cummings, Jacek Wernikowski, Stuart Kemp (The Butterflyers) GAME Award of 2009 (The only award to be voted for by the public) Assassin’s Creed II Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal Batman Arkham Asylum Eidos/Rocksteady Studios The Beatles: Rockband Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/ Harmonix Music Systems Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Activision/Infinity Ward FIFA 10 Electronic Arts/EA Canada GTA China Town Wars Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks Nintendo/Nintendo Street Fighter IV Capcom/Capcom Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Wii Sports Resort Nintendo/Nintendo