InterventTech

And the results are in, the winners of this year’s BAFTA Video Game Awards are:

Here’s a few brief thoughts from a novice girl gamer:

Fallout 3 from Bethesda Softworks

Firstly, I’m disappointed in the lack of recognition both Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3 received in the Awards. Fallout 3 in my humble opinion deserved the Best Game Award, as one of the most epic and immersive open-world role-playing games on the market. Offering the player a vast apocalyptic wasteland to explore, where your experience can be dramatically effected by the choices you make in conversation and your appearance when interacting with other characters. With Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the UK’s best selling game of 2008, the breathtaking graphics delivered by Rockstar create a detailed and believable city, that are surely worthy of an Artistic Achievement nomination at the very least.

Otherwise, well deserved wins for Left 4 Dead and Dead Space. Left 4 Dead (an Electronic Arts production) received the Award for Best Multiplayer. A thoroughly enjoyable, zombie survival themed shoot’em up, that plunges you into 4 different Hollywood film style scenarios, it also includes the option to play as a zombie, where you have to try to stop the humans from reaching the safe house at the end of the levels. Also, pleased to see EA’s Dead Space, one of the most disturbing games ever made, was rewarded for its fantastic audio. There’s a great interview with the audio director Don Veca here on Original Sound Version.

I was surprised that the Games Award 2008, which was open to public vote, was awarded to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, rather than some of the more fantastical and interactive games available (LittleBigPlanet, Guitar Hero etc). Whilst I appreciate that it is a sophisticated multiplayer game with incredible graphics and a detailed representation of modern warfare, I still can’t quite understand why people would choose to play as soldiers fighting in a contemporary war, when you could be out there doing it for real.

So, what will be the big hits of 2009? Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2, Halo Wars… I’m eagerly anticipating the release of Bioshock 2 later this year, teaser site here.