The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the nominations for its 2013 British Academy Video Games Awards, with Thatgamecompany's Journey picking up a total of eight nominations.
The awards aim to honor the most well realized and innovative games across all realms of the industry, from browser games to traditional AAA development.
Journey is in the running to pick up the award for 'Best Game in 2013', alongside the awards for 'Game Design in 2013', 'Game Innovation in 2013' and 'Story in 2013'.
Telltale's The Walking Dead is also up for multiple awards, with seven nominations in total including 'Best Game in 2013' and 'Story in 2013'.
The awards ceremony is set for March 5, 2013. The full list of categories and nominees are as follows:
Best Game in 2013
Far Cry 3
Dishonored
FIFA 13
Journey
The Walking Dead
Mass Effect 3
Action in 2013
Far Cry 3
Hitman: Absolution
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Halo 4
Borderlands 2
Mass Effect 3
Artistic Achievement in 2013
Journey
Far Cry 3
The Room
Halo 4
Borderlands 2
Dear Esther
Audio Achievement in 2013
Journey
Far Cry 3
Beat Sneak Bandit
Halo 4
Assassin’s Creed III
Dear Esther
BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital in 2013
Pixel Story
Project Thanatos
Starcrossed
British Game in 2013
Need for Speed Most Wanted
The Room
LEGO: The Lord of the Rings
Forza Horizon
Dear Esther
Super Hexagon
Debut Game in 2013
Deadlight
The Unfinished Swan
Forza Horizon
Dear Esther
The Room
Proteus
Family in 2013
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Minecraft: XBOX 360 Edition
LEGO the Lord of the Rings
Just Dance 4
Skylanders Giants
Clay Jam
Game Design in 2013
Dishonored
Far Cry 3
Journey
The Walking Dead
Borderlands 2
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Game Innovation in 2013
The Unfinished Swan
Fez
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Wonderbook: Books of Spells
Journey
Kinect Sesame Street TV
Mobile & Handheld in 2013
LittleBigPlanet (Vita)
Super Monsters Ate My Condo
The Room
New Star Soccer
The Walking Dead
Incoboto
Browser in 2013
The Settlers Online
Amateur Surgeon Hospital
SongPop
Merlin: The Game
Dick and Dom’s HOOPLA!
Runescape
Multiplayer in 2013
Assassin's Creed III
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Borderlands 2
Journey
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Halo 4
Original Music in 2013
The Unfinished Swan
Journey
Diablo III
Assassin's Creed III
The Walking Dead
Thomas Was Alone
Performer in 2013
Nolan North (Nathan Drake) - Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Danny Wallace (The Narrator) - Thomas Was Alone
Melissa Hutchinson (Clementine) - The Walking Dead
Dave Fennoy (Lee Everett) - The Walking Dead
Adrian Hough (Haytham) - Assassin’s Creed III
Nigel Carrington (The Narrator) - Dear Esther
Sports/Fitness in 2013
Forza Horizon
F1 2012
FIFA 13
Nike+ Kinect Training
Trials Evolution
New Star Soccer
Story in 2013
Journey
Far Cry 3
Dishonoured
The Walking Dead
Thomas was Alone
Mass Effect 3
Strategy in 2013
Dark Souls: Prepare To Die
Diablo III
Football Manager 2013
Total War Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Much, much better than last year. It looks like they at least got some people involved in the process who actually play video games. The 2012 awards where basically: CoD, Battlefield, Batman, Portal 2 in almost all the major categories. With the occasional slightly obscure game. This list is much more varied. Though there are a few weird ones, like FIFA 13 for best game and Black Ops II for "Innovation". Bit weird.
Anyway, who I'd prefer to win in the categories I care about:
Best Game: Dishonored
Best Action: Far Cry 3
Artist Achievement: Journey
Audio Achievement: No idea, none of them stand out as being really great. Maybe Dear Esther just for that narration?
British Game: LEGO Lord of the Rings
Debut Game: Proteus I suppose, this is a pretty weak list though. Wasn't FTL a debut game? That should really be here if so.
Game Design: Dishonored
Game Innovation: Fez/Journey
Story: Walking Dead
Strategy: XCOM (Dark Souls is strategy? What?)
The multiplayer category stands out as really strange to me. With the exception of Journey, the games are just standard iterations on what their predecessors did and Journey wasn't exactly what I'd call a multiplayer focused game. Halo 4 I can maybe see deserving it's spot because it actually changed the Halo formula a bit...
I think multiplayer should really have been:
Counter Strike: Global Offensive (changes a classic formula and does it mostly right)
Halo 4 (ditto)
Natural Selection 2 (actually does something new, or at least something we haven't seen in a while)
Chivalry (ditto)
Planetside 2 (ditto)
+One other game that isn't a PC centric shooter, for variety.
Anyway, who I'd prefer to win in the categories I care about:
Best Game: Dishonored
Best Action: Far Cry 3
Artist Achievement: Journey
Audio Achievement: No idea, none of them stand out as being really great. Maybe Dear Esther just for that narration?
British Game: LEGO Lord of the Rings
Debut Game: Proteus I suppose, this is a pretty weak list though. Wasn't FTL a debut game? That should really be here if so.
Game Design: Dishonored
Game Innovation: Fez/Journey
Story: Walking Dead
Strategy: XCOM (Dark Souls is strategy? What?)
The multiplayer category stands out as really strange to me. With the exception of Journey, the games are just standard iterations on what their predecessors did and Journey wasn't exactly what I'd call a multiplayer focused game. Halo 4 I can maybe see deserving it's spot because it actually changed the Halo formula a bit...
I think multiplayer should really have been:
Counter Strike: Global Offensive (changes a classic formula and does it mostly right)
Halo 4 (ditto)
Natural Selection 2 (actually does something new, or at least something we haven't seen in a while)
Chivalry (ditto)
Planetside 2 (ditto)
+One other game that isn't a PC centric shooter, for variety.