Destiny, Bungie’s big budget sci-fi shooter, won the prize for best game at the British Academy games awards in London on Thursday night.
Destiny got mixed reviews from the press — the PlayStation 4 version is sitting on a Metacritic score of 76 — but it fought off stiff competition to win the big accolade in the U.K’.s biggest gaming award ceremony. Elsewhere, indies also performed well, with the iOS puzzler Momument Valley (that game from House of Cards) crowned best British game and the beautiful cooperative platformer Never Alone — a collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people — winning best debut.
The glitzy Bafta games awards ceremony is an indication of how far the gaming industry has come in recent years. The awards celebrate game developers in a similar way to the big music and movie award ceremonies that we’re more used to seeing regularly.
Spooky adventure The Vanishing of Ethan Carter won for game innovation and Blizzard’s popular card battler, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, beat off titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare to win best multiplayer game.
The full list of winners is below, courtesy of Develop:
- Artistic Achievement: Lumino City (State of Play Games)
- Audio Achievement: Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly)
- Best Game: Destiny (Bungie)
- British Game: Momument Valley (Ustwo Games)
- Debut Game: Never Alone (Upper One Games)
- Family: Minecraft: Console Editions (Mojang/4J Studios)
- Game Design: Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor (Monolith Productions)
- Game Innovation: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
- Mobile and Handheld: Monument Valley (Ustwo Games)
- Multiplayer: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Music: Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft)
- Original Property: Valiant Hearts (Ubisoft)
- Performer: Ashley Johnson (Ellie in The Last of Us: Left Behind)
- Persistent Game: League of Legends (Riot Games)
- Sport: OlliOlli (Roll7)
- Story: The Last of Us: Left Behind (Naughty Dog)
- Bafta Ones to Watch Award: Chambara (Overly Kinetic)
- Fellowship Award: David Braben (Frontier Developments)