Half-Life 2 Scoops Six BAFTA Awards

Following similar success at the Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (AIAS) and other U.S. award shows, Half-Life 2, Valve’s acclaimed PC first person shoot ‘em-up, has claimed six awards at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, including best Game, best Action Adventure, best Online and Multiplayer, best PC game and best Art Direction and Animation. The second of the now annual events was held at London’s Café Royal, and saw Electronic Arts’ Burnout 3: Takedown also pick up three awards including best Racing, best Technical Direction and best PlayStation 2 game. The award for best Xbox game went, somewhat unsurprisingly, to Halo 2 but the decision to award the best GameCube game award to Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was seen quizzically by some, not only because of the mixed reception to the actual game, but also due to the fact that it was merely a port of the other console versions. Other nominees included Second Sight and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, with no mention given to Pikmin 2 or Paper Mario. Other winners included Singstar/Singstar Party for the Originality Award, Donkey Konga in the best Children’s game category and Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (aka Winning Eleven 8) for the best Sports game award. The best Handheld game award went to Colin McRae Rally 2005, best Mobile game went to Blue Tooth Biplanes, while the best Audio award was won by Call of Duty: Finest Hour and the best Original Music award went to Hitman: Contracts. Grant Dean, Chairman of the BAFTA Games Committee commented of the awards: "Last year was a great year for the Video Games industry. These awards reflect the enormous achievements, progress and diversity that we have seen in that time."