Hellblade 2 will get maximum nominations

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has picked up probably the most nominations at this 12 months’s Bafta Video games Awards.

The action-adventure sport, advanced by way of Cambridge-based studio Ninja Concept, is up for awards in 11 out of 14 classes at the once a year rite.

It is within the operating for very best sport along 3-d platformer Astro Bot – up for 8 awards – which clinched most sensible prize on the US-based Recreation Awards in December.

The development, regarded as probably the most prestigious within the video games business calendar, can be held in London on 8 April.

The opposite contenders in the most efficient sport class are:

• Balatro – a poker-inspired card sport
• Black Fantasy: Wukong – an action-adventure made in China and encouraged by way of a well-liked fantasy
• Helldivers II – a multiplayer co-operative shooter
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Knowledge – the primary sport in Nintendo’s fashionable collection to famous person the princess it is named after
• Thank Goodness You might be Right here! – a wacky caricature journey sport advanced by way of two buddies from Barnsley

Bafta fingers out prizes every 12 months in a spread of classes, together with performing, tune and sport design.

3 of the six most-nominated video games this 12 months have been made in the United Kingdom.

Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, a horror sport from Brighton-based studio The Chinese language Room set on a Scottish oil rig, is up for 8 awards, whilst Thank Goodness You might be Right here! is up for seven.

Lego Horizon Adventures, in line with the PlayStation collection and in large part advanced by way of London-based Studio Gobo, is nominated in 4 classes.

Indie hits Animal Smartly and Balatro, every have 4 nominations, as does Name of Accountability: Black Ops 6.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice – which picked up 5 awards at 2018’s gaming Baftas.

Its 11 nominations may wonder some – the sport was once an outstanding technical exhibit and gained sure if no longer exceptional critiques.

Then again, like the primary sport, it was once praised for its delicate depiction of the primary personality’s psychosis.

Bafta Video games committee chair Tara Saunders tells BBC Newsbeat it represents “a robust 12 months for British-made video games”.

She says the balloting panel is made up of contributors the world over who take the awards “very critically” and vote in line with a spread of options.

“It is all about excellence,” she says.

“Excellence within the crafts and possibly a few of the ones video games have nailed all of the ones craft spaces.”

Bafta CEO Jane Millichip concurs, and needs to include the reality they’ve a British sport class.

“Our contributors are global and they are the individuals who select,” she says.

Organized by way of choice of classes:

• Senua’s Saga: 11
• Astro Bot and Nonetheless Wakes the Deep – 8
• Thank Goodness You might be Right here! – seven
• Black Fantasy: Wukong – 5

Learn extra concerning the nominees:

The Bafta Video games Awards are not any stranger to the bizarre disillusioned.

In 2023, Vampire Survivors – made by way of a tiny British studio – beat Sony’s God of Struggle: Ragnarök to the highest prize.

This 12 months’s very best sport box has a an identical mixture of big-budget blockbusters and indie hits.

“I really like that Bafta can wonder, I really like that it is not a given and we will get to that evening and we do not know what is going to pop out on most sensible,” Tara says.

“It is striking a focus on some actually tiny video games that may have slipped by way of.”

Metaphor: Refantazio featured prominently in different awards lists however most effective picked up two nominations, with one for its narrative.

And Ultimate Myth VII: Rebirth was once nominated within the narrative and tune classes however ineligible for very best sport because of Bafta laws on remakes.

Instances stay difficult for other people operating within the video games business international, with mass layoffs, studio closures and cancelled tasks proceeding to make headlines.

Tara says awards just like the Baftas are “a beacon of sunshine in the dead of night instances”.

“It is actually vital to pause and have fun the groups and people that experience crafted those standout video games reports,” she says.

And Jane, who additionally oversees Bafta’s occasions throughout movie, TV and different ingenious industries, says the gaming awards are a spot for other people to improve every different.

“I have by no means noticed a neighborhood cheer such a lot once they lose, it is a sensible factor to behold,” she says.

“It is so superb to peer the entire video games neighborhood being so supportive of one another and there to have fun the field, no longer themselves.

“It is roughly devoid of ego and that is the reason nice.”

You’ll discover a complete checklist of Bafta Video games Awards nominations for 2025 right here.

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