The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Video Games Awards has recently announced that it will hold off its annual awards ceremony and will continue in 2009 instead. The reason why the yearly prestigious event was called off wasn't on account of any bad weather though. You can find out the reason behind this in our full article after the jump.

It's official: BioShock (Microsoft Xbox 360, PC) is a necessity for gamers. Or at least, 2K Games announced that the genetically enhanced title is proven to be a must-have gift for this holiday season. With plenty of Game of the Year awards under its belt, 2K is confident in BioShock. The biggest honors the game received await at the full article.

In general - sad as it may be - movies based on video games don't live up to their original counterparts. But why do we watch these movies anyway, even if we know they'd never live up to the game? Only one answer came to mind: because we love the game.

Thus the idea for this QuickList came about: what are the movies that we'd watch simply for love of the game? Read the five movies you might consider watching (even if they sucked) in the full article.

Bully (Xbox 360, Wii, PS2), the "Dennis the Menace simulator" game from Rockstar Games that went through its fair share of controversy (considering Rockstar's history for it), recently won the Best Videogame Script at the BAFTA awards.

The script for Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit in Europe) was written by Dan Houser and Jacob Krarup.

IO Interactive has just revealed who will be behind the musical score of their upcoming title Kane & Lynch: Dead Men for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and the PC. It's none other than British Academy Award-winning composer Jesper Kyd who has etched his reputation on the cacophonous atmosphere of the Hitman franchise.

Kyd's work on Hitman Contracts won Best Original Music at the BAFTA Games Awards and his stylish symphonic hybrid score for Hitman: Blood Money was awarded Best Original Score by IGN. He was also nominated for Best Original Video Game Score at the MTV Video Music Awards and has received Special Achievements awards from other major game publications such as Gamespot.

Kyd's work on Kane & Lynch: Dead Men's musical score is described by IO Interactive as "dark and foreboding", but at the same time "graphic and unforgiving," as the game's theme would suggest.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men's storyline revolves around an unlikely partnership between two very different game protagonists. Together, Kane and Lynch must use their unique skill sets to form a cohesive tandem in a fight that leads them to a path of redemption and revenge. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is set for release in November of 2007.



Buy: [Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PC)]
Buy: [Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PS3)]

With the London Games Festival well underway, The British Academy for Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) concluded its British Academy Video Game Awards night leaving Nintendo with complete bragging rights for one full year. Nintendo's Wii Sports held up against all competition in six categories and was crowned king in Casual, Gameplay, Innovation, Multiplayer, Sports, and Strategy and Simulation.

Microsoft's Crackdown took three titles home, while SCEE's God of War 2 and Capcom's Okami snagged two apiece. The Best Game Award went to 2K Games' BioShock, while on user-voted front, the PC World Gamers Award went to SEGA's Football Manager 2007. Sims creator Will Wright was inducted to the Academy Fellowship, where he joins the likes of Steven Spielberg and Charlie Chaplin.

The full list of winners begins at the full article!

Buy: [ Wii Sports ]
Buy: [ Crackdown ]
Buy: [ BioShock (Games for Windows), (Xbox 360) ]
Buy: [ Football Manager 2007 (PC) ]

Wondering how our contenders are doing as they face off for this year's British Academy Video Game Awards (BAFTA)? While the final tallies have yet to be cast, we have received that five games appear to be pulling ahead at the polls. Leading this group is Wii Sports by Nintendo, with seven nominations already under its belt. The other five titles following closely behind all have five individual nominations each:

• Crackdown (Xbox 360; Realtime Worlds, Microsoft Game Studios)
• Gears of War (Xbox 360; Epic Games, Microsoft Game Studios)
• God of War 2 (PS2; SCE Santa Monica Studio, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)
• Okami (PS2; Clover, Capcom)
  

These titles are currently the top of the 52 contenders we're looking at for the BAFTA's 13 categories. Check back again as we near end of this UK event, and see who will truly come out on top.

The father of all things Simlish will now be "up there" among the likes of Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, and Charlie Chaplin. The Sims creator Will Wright is to be inducted into the BAFTA Fellowship - it's an award given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to certain icons in the industry for their creative work.

What's more is that Mr. Wright is the first ever in the video games industry to be given this accolade. With games likeSpore (which is going multiplatform, BTW) in his developer's resumé, we're not surprised. Will Wright getting the Fellowship establishes the fact that BAFTA now recognizes video games as a substantial part of popular culture.

And who begs to disagree? We're sure most of you believe that videos games really do have a lot of impact and contribute a lot to the greater concept of art and moving pictures. Academy Chariman Hilary Bevan Jones states:

Will's immense, creative body of work and his continued contribution to the industry make him a most worthy recipient of the Fellowship and being such a pioneer, we are thrilled that he will be the first person to receive this honour.

The awards ceremonies are to take place in London on the 23rd of October.

 

With 2007's London Games Festival arriving in two weeks' time, organizers have mapped out the game-centric celebration starting October 22 until November 2, 2007. Though the London Games Festival will also coincide with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), it will also return with a bigger collection of consumer-related events.

First up in the organizers' lists is the Video Games Live! concert which is set to take off at opening day. It will be followed by the British Academy Video Games Awards on October 23, coupled with a session presenting Guy Debord's Game of War as part of the London Games Fringe.
 
Dare to be Digital takes flight on October 24 - apparently also the first day of the GameCity Interactive Entertainment Festival to kick off in Nottingham. Dare to be Digital is the London Games Festival's bid to expose the next generation of game developers to PR and marketing, where budding game design students can showcase their projects for attendees to see.

The London Game Career Fair, the London Gamer Geeks Quiz Night, and the Computational Brain fill the rest of the day's events. Attendees can apply for a position in the industry, try their hand at game trivia, or take a peek into the future of game interactivity: controlling games through thought.

Modding get-together Dorkfest - Console Hacks follows on October 25 with technology demo Eyes on the Game close in tow. The two events continue to delve into technology in relation to gaming, with Dorkfest showcasing mod projects made by the craziest folks to even have held a solder gun, and Eyes on the Game presenting how games can be controlled with eye movement.

Zero Gamer and Sense of Play 07 top the closing day schedule for attendees, where participants can flex their neurons and partake in a healthy discussion of how game design is viewed - from both outside and inside the game industry. The refreshing eye-opener will also be coupled by a London Games Fringe spectacle: developer and publisher media showcase of their upcoming games.

Expect London Games Festival 2007 to sport more consumer-related events and business-to-business sessions when it starts on the 22nd.

Manchester Cathedral Dean the Very Reverend Rogers Govender has demanded the withdrawal of SCEA and Insomniac Games' Resistance: Fall of Man from the British Academy Video Game Awards (BAFTA).

Govender said that the use of the Manchester Cathedral in the game should be grounds to remove the title from the list of nominees. He pointed out that Sony has admitted that it did not had permission to film or use Manchester Cathedral in Resistance.

Not doing so, the reverend added, would mean that BAFTA is condoning Sony's actions. In response to this, BAFTA Head Anne-Marie Flynn released this statement:

Resistance: Fall Of Man has been nominated for the PC World Gamers' Award - the only publicly-voted award in this year's ceremony. The shortlist for the Gamers' Award was effectively selected by the public, in that it comprised the top-selling games on each platform according to the games charts published by Chart Track.

As of this article's writing, Sony has not yet released a statement about the game's nomination. Be sure to keep checking back here at QJ.NET for more updates on this issue.