BAFTA Nominations - Cause for Concern?

The nominations for the 2011 Game BAFTA nominations are in. These are the official, important, grown-up awards held at the British Academy of Film and TV in London. These are mostly comprised of sequels.

Let's take "Best Game" - the biggie. The one which enables publishers and studios to walk away with award statuettes that look just the awards that film and TV stars get. The nominations are:

SEQUEL - Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
SEQUEL - FIFA 11 - Development Team - Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada
Heavy Rain - David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
LIMBO - Development Team - Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
SEQUEL - Mass Effect 2 - Development Team - Electronic Arts/BioWare
SEQUEL - Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka - Nintendo/Nintendo

Okay, let's look at the Gameplay award - that's important to gamers:

SEQUEL - Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
SEQUEL - God of War III - Stig Asmussen, Todd Papy, Adam Puhl - Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Heavy Rain - David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
LIMBO - Development Team - Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
SEQUEL - Mass Effect 2 - Development Team - Electronic Arts/BioWare
SEQUEL - Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka - Nintendo/Nintendo

Maybe we're being a tad harsh here - there's nothing whatsoever to say that the games nominated aren't really good games, most of them are - but the sequelitis? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.

Meanwhile here are the rest of the Noms.

Action
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Alan Kertz, Kristoffer Bergqvist - Electronic Arts/DICE
BioShock 2 - Jordan Thomas, Zak McClendon - 2K Games/2K Marin
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz - Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
God of War III - Stig Asmussen, Todd Papy, Steve Caterson - Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Halo: Reach - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie

Artistic Achievement
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz - Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
God of War III - Stig Asmussen, Ken Feldman, Cecil Kim - Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Santa Monica Studio
Heavy Rain - David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
LIMBO - Development Team - Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
Mass Effect 2 - Development Team - Electronic Arts/BioWare

Family
Dance Central - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios & MTV Games/MTV & Harmonix
Kinect Adventures - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Good Science Studio
Kinect Sports - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Rare
Kinectimals - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Frontier Developments Ltd
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 - Development Team - Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/TT Games
Toy Story 3 - John Blackburn, Jonathan Warner, Jeff Bunker - Disney Interactive Studios/Avalanche Software

Handheld
Cut the Rope - Development Team - Chillingo/Zeptolab
God of War: Ghost of Sparta - Development Team - Sony Computer Entertainment/Ready at Dawn & SCE Santa Monica Studio
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 - Development Team - Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/TT Games
Professor Layton and the Lost Future - Akihiro Hino - Nintendo/Level 5 Games
Sonic Colours - Development Team - SEGA/Sonic Team
Super Scribblenauts - Joseph M Tringali, Marius Fahlbusch, Jeremiah Slaczka - Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/5th Cell

Multiplayer
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Alan Kertz, Kristoffer Bergqvist - Electronic Arts/DICE
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz - Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Halo: Reach - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Development Team - Electronic Arts/Criterion Games
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty - Development Team - Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment

Original Music
Alan Wake - Petri Alanko - Microsoft Games Studios/Remedy
Fable III - Russell Shaw - Microsoft Games Studios/Lionhead Studios
Heavy Rain - Normand Corbeil - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
James Bond 007: Bloodstone - Richard Jacques - Activision Blizzard UK/ Bizarre Creations
Mass Effect 2 - Jack Wall - Electronic Arts/BioWare
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Koji Kondo - Nintendo/Nintendo

Social Network Game
Bejeweled Blitz - Jon David, Heather Hazen, Jason Kapalka - Popcap Games/Popcap Games
Farmerama - Tobias Reisberger, Jan-Michel Saaksmeier, Marten Schröder - Bigpoint/Bigpoint
FIFA Superstars - Development Team - EA Sports/Playfish
My Empire - Development Team - Playfish/Playfish
Zoo Mumba - Tobias Reisberger, Eduard Röhrich, Jan-Michel Saaksmeier - Bigpoint GMBH/Bigpoint GMBH
Zuma Blitz - Isaac Aubrey, Jon David, Jason Kapalka - PopCap Games/PopCap Games

Sports
F1 2010 - Development Team - Codemasters/Codemasters Birmingham
FIFA 11 - Development Team - Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada
Football Manager 2011 - Development Team - SEGA/Sports Interactive
Gran Turismo 5 - Development Team - Sony Computer Entertainment/Polyphony Digital Inc
International Cricket 2010 - Development Team - Codemasters/Trickstar Games
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 - Shingo Takatsuka, Naoya Hatsumi, Jon Murphy - Konami/Winning Eleven Productions

Story
Alan Wake - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Remedy
BioShock 2 - Jordan Thomas, Zak McClendon 2K Games/2K Marin
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz
Activision Blizzard UK - Ltd/Treyarch
Fallout: New Vegas - John Gonzalez, Eric Fenstermaker, Travis StoutBethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment
Heavy Rain - David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
Mass Effect 2 - Development Team - Electronic Arts/BioWare


Strategy
Civilization V - Jon Shafer, Dorian Newcomb, Brian Wade - 2K Games/Firaxis
Fallout: New Vegas - Josh Sawyer, Frank Kowalkowski, Justin Reynard - Bethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment
FIFA Manager 11 - Development Team - EA Sports/Bright Future
Napoleon Total War - Development Team - SEGA/Creative Assembly
Plants vs. Zombies XBLA - George Fan, Matt Lee Johnston, Ty Roberts - PopCap Games/PopCap Games
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty - Development Team - Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment

Technical Innovation
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Adam Rosas, Scott Bean, Dom Drozdz - Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Halo: Reach - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie
Heavy Rain - David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Scott Johnson - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
Kinectimals - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Frontier Developments Ltd
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka - Nintendo/Nintendo

Use of Audio
Alan Wake - Development Team - Microsoft Games Studios/Remedy/14.05.10
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - Development Team - Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal/19.11.10
Battlefield: Bad Company: 2 - Stefan Strandberg - Electronic Arts/DICE/05.03.10
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Development Team - Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch/ 09.11.10
DJ Hero 2 - Development Team - Activision Blizzard UK LTD/Freestylegames/22.10.10
LIMBO - Development Team - Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games/21.07.10

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital
Mush - Henry Hoffman, Ahmed Zaman, Matthew Dennis, Katherine Killick, Greg O’Brien - (Angry Mango)
Sculpty - Druhin Mukherjee, Fabien Roussot, James Long, Fraser Littlejohn, Ronan Suess - (Team Tickle)
Twang - Jocce Marklund, Annette Nielsen, Linus Nordgren, Marcus Heder, Thomas Finlay - (That Game Studio)

GAME Award of 2010
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision Blizzard UK Ltd/Treyarch
Dance Central - Microsoft Games Studios & MTV Games/MTV & Harmonix
FIFA 11 - Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada
Halo Reach - Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie
Heavy Rain - Sony Computer Entertainment/Quantic Dream & XDev Studio Europe
Limbo - Xbox Live Arcade/Playdead Games
Mass Effect 2 - Electronic Arts/BioWare
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Electronic Arts/Criterion Games
Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Nintendo/Nintendo