The BAFTA nominations for their video game awards for 2017 have been announced, and Ninja Theory’s Hellblade leads the pack with a staggering nine nominations. It is followed by Horizon: Zero Dawn, which got eight nominations. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, meanwhile, got five nominations.

What is most curious about these awards is the apparent general snubbing that Japanese games (outside of Nintendo’s) seem to have gotten in the nominees list- for instance, neither NieR nor Persona are nominated for Game of the Year, nor for Best Soundtrack; Persona 5 is also ignored in the best artstyle category.

On the other hand, BAFTAs are understandably more skewed towards British sensibilities, and British games, so it does make sense. You can check out the full list of nominees below- will Breath of the Wild take the win here as well? We will find out on April 12, which is when the awards ceremony will be held in London.

Artistic Achievement

• Cuphead
• Gorogoa
• Hellblade
• Horizon
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Audio Achievement

• COD: World War 2
• Destiny 2
• Hellblade
• Horizon
• Star Wars Battlefront 2
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Best Game

• Assassin’s Creed Origins
• Hellblade
• Horizon
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Super Mario Odyssey
• What Remains of Edith Finch

British Game

• Hellblade
• Monument Valley 2
• Reigns: Her Majesty
• The Sexy Brutale
• Sniper Elite 4
• Total War: Warhammer 2

Debut Game

• Cuphead
• Gorogoa
• Hollow Knight
• Night in the Woods
• The Sexy Brutale
• Slime Rancher

Evolving Game

• Clash Royale
• Final Fantasy 15
• Fortnite
• Overwatch
• PUBG
• Rainbow Six Siege

Family

• Just Dance 2018
• Lego Worlds
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
• Monument Valley 2
• Snipperclips
• Super Mario Odyssey

Game Beyond Entertainment

• Bury Me, My Love
• Hellblade
• Last Day of June
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• Night in the Woods
• Sea Hero Quest VR

Game Design

• Assassin’s Creed Origins
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Nier Automata
• Super Mario Odyssey
• What Remains of Edith Finch

Game Innovation

• Gorogoa
• Hellblade
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Nier Automata
• Snipperclips
• What Remains of Edith Finch

Mobile Game

• Bury Me, My Love
• Golf Clash
• Gorogoa
• Kami 2
• Monument Valley 2
• Stranger Things: The Game

Multiplayer

• Divinity: Original Sin 2 (yay!)
• Fortnite
• Gang Beasts
• PUBG
• Splatoon 2
• Star Trek Bridge Crew

Music

• Cuphead
• Get Even
• Hellblade
• Horizon
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• What Remains of Edith Finch

Narrative

• Hellblade
• Horizon
• Night in the Woods
• Tacoma
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Original Property

• Cuphead
• Gorogoa
• Horizon
• Night in the Woods
• PUBG
• What Remains of Edity Finch

Performer

• Abubakar Salim as Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins
• Ashly Burch as Aloy in Horizon
• Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
• Laura Bailey as Nadine Ross in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
• Melina Juergens as Senua in Hellblade
• Valerie Rose Lohman as Edith Finch in What Remains of Edith Finch

The Last of Us will be getting a movie adaptation and writer/director Neil Druckmann has confirmed that it will be adapt the story of the video game.

“It’s an adaptation of the story of The Last of Us. As far as where we go and how we make it fit into a film, how it takes into account the unique properties of film…We’re not sure yet. We’re only just scratching the surface,” said Druckmann to IGN at the recent BAFTA Awards, where The Last of Us won five awards.

It will at least stay faithful to the game, which is always a good thing. Most developers attempt to have their franchise adapted in a way that suits the masses and it’s still not working very well.

Regardless, would you be keen to see Ellie and Joel on the big screen in what is essentially a live-action retelling of the video game? Let us know in the comments.

“He is an inspirational developer and truly deserving of our Fellow recognition.”

Newell responded with, “It is an honour for myself and everyone at Valve to be presented such an award by one of the world’s most respected and recognized organisations.

“Valve owes a tremendous thanks to many in the UK – to those who have played our games, to the great support of the UK press, and to UK-based creative contributors such as Garry Newman. I look forward to accepting this prestigious honour on behalf of everyone in our community.”

UK Managing Director of Activision Blizzard Peter Hepworth commented on the win, stating that, “We are absolutely delighted to have won best video game at the British Academy Children’s Awards. This is a proud moment for Activision and development studio Toys for Bob and with Skylanders Giants proving to be a hit with children, we’re all very excited about the future of Skylanders.”

Speaking of which, for those who’ve missed it, Skylanders: Giants is already available in both North America and Europe for Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U and Playstation 3 with all versions (excluding the 3DS) scoring 79 and above in Metacritic scores.

Cris Velasco (left) standing tall.

Ubisoft’s ZombiU is set to bring zombie survival horror to the Wii U, with the traumatic events that only having to shake a zombie off a few inches from your face can provide.

Thanks to Cris Velasco though, it just got even better, for he’ll be composing the music for the game, promising an original and frightening score.

Don’t know the guy? Oh, he just worked on a couple of games you might’ve heard of. Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 1 and 2, all three God of War games (for which he was nominated for and won a BAFTA award in “Best Original Score), Darksiders, Prototype, that kind of stuff. Nothing too big.

What’s interesting is just how Velasco is gonna go about composing the sound-track. He’ll be employing detuned toys and instruments, carnival organs, distorted guitars, contrasted by piano and string quintet compositions. Imagine a demonic carnival meets Schubert meets a horrific nightmare of no escape that only the zombie apocalypse could provide, and you’ll get a fair idea.

Given his memorable music on Mass Effect 3, the most famous track which would become the basis for this gem, we can’t wait to see what Velasco delivers when ZombiU releases exclusively for the Wii U on November 13th.