'The King's Speech' of videogames

THIS WEEK the British Academy of Film and Television (Bafta) Video Games Awards announced their nominations. The ceremony is on March 16th. The choices for Bafta game awards and for their film counterparts seem to have a similar trend.

Dara Ó Briain, who will host the ceremony, was interviewed for the Bafta website. An avid gamer, he enthused about the "astonishingly broad range" of nominations, from FIFA 11 to the low-key gothic nightmare Limbo to the pulpy, narrative-focused Heavy Rain. "If you're creative at the moment, you get into videogames," he said.

But as with the Oscars and the film Baftas, a period piece leads the charge, and just like those gong shows, science fiction and westerns are relatively overlooked. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, (right) set mostly in 16th-century Rome, has seven nods and has been dubbed by some as The King's Speechof game nominees.

Also, just as Clint Eastwood's horse operas weren't awarded prizes until late in his career, the acclaimed western Red Dead Redemptionhas been snubbed by the game BAFTAs, earning only a place among the publicly voted GAME Award of 2010.

Even stranger, in a field dominated by science fiction, the genre doesn't get a look-in among the three most nominated titles, with Mass Effect 2(a hugely praised game which won Game of the Year at the Golden Joysticks) gaining a mere five Bafta nods and almost certainly not destined to take home the big prize. As you'd expect, the lead nominations are mostly from major studio productions, with a small number of Davids selected to take on the Goliaths. The Little Miss Sunshineof the game Baftas is Limbo, a gorgeous, haunting monochrome game from Playdead productions, a small Danish developer.

In a wise move, the game Baftas have a well-chosen spread of categories, ensuring at least some variety in nominations. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood(a fine game) is nominated for (among others) Best Game, Best Action and Artistic Achievement; Call of Duty: Black Ops,the biggest-selling game of the year, and the innovative Heavy Rainare each up for six awards.

To stretch the Oscar comparison even further, the most-nominated property doesn't always necessarily win the key awards, and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhoodmissed out on the nod for Best Story.