Follow Shadowlocked for the latest, up-to-the-minute coverage of this year's Videogame BAFTAs...

For years, the videogame community has been pushed aside, making way for the far "greater" social interests such as film and/or television. While we were forced to endure acceptance speech after acceptance speech - from individuals so consumed in their own worlds they had forgotten all about reality - we dreamt of bigger and better things...how things have changed.

The Videogame industry is now one of the most powerful - and profitable - in the world, with more and more companies eager to get in on the action. Conversely, this raise in popularity has seen many of these 'elitist' individuals come crawling back, like an infected arm to its unaffected owner. While the film companies and cinematic production team continue to reel off remake after remake, the videogame industry remains awash with originality, with new ideas as fruitful as they ever were.

Last year, we welcomed some of the greatest - and most technically advanced - games of all time, and tonight they are set for one final battle at the 2011 Videogame BAFTAs. So why not sit back, refresh and, above all, enjoy a live blog of results as the night goes on...

Live:

Proceedings are about to start; the celebs and press at the ceremony have been told to get back to their seats. So here we go - the BAFTA Videogame Awards 2011 will be underway very, very shortly...

20:47 - And we are off! The ceremony begins with a video showing 2010's best games - Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Mass Effect 2...ah, it was a good year. But who will win? Stay tuned to Shadowlocked to find out over the next 9 minutes or so.

20:50 - Interestingly, social games get their own category for the first time this year, reflecting the massive growth in Facebook and mobile games in 2010. And here comes Dara...I never thought I would be so happy to see his chubby cheeks. He has started by reminding everyone that the games industry is the biggest media industry in the world - boo ya!

They say a comedian should open any set with a joke in first 15 seconds, so Dara tips Duke Nukem Forever as next year's awards' best game - well done Dara.

20:53 -  I tell you what, Dara is certainly passionate about the games industry, a true champion of games if ever there was one. He has just gone on to suggest that EA adds zombies to the next FIFA game...would give a whole new meaning to dribbling wouldn't it? But what do you all reckon?

20:54 - Dara is talking about Mass Effect 2 and, for all his efforts, can't get any romance in it...Poor fella. However, he does point a great job at pointing out how there are more celebrity voice overs than ever; including Sir Ben Kingsley who provided voice work for Fable 3. He's here at the Awards also.

20:55 - Here comes the first award, Action. The nominees are:

- AC: Brotherhood

- Battlefield: Bad Company 2

- Bioshock 2

- Call of Duty: Black Ops

- God of War 3

and

- Halo Reach

Worth noting that The Stig and Gemma Atkinson are presenting this one...what a peculiar mix...

20:59 - ...and the winner is: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - a game produced by Ubisoft.

A deserving winner if ever I have heard one, and one that is sure to keep many of the Shadowlocked writers particularly happy. Where should the AC franchise go next though? Do you agree with Chris Morgan's choices?

21:04 - On to the Family Category now - just shows how far videogames have come on I suppose...

The nominees are:

• Dance Central
  
• Kinect Adventures
• Kinect Sports
• Kinectinmails
• LEGO Harry Potter and
• Toy Story 3

and the winner is: Kinect Sports.

21: 06 - Probably a worthy winner to be honest, Kinect Sports was developed by British developer Rare and came included with the majority of Kinect packages...

Heavy Rain

• Alan Wake
• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• DJ Hero 2
• LIMBO

• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Dance Central
• FIFA 11
• Halso Reach
• Heavy Rain
• Limbo
• Mass Effect 2
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
• Red Dead Redemption
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

• Cut the Rope
• God of War: Ghost of Sparta
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Professor Layton and the Lost Future
• Sonic Colours
• Super Scribblenauts

Who can blame the handheld gamers amongst us? That is a sensational list of games if ever I saw one. I am personally repping God of War, but we shall see..

21:37 - And the winner is... Cut the Rope!

Can't believe it - an app game has beat its platform brethren. Will Apple's dominance ever cease to amaze? Who knows, maybe Apple will become a serious contender in the VG battle...

21:42 - I think someone is in a rush to get somewhere...I have never seen an award ceremony move so quickly! I might have to take legal action for loss of fingers after this!

Anyway, our next award is for Best Original Music - and the nominees are:

• Alan Wake
• Fable III
• Heavy Rain
• James Bond 007: Bloodstone
• Mass Effect 2
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

And the BAFTA goes to: Heavy Rain again! I tell you what, from the way things are going, this could be a very successful night for Heavy Rain - two awards already. However, the sound awards are over now so maybe I am wrong. What does everyone make of the evening so far? As expected - or full of surprises?

21:47 - Again, no pauses - we are straight onto our next award. The nominations for Best Strategy Game are as follows:

• Civilization V
• FIFA Manager II
• Napoleon Total War
• Plants vs Zombies
• Starcraft II and...oddly
• Fallout: New Vegas

Little surprised by New Vegas if I'm honest - even if I did rack up over 50 hours on it!

Anyway, the BAFTA goes to: Civilization V

• Mush
• Sculpty
• Twang!

I'll put my hands up on this one - I have no idea who is going to win this one, but I am excited...and the winner is: Twang!, produced by That Game Studio.

I can't help but feel touched by this...it's a great award and I hope it gives the jump-start every new studio needs.

22:03 - So we are off again. No time to celebrate, no time to rejoice - just right back into the thick of things.

Up for grabs now is the BAFTA for Best Gameplay. There are, as you would expect, some great choices, and after looking at the list, it is hard to think of a better group of games in the last ten years. So, nominations are as follows:

• AC: Brotherhood
• God of War III
• Heavy Rain
• LIMBO
• Mass Effect 2
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

...it really is the 'fun' category of the night. On a side note, I would like you all to know that, while I'm slaving away over a hot laptop, the winners are all being interviewed right beside me. A third arm and second head would be useful right now, as it may just blag me an interview or two!

Anyhow, the winner is...Super Mario Galaxy 2. The crowd are going mad for this one and who could blame them...it's Nintendo's first win of the night. An interesting fact, Galaxy 2 was originally meant to be just an add-on to previous Mario titles but, as the game progressed and its developers got a bit frisky, Nintendo soon realised that it warranted a full, 2 year production! I bet they're happy now.

22:08 - The Pride of Wales - Joe Calzaghe - is presenting the Bafta for Best Sports Title...what a fitting choice. In case you didn't know, Calzaghe retired from boxing with an undeafeated 46-0 record, and is held by many as one of the greatest boxers of all time; not bad for a local lad from Wales hey?

Anyway, we have some incredible choices for this category, and many are touting it as the most open category of this year's ceremony. So, without further ado, our nominees are:

• F1 2010
• FIFA 11
• Football Manager 2011
• Gran Turismo 5
• International Cricket 2010
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2011  

And the award goes to...F1 2010.

Produced by Codemaster, it's nice to see that other companies can still challenge EA, despite their dominance of this genre of gaming. Another interesting fact - apparently, F1 2010 is the most complicated sports title of all time, allowing it to claim both its superiority tonight and its position as the must own Formula One game. Either way, I think it's safe to say that Codemaster have come a long way since Big Nose Freak Outs in 1992 (wiki it now...thank me later).

22:12 - Onwards and upwards then. Our next award is both enjoyable and painful at the same time. Enjoyable because the award is for the ever popular Best Multiplayer category; painful because UK Eurovision entry Blue are cracking jokes that they neither understand nor know how to deliver. Ah well, we can't have everything I guess.

The awards for Best Multiplayer are as follows:

• AC: Brotherhood
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Halo: Reach
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
• Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
  

You'd have to guess that, if these were awarded for sheer playtime, Black Ops should be a sure thing right? However, at this moment I am more concerned by the ache in my arms - it is spreading at a rapid rate.

Any who, it looks like we are about to welcome the winner...and it's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit! Now this is incredible. I have just looked across at the Activision table and I am sure they are simultaneously crying into their beer. Serves them right - maybe next time they will fix the server and lag issues in their games. Anyway, this is not the place for personal grievances...or is it?

22:16 - Next is a personal favourite of mine - the BAFTA award for Best Story. And, as if things weren't good enough already, Danny Wallace - aka the real 'Yes-Man' / Shaun in Assassin's Creed - is presenting the award...boy, do I want to be this man!

He has just got to the nominees, and they are as follows:

• Alan Wake
• BioShock 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Heavy Rain
• Mass Effect 2

Well, well, well - it looks like the suprises haven't stopped yet; Heavy Rain has just won the Best Story Bafta. Despite the bookies (well, fan-boys) all agreeing that Mass Effect 2 was likely to run away with it, Heavy Rain has emerged victorious, and is sure to keep both Sony and their incessant fan-boys happy. Furthermore, this award marks Heavy Rain's third of the night, so you can bet the Sony boys will be reloading ahead of further Xbox-bashing.

22:20 - Finally, we come to the last game award of the night, the BAFTA Best Game Award. The award is being presented by The Gadget Show's Jason Bradbury, a self-proclaimed fanatic when it comes to games. He wastes little time, breaking the audience in before panning us off to the screens for the video nominations.

Again, it dawns on both myself, my fellow bloggers and the audience that 2010 really was a ground-breaking year for gaming; and, by the looks of 2011 so far, things are only getting better.

So, for the last time tonight, the nominees for the award are:

• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• FIFA 11
• Heavy Rain
• LIMBO
• Mass Effect 2
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

...and the winner of the BAFTA Best Game of 2010 goes to...Mass Effect 2. It had to do it eventually, and like all the best, it has saved it till the end. You can feel the excitement about this win - the crowd gave it a rousing round of applause and everyone seems genuinely happy with the result (even those who missed out).

22:24 - At now we come to the very last award of the night - the BAFTA Fellowship Award. Sir Ben Kinglsey is on stage to present the BAFTA Fellowship award to industry legend Peter Molyneux.

- Point of interest: Kingsley voiced a character in Molyneux's Fable III.
- Point of note: Sir Ben has an awesome beard...and knows how to work a crowd.

22:27 - Peter Molyneux has just received the Fellowship Award, for taking the One Ring to Mordor…uh, excellence in videogames. Over his career to date, the acclaimed designer has worked on such landmark titles such as Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White, The Movies, and the popular tongue-in-cheek epic fantasy adventure series Fable, which released its third instalment last year.

Molyneux joins fellow BAFTA Fellows Shigeru Miyamoto (Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Zelda), Nolan Bushnell (Pong) and Will Wright (SimCity, The Sims). Prior to the ceremony, he said:

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it would be possible for me to accept one of the greatest honours the entertainment industry has to offer.  My first thought on learning that I was awarded an Academy Fellowship was that to be in the company of some of the greatest talents the entertainment industry has ever seen is truly humbling, and secondly that this is an award not only for myself, but also for all the people I’ve ever worked with."

It is also worth noting that, prior to this Fellowship Award, Molyneux was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Game Developers’ Choice Awards.


22:40 - And there we have it, a complete blog of all the best bits from the GAME sponsored, Videogame BAFTAs. However, before I leave you, let us just run through the final winners once more:

Action - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Artistic Achievment - God of War III

Family - Kinect Sports

Gameplay - Super Mario Galaxy 2

Hand Held - Cut the Rope

Multiplayer - Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Original Music, Best Story and Best Technical Innovation - Heavy Rain

Social Network Game - My Empire

Sports - F1 2010

Strategy - Civilization V

Use of Sound - Battlefield: Bad Company 2

BAFTA Awards' One to Watch - Twang!

GAME Award of 2010 - Call of Duty: Black Ops

Best Game - Mass Effect 2

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