BAFTA 2026: Half the Awards, All the Opinions (Episode 280)

Alex and Matt kick off GTS's two-part coverage of the 22nd BAFTA Games Awards, working their way through the first half of the night's categories and they have opinions.

The pair run through Multiplayer, Artistic Achievement, Evolving Game, Performer in a Supporting Role, British Game, Animation, Game Design, and Technical Achievement. Along the way, they dig into whether BAFTA's categories are broad enough to be meaningful, the tension between hyperrealism and genuine artistry, and whether studios that shipped broken games at launch should get credit for fixing them a decade later. Matt has thoughts on that last one. Strong ones.

They also touch on the changes BAFTA made to its voting process this year, bringing in specialist craft chapters for key categories for the first time and what that might mean for who wins going forward.

Part two is coming, with the remaining categories plus a deeper look at representation, inclusion, and the controversies surrounding the ceremony.

Episode-specific tags: #BAFTAGames2026 #BAFTAGamesAwards #ClairObscur #GhostOfYotei #DeathStranding2 #Atomfall #Dispatch #NoMansSky #Blueprince

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Transcript

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Alex: 0:15

Everyone, welcome back to another episode of Gaming the Gaming The System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today, I'm your host Alex, and I'm joined by Matt. Before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/gamingthesystem for some exclusive content, or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address, wearegamingthesystem@gmail.com We're going to be talking all things BAFTA Games awards because they very recently took place at the South Bank Center in London. for this. First part, we're going to be running through the different awards all the various nominees and our thoughts on how the whole show went. The presenter for the night a British YouTuber gamer and presenter for hosting major gaming events, and her streaming handle is Elz the Witch. I thought she did a really great job it's clear from the way she was talking about gaming that she is a gamer and has been for quite a while. that was positive to see, and I'm sure we'll talk about that in the second half of our coverage So the first category was, multiplayer. and that was presented by Charlie Cox, the nominees were Dune: Awakening,

Elden Ring: 1:49

Nightreign, Lego Party, peak Fiction and Arc Raiders. And Arc Raiders won the award. So how are your thoughts on multiplayer? Have you played any of those and do you think Arc Raiders was a deserved winner?

matt: 2:10

It's not very well defined because

Alex: 2:13

Hmm.

matt: 2:14

They're more co-op than multiplayer because Arc Raiders is, you, a group of four, I think pretty much all of them. They're a four person player games, so they're more co-op. but in Arc Raiders, it's successful, but it's just another. Extraction shooter and there are billions of them now. And what makes one successful is a bit of a mystery, but in terms of it should be an artistic thing, maybe.

Alex: 2:46

It was nice to see a variety of different types of multiplayer games. I know you've said it is basically, essentially mostly co-op anyway, but I think, I mean, in terms of the settings and the worlds in which each of them are taking place, there's a nice variety there rather than it all being. Sort of typical shooters,

matt: 3:06

and yeah.

Alex: 3:07

which you see quite often if you think of multiplayer gaming, I think that's what most people would think of. so I thought it was nice to see a little bit of variety, but yeah, maybe they could have broken down that category a little more, into those separate types. Or maybe they just wanted to showcase a larger breadth of the type of multiplayer games available. So this is for any game released between the 16th of November, 2024 and the 14th of November, 2025, which is interesting because obviously it's the 2026. Games, awards, or rather the 22nd awards, but they are actually hosted in 2026. So it's a little bit of a sort of lag as it were in terms of the games that we're actually getting awards at this point in time. I've only played split fiction outta those games that were up for nomination, and I have heard good things about Arc Raiders as well. so I can't comment necessarily as to whether it was good or bad, but yeah, I do think maybe they could, if were introducing new categories, maybe a co-op category would be the way to go in future. It was a tricky category, I think for a lot of categories. You saw like the first three, you were like, oh, this is difficult. And then the rest would come and you'd be like, oh no. How would you even be able to choose?'cause there's so many good games within their own right in each of the categories. It's very difficult. So I think they had a hard job on their hands. Definitely. The next category that was up was for artistic achievement, and that was presented by Alice's pixels.

Clair Obscur: 4:50

Expedition 33. Dispatch.

Death Stranding 2: 4:54

On the Beach, Ghost of Yōtei, Hollow Knight: Silksong and South of Midnight. the winner for artistic achievement was Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. And do we have any thoughts on that

matt: 5:14

So I'm torn because this.

Death Stranding 2: 5:19

On the Beach, I loved it. I binged it for 80 hours over two weeks, absolutely consumed it, and I've just bought it on PC now and it's installed, just loved it. Gameplay. Fantastic world. Fantastic story. Rubbish. Really rubbish. So it is not, it's not a flawless experience all the way through. I look at these other ones and they're all good, but. Clair Obscur has hit the transcendent barrier. That has absolutely. It's one of those bits of art where I go, I can't believe this exists. I can't believe that human hands crafted this thing. So I am stunned how few awards Clair Obscur won in this, If anything in my mind that if I'd successfully executed it to the best that I can imagine where I am now, if I was nominated for this and I won and I was next to Clair Obscur, I would give it to Clair Obscur. I would come up and say, I'm very proud of what I've made, but it is nowhere near what Clair Obscur has achieved, and that's how I feel about a lot of these things. So, I am torn.

Alex: 6:49

It was the, most successful game of the night with, I won't say who, but we'll say at the end. but yeah, it has basically swept up pretty much most of the other video game awards. shows for this year, which include when it was released. So I was surprised that it didn't, win more categories. Maybe they were trying to be a little bit more even handed. I don't know. not sure what went on there, but, yeah, this was a tough category again. They're all games I'd like to play. I've only played Ghost of Yōtei out of those. even then, I've not made it all the way through the game yet, but, I definitely feel like it merits a nomination at the very least. so again, it's another step category,

matt: 7:33

a problem that is coming along with graphics these days, especially with the Unreal Engine five, um, is. Incredible, like realistic, not just realistic, but artistically impressive. visuals is that they can be used to mask poor gameplay and poor otherwise designed. Elements of the game. and Clair Obscur doesn't look hyperreal. it's like a canvas. It's literally like a painting that has been, Transformed and translated into computer, versions so it looks incredible because it is pure artist artistry and still games like Ghost of Yōtei and Death Stranding. The root of it is the how good the, the human faces look and how. The environment looks. There's nothing in, uh, Clair Obscur looks like it has just been copied and pasted from anywhere.'cause in most things, the, the ground looks the same, the trees look the same. But something where literally everything feels like it was handcrafted, even though they bought a ton of it, most of it from the Unreal engine marketplace, but still made it look like nothing I've ever seen before. And Death Stranding uses the same game engine as the Horizon games, so that's why it looks so spectacular.

Alex: 9:12

The next category. I wasn't sure what it even meant. and it's for the best evolving game. And I think that became clear to me while I was looking at the nominations. It's essentially games that came out, Perhaps even years ago, but are getting a lot of developer support after release and getting a lot of DLC and extra additional content and sort of new extra content on top of the original game. and the nominees for it are Fallout 76, Helldivers 2.

No Man's Sky, Hitman: 9:49

World of Assassination, Vampire Survivors and

Warhammer 40,000: 9:56

Space Marine 2. And the winner was Man's Sky. And this was a bit of a surprise to me, but I always forget about No Man's Sky. It was a win for my local area because the developers hello games are actually based in Guildford. So, that was quite nice. they seem genuinely like overwhelmed and like delighted to have won. But, again, I've not played, any of these. I know Matt, you are absolutely beered with Hitman world of assassination to put it lightly. so how did you feel on hearing who won that

matt: 10:38

I was livid with this for two reasons. One, because hitman has been, transcended. An, amount of awesome new content over the years, especially the last two years because they've had, Bruce Lee mission. they've just had a Resident Evil mission. They've had a, an awesome Jean-Claude Van Damme mission. They did a, Conor McGregor mission. That was really good. But again, Conor McGregor. so they, they removed that from the store, but if you just replaced him with another MMA fighter, it would work fine. Hitman three came out in 2020. It was one of the, the launch titles for the PS five It was an awesome game. Just, just an awesome experience from start to finish, beginning, middle, and end, and tied up the trilogy nicely. And then they've been maintaining it through the Freelancer Roguelike version and then adding in these, elusive target missions as well. So I think it should have won because of that. But no man sky can go and fuck themselves because. When the game released, they promised literally the moon and the stars. They said this was gonna be the most incredible space opera that had ever existed. You've got an infinite universe and there are going to be, you're going to be finding infinite planets with these incredible. For flora and fauna. And then you're gonna meet all these alien civilizations. You're gonna be able to be a space pirate or a merchant. There are gonna be, you're gonna be in the middle of these grand, incredible things. Literally the entire list of possible things. And it came out. And you fly around in a tiny ship, you mine with a mining laser, or you point the laser at something and it goes boom. And then it runs outta battery. You have to wait for a few seconds. So you mine like that. You find these ridiculous, cartoonish, artificially generated flora and fauna. And then any alien you meet, they just garble to you and all the aliens. in these space stations and the ships are rubbish and it was a fraction of what they promised. because they had made tons of money from the pre-orders and the people buying it for the first time, they made a shitload of money. But then over the next 10 years, it came out in 2016, they have been putting in things. And evolving it since then. But because you put, an amoeba out and then go, oh, it's evolved into a fish. isn't this fish amazing? You don't get credit for the amoeba because the amoeba's easy. And so this really, really frustrated me. One, because my game was robbed, and two, because this game studio. Just really fucked over their fans and just because they've finished it. They've been continuing to add to it. It's similar with Fallout 76 because Todd Howard, who's the, head of, Bethesda, who's been the game director on Fallout and. The Elder Scrolls, he came out and said that it doesn't matter where you start, but where you end up. So he goes, you release it and then you fix it, then you add things to it, and that is the absolute worst possible take for game developers to take'cause for them it's just, we do less work and we get all the money. Whereas for us, we go, we give them the money and then we get the less. So no answer. I can do one for me.

Alex: 14:45

When they were picking up the award, were reflecting on how it had been 10 years, since the initial release, and also how much younger and perhaps more naive they were then. So perhaps it was just someone who was very young and excited You know, you don't know, do you? But, yeah, definitely something to think about. And I do think that the gaming landscape has changed since in the decades that we've been gaming for sure.

matt: 15:13

They always keep all the money. It doesn't matter. Oh, yeah. it was a rough journey and yeah, we were quite young and idealistic, but you kept the money. So it doesn't matter what you say, you kept the money. if you said, oh yeah, we over promise and undelivered. So we've, cut the everything since then will be free. every single change we'll make will be free and we will pack all the money that we saved by not doing it properly. First time we will pack all of that into ongoing content. So. Again, they can do one.

Alex: 15:54

So the next

matt: 15:55

Oh.

Alex: 15:56

was Performer in a Supporting Role, and that was presented by Angela St. Albano and Nick Apostolides. And, uh, Nick, a Sorry. I am sorry. I completely butchered that. You should think someone learning Greek would know how to pronounce that a little better. Um, Performer in a Supporting Role. Now, Alix Wilton Regan, who we know is upcoming Lara Croft, but in this nomination she was for, Lée Florence Monnard in Lies of P: Overture. Also up for the award was Charlie Cox as Gustav in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Jane Perry as Leah Cain in Dead. Take Jeffrey Wright as Chase in dispatch. Kirsty Ryder as Lynn in Claire obscure 33 and Troy Baker as Higgs

in Death Stranding 2: 16:54

On the Beach. And the winner for this one was Jeffrey Wright as Chase in dispatch. I don't think he was available to actually pick up the award in person. but I had no idea Jeffrey Ryan was in dispatch. So that was news to me. Definitely.

matt: 17:11

the cast of dispatch is wild.

Alex: 17:14

Yeah, it

matt: 17:15

got a ridiculous gamut of people in it. It's got, Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad is the main character, and that's wild. And then Milana Pierce is one of the characters

Alex: 17:28

right.

matt: 17:29

just all over the place. And again, this is, that's another thing where I have a, I have an issue with the. And I dunno what, I dunno whether what the right answer is to it, but the, the complexity of the game design is what role that should play because dispatch is a 2D sort of, interactive comic book thing. And, but then in and Dead Take is a basically a, it's actual filmed stuff and it's got Jane Perry, who is in Hitman as Diana, and it's got Ben Starr and it's got, ah, my name's a star actor. Then you go to, and the lies of p is a, is a, an indie game that's like a

dark souls thing, but then you get Clair Obscur: 18:23

Expedition 33 and that is just a completely. Different universe of, in terms of art, and I don't know if you can take a small, a very, in terms of like tangible complexity, how do you choose between, and I don't. See how some of these things can be put against each other. I feel like this, for a lot of things, it feels like, like in lies of P Overture, there's practically no dialogue in it. And I do you know how who the people who choose these games are for the awards?

Alex: 19:10

So for the 22nd bafta, games awards, the following changes were announced to bring the voting process more In line with the films awards, BAFTA has created three additional craft chapters, allowing only with experience in art, audio, and performance to participate in the first round of voting in their respective categories. And there's are artistic achievement, audio achievement performer in a leading role and Performer in a Supporting Role. So this category we're just discussing now, these chapters join the already established chapters who vote in the game design and technical achievement categories. Previously, the entire BAFTA membership with vote on these categories. During round one, so that first round of voting is more specialized, the criteria for two performance categories has been amended to allow individuals to submit a supporting clip reel to highlight the best representation of their performance. And then it says about the criteria for animation, artistic achievement, audio achievement, game design, narrative music and technical achievement categories has been amended to allow greater representation in nominations for individuals who made a significant creative contribution in their respective area. That was quite a long sentence,

matt: 20:28

I couldn't help but compare this to the Game Awards

Alex: 20:31

Hmm.

matt: 20:32

'cause the game awards was again, utter spectacular. And this was really disappointing. Just in terms of the, the presentation. And again, the choices themselves is obviously art is subjective, but even within the, the bounds of subjective, maybe, maybe, maybe, I dunno how you feel about this. Is there, should there be, is there a ranking of things that are art objectively? A higher quality than some. Is there a hierarchy of things where you go, right. This is more beautiful, more objectively excellent than some other ones. And I, I just, I don't know.

Alex: 21:22

Because it is so subjective as well, I mean, I was just, glad that there seemed to be more variety, than I have seen in previous award shows. I think shows that they are trying to. Be more representative of the types of games that our community gets to play, which is one of the things we love to talk about on the pod, is that games aren't just one thing. They're lots and lots of different things, and they can mean different things to different people. One person's amazing game might not be the most graphically, enhanced, but it might mean a great deal to them in terms of. Like their life and their circumstance, whereas another person might find the most hyper real game to actually mean more to them than a game that's maybe like a 2D scroller or something like that. I am very aware that the time for this episode is rapidly slipping away, and we have not yet reached the halfway point of, of the, 17, different categories that we've got to get through. So what I think we'll do is maybe get halfway through for this episode and then do the other half for the next episode, and then we can come back for a look into. All of those things that we want to discuss in more detail, the controversies surrounding this ceremony and previous BAFTA ceremonies, and also what we always love to discuss on the pod, which is representation. Inclusion, et cetera, the sorts of things that we are arguing for more of within the gaming industry. So without further ado, I'm going to crack on and tell you all about the nominees for British Game, which were presented by Jade Scott and Dan TD. I believe it was the jade, from the traitors, which was quite interesting to see as well.'cause she, all the way through the traitors talked about how she was a gamer and how that would be a useful skill for her, which I thought was quite interesting. She's incredibly tall. I hadn't realized how tall she was. so that was nice to see. let's have a look. British game.

So we've got, Citizen Sleeper 2: 23:40

Starward Vector, Mafia: The Old Country Monument Valley 3, Atomfall, PowerWash Simulator 2 and Two Point Museum, and the winner for that one was Atomfall. And I, again, have not played any of these games, but I've certainly seen lots and lots of content around them and watched lots of gameplay videos of Atomfall because it seemed a very intriguing setting for me. It was up in, I believe it was somewhere around Yorkshire or somewhere, perhaps even Peak District, But it's all around sort of what would've happened if there had been a nuclear disaster and if it was covered up, what would happen. And it was all sort of, kind of steam punky. There was lots of big robot police going around and, zombies underground and all sorts of. Interesting, interesting local color and, telephone boxes you would have to answer the phone to, and there would be a mysterious voice on the other end saying to kill one of the villages. all very interesting stuff. very sort of in the mold of a fallout, type game, but I guess just like a British version of it. so it was very interesting and I think, definitely want to check out in the future for me. and I'm just. like again, I think it's trying to showcase the variety of games and the strength of the industry, in this country in particular, because it is pretty much a big. Particularly in, in, the area I'm living in, in Surrey, there's a pretty big population of games developers, local to me. I know they're obviously spread all across the country, yeah, was interesting to see there are a few other local game developers in that category as well,

matt: 25:33

I think. Suit a game awards thing, but I'm feeling my massively judgmental side is really being triggered by a lot of these things. I think I see on this list and I go, this doesn't belong on this. it's nowhere near as good as some of these other things.

Alex: 25:50

Brings out a lot of emotions in people. This is what we love about these sorts of things. Well, it's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it, really? Because obviously they're designed to, celebrate gaming and games and things. Things like that. But at the same time, you know, is it a bit unfair to hold one game up to the top and kind of feel like the others are a little bit disregarded when actually all of them be celebrated equally, really? that's, like we said, we've discussed it in previous episodes, so feel free to check those out. but, definitely an interesting one. I'm really enjoying how, we're taking different things from it as well. It's good. at this point in the ceremony, there was a break for, a performance by an artist who's also apparently, I think, involved in streaming on Twitch, but I'm not entirely sure. I will have to check back and. verify that for us. But, her name is Talia Ma and she performed a song called Lady, and I want to come back to that in a feature episode 'cause I feel like it's very relevant to our discussions. and highlighted some things which for some people might have felt out of place. At a BAFTA video game board ceremony and for others might have felt like finally this is being highlighted So I'll come back to that. We'll pop a pin in it. the next award presented for animation was presented by Abubakar Salim, who we all know as the voice of Bayek from Assassin's Creed: Origins, and good friend of. people in the gaming community, Alanah Pearce and Troy Baker, and Ben Starr and Austin Wintory, et cetera. They're all in a, they have a, a lovely friendship group going on. and he's also a game developer, in his own right. He created a couple of games now, in fact, I think. but for the category of, animation. we have Battlefield 6, Death Stranding

2: 28:05

On the Beach, Ghost of Yōtei, Dispatch.

Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: 28:11

Silksong. The winner for that one was dispatch, which Abby was incredibly pleased about, and did a massive fist pump on stage and essentially shouted the name. and so that was very fun to watch. He was clearly, really keen that they should have won that one as well. What were your thoughts on that?.

matt: 28:34

Again, Like Ghost of Yōtei and Death Stranding are just, they have to be a cut above these other ones and then Battlefield 6, an odd

Alex: 28:45

I did think that was a

matt: 28:46

and no,

Alex: 28:47

out there.

matt: 28:48

and no Clair Obscur.

Alex: 28:50

Yeah.

matt: 28:51

It just feels like, it just doesn't make sense to me and that just rubs me up the wrong way.

Alex: 29:02

Yeah, I realize I have missed a category only one day. That was prior to animation and that was game design that was presented by Jane Douglas and Lucy James, and I believe one of them, Jane and possibly even Lucy, are both on, outside Xbox. If you follow that channel on YouTube, you'll know them particularly well. game design. Gee for game. There we're, so we've got, again, a real mixture of different types of games here.

Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: 29:37

Expedition 33, Ghost of Yōtei, Hades 2 Split Fiction and Blue Prince. And the winner for that one was Blue Prince. Which I think was very nice to see because it's a indie game obviously. It kind of was a smash hit when it came out. it's a very in depth puzzle game. Very, got lots and lots of layers to it type of game I'd be interested in playing, but I feel like it's in the same sort of sphere as like games, like the witness where you've got. Sort of entry level puzzles, and then it becomes incredibly complicated and complex. And unless you take the time to actually sit there with a notepad and start making notes and going back and forth and all these things, you're gonna get stuck pretty quickly. So for the in-depth, hardcore puzzle experience, I'd say. Blue Prince. It looks like it's gonna be a good time for you, I have yet to try it. It is on my list of games to play, but, the guy accepting the award, seemed very, an interesting character, and had never made a game before, I don't think, from what I could tell. So I think that was a really nice to see him win that award. Definitely.

matt: 30:57

Yeah, I'd not heard of that one. again, it's another very vague.

Alex: 31:01

Yes.

matt: 31:01

Category.'cause game design is literally everything. And I would take that to mean the management of the project and how you corral a group of people into making something as complex as, again, Clair Obscur, how you manage that is just, that's crazy.

Alex: 31:22

There's a lot of broad categories that could be interpreted in a number of ways. So yeah, and I think the explanations they did try to give beforehand sort of also equally vague, but they did try. I think this might be the last one for today. we had technical achievement. So I guess the, how far they're pushing the tech in terms of what it can achieve, gather that was presented by Lee Pete, or petty apologies pronounced that wrong. technical achievement. We've got the nominees are Arc Raiders, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

Doom: 32:04

The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Split Fiction, Ghost of Yōtei. And the winner for that one was Ghost of Yōtei. And I was very pleased about that'cause I was waiting, 'cause I'm playing at the moment and I obviously you get recency bias and you're like, this game's the best game. It should win all of the things. So I was quite glad to see it win that one. But yeah, again, it was pretty stacked in terms of the types of games, or the breadth of games on display there. I mean there are some games I'm not familiar with, like Arc Raiders and Doom. sure they are very. Good in terms of technical achievement, and again, Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, looks like most games that you find these days. I'd say split fiction would've been next pick if I had to pick any other game except Ghost of Yōtei because of the way that obviously they had to design it for two players, and they've designed all of the different levels, Even from a perspective, the different types of gameplay within that game? pretty much, you know, I, I struggle to put it onto one hand the different types of, ways in which you can interact with that game and kind of make your way through the story. So I think that is definitely pretty high up in terms of technical achievement. But then I might be coming at it from the wrong angle. I don't know.

matt: 33:35

My perspective on this is that how far removed it is from. Other games in that genre.'cause there's nothing revolutionary about the gameplay in any of them, apart from death stranding. But then death Stranding compared to split fiction is far less. Complex because it's got one gameplay loop, and it's a really good one. And it's unusual and unique, but split fiction is every game type there's ever been and made by a much smaller studio Indiana Jones is just another stealth shooter. It's copied literally from the, Wolfenstein series. Doom is less of a technical achievement than Doom Eternal because they've made it much simpler and slower. They've gotten rid of the kill animations. Every single kill take down is you punch them and they explode. And so it's less technically impressive than the last one. And Ghost of Yōtei is really good, but it is built on the foundation of, Ghost of Tsushima. So I think, yeah, split Fiction was robbed.

Alex: 34:55

Yeah, there we are. Then, well, I think this will have to draw to a close this half of our exploration of this year's BAFTA awards. And we have, as expected, as we always do, we have too much to talk about in one episode. So we are going to come back for part two and cover the rest of the awards and nominations. So if you want to hear from us about the rest of that, do come back for episode two. have new episodes every Thursday, so we look forward to hearing from you. Let us know what you think of our takes on the awards nominees and winners. Did you have any? Games you feel like should have been included that aren't, or do you agree with us or do you agree with BAFTA in the spaces where we've disagreed? So yeah, just let us know and share it far and wide. We always love to have new listeners So thank you very much and we'll see you soon. Bye.

matt: 35:50

Bye-bye.