Bafta's 2026: The Big Finish! (Episode 283)

Alex hosts Jem and Matt on Gaming the System, promoting their Patreon and PayPal support, then launches into a discussion of awards and categories through the lens of Clair Obscur, which they describe as transcendent and unfairly dominant in contexts like “debut game,” especially compared with smaller-studio releases. They debate BAFTA/Game Awards vibes, the shift to a single “performer” category, and highlight nominated voice actors including Erika Ishii, Ben Starr, Jennifer English, Troy Baker, and others, plus a call for a dedicated motion/performance-capture award citing Clair Obscur’s mocap work and Charlotte Hopfner. The conversation critiques “safe” corporate diversity choices, trigger warnings used as justification for suppressing difficult art, and contrasts this with celebratory, sanitized event branding, alongside brief thoughts on the new James Bond game’s music/celebrity choices.

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Transcript

Speaker 0:15

Everyone, welcome back to another episode of 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 my friends Jem and 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

matt 2:43

Uh, just wanna remind myself what the, what the other... Debut c- was it? Yeah, so ev- all of... If I can, I can pick off exactly where I left off in our last episode with saying how Claire Obscure is just, uh, an- another, a transcendent form of art, and it just, There are very, very few things that can be compared to it. And sort of just, just including it in anything sort of feels like it shouldn't, it shouldn't be allowed. It's, it's beyond, um, it's beyond Game Awa- Game Awards. It's just like at a different level. So those kind of games that feel like if they, if they should win every award, maybe they shouldn't be in the awards 'Cause that's how I felt going in with these and how if-- and if they don't win all the, all the awards, then how can we trust the, the awards ceremony that they didn't come to that conclusion? And so for something like debut game, should be for smaller things, I would think, because I, uh... Are the BAFTAs a tax-funded thing? It just, it, it, it feels very ruling class, coming from that point downwards rather than the bottom up or the middle out, compare- compared to say the Game Awards. Okay. yeah, these other ones, they're just so-- it doesn't matter how good the games are, like especially Dispatch, that's a, a massive, massive success. they're... Dispatch and Clair Obscur don't-- they're not who you think of when you think, "Oh, they just released their first game." You think of like the really small studios putting out something like Stray. Stray would be a perfect debut game thing. when you've got... If your game has Ben Starr in it and Charlie Cox, then y- it doesn't count as a debut game. That's-- I don't think that's fair. I think it feels a bit like a-- it feels like a boxer that's in the wrong weight category. It's like bringing, uh, Mike Tyson in to fight Floyd Mayweather there Floyd Mayweather's probably the best pound-for-pound boxer ever. But if you put some-- if, if you put him in with someone who is fifty kilograms heavier than him, they're gonna win and it just, it, it feels like the Clair Obscur even though it is-- it's a six-year development cycle yeah, it, it, uh, just appeared on Game Pass with no, no fanfare and all of a sudden it, it just took off like that. But, I just-- I, I think I f- I think I feel bad. I th-- but I feel bad for Clair Obscur 'cause they didn't win everything, and I feel bad for s- other games that didn't win because Clair Obscur won. So I'm arguing on both-- I'm arguing both things simultaneously Again, the, the vagueness is puzzling. And then, so this is the sort of thing, again, I would say this is what Clair Obscur, personifies. It's going, it's not just a game. It's not just, it's not just something that you're playing. It's something that is transcending the boundaries of what gaming could be. So, and then, but-- And then I look at everything else on this list, and the only one I'd heard of was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, that's just seems to be a, a fairly run-of-the-mill shooter post-apocalyptic thing. And, and I thought S.T.A.L.K.E.R., S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I thought sounds-- I thought that came out a really long time ago. the link, and it came out in November last year, and that feels like it was decades ago to me. And feels like, it feels like, Obscur's been out for forever as well. It feels like these... like that just feels like it's always been there now, so. before we, before we go through the, the thing, w-what do, what do you two, what position do you two take on the it being A performer. There's one-- There's-- It used to be there's an actor and an actress in, in, in a role. Now it's just a performer in a role, that instead of two awards, there's one award. What, what say you? 'Cause I don't know how I think about it. Hmm. Hmm. I, feel like Hmm. Again, my j- my judgmental side, my judgmental critic side is, is waking up slowly from me putting it to sleep from the last episode. F- first off, Eric Ishii is living their best life. No, I've, I've never seen Since The Game Awards, since the I've never I'd never seen them in anything apart from Ghost of Yote. And she's so just bleak and just traumatized and moody and miserable, the character of Atsu. And then you see Erika Ishii in one photo, and there's one from the, uh, the, the nominations for the Game Awards when, uh, they were nominated and they, you know, they do the camera. They put the camera on the person who's been nominated. And she had a-- this awe- they had this awesome dress on, awesome hair, awesome makeup, mouth full of popcorn with a great big popcorn box with, with them just going... And yeah, that just-- absolutely just living their best life everywhere they go. So I think she should probably win-- they should win, ugh, they should win all the acting awards purely because they couldn't be further who they are, couldn't be any more opposite to how Atsu is. So, so they should probably have won that as well. Ben Starr is just-- he's, he's the-- he's got the sexiest voice in gaming. He is, he has claimed that mantle and turns out... And he's... There was an interview with him and... Well, that's bullshit 'cause that's an actor's voice. That's a voice that, and, and a, that, that is not a, a natural, "Oh, I just, I was born and I just, I ended up speaking like this." That's an, that is an actor's trained voice if I've ever heard one. And then he also happens to be a good actor as well. So you put those two together. I've, I've played games purely because of his accent and the way he speaks. That's how good his voice is. And then Verso is a fabulous, fascinating character. It's one where the, as with a lot of stuff in Clair Obscur, it's not, it's not there in your face. It's a, "This is who the character is. This is what his story is, and with this is what he does." It gives him a far more, uh, s-subtle and just a, uh, him showing off his, his acting caliber. And I think Jennifer English has, has gone from strength to strength from Shadowheart. I think this is her... I would, I would have assumed that a role like Shadowheart would define you for the rest of your career. But this has blown Shadowheart out of the water I think. Aaron Paul doesn't need this shit. He's, he's wealthier than... He's, he was in Breaking Bad for 10 years. He doesn't need this. And Ben Starr is the other one. Hi- him and Erika Ishii could, could fight to the death over who is living their best life at the minute. It's wild. He, he's, he's just lovely and for, from what everyone says, he's the loveliest person to work with and to be around as well. Jennifer English, um, sees him as a brother. Um, just won- a wonderful... That's, this is an area where I'm, I'm really pleased with the state of the gaming industry because it feels like we have a, a, a growing, uh, cast of actors who are, who are stepping beyond their... They're doing excellent work in the role and then as themselves outside of that, they are building their own, brand based on that. And that means that, like, as with all the main cast of Baldur's Gate have found, they have been making... Just raking in cash from all the Comic-Con stuff because they've played the role and then they go and they interact with the fans. And it feels like we've got a very, very wholesome and, and positive, like, part of our community being shown through the actors. Um, but I've only gone... I've only talked about half of the people on the list, so, uh um, I think I should let you guys speak. Tom, I will say... I'll, I'll finish off with Troy Baker. doing an impression of Harrison Ford. It's a good... It's an excellent impression. He's an excellent actor. He's got... I think he had the, the sexiest voice before Ben Starr for me. So him, him... He's being nominated in best... Can you imagine if he won for best leading role and best supporting role? That'd be wild. And then Tom McKay. I haven't played, King Kong 2. I've watched a stream of it, I don't... This is... We'd have to talk... We could do an entire episode about accents at some point because there's a, there's a thing in some, in some, like, American-made games where they have different British dialects. They'll have farmer talk, which is like the, the way Sam, Samwise Gamgee talks in Lord of the Rings. You've got them, "My, uh, ooer, ooer, my farmer." Say again? Yeah, exactly. and it just, and it's, uh, and when it's some- but when it seems like Ugh, words, words, words. Basically, it feels like they get actors who are English, but that isn't their accent, and so they get a posh actor to do an impression of, uh, of a northern person, a farmer, of any, any of the And he, he comes across as that, but I, I, I haven't heard him speak as himself. So I might just be put- pouring my vitriol from other things into him. But yeah, on that list, if Ben Starr or Erica Ishi, I would've been happy with that winning. Jennifer English, yeah, sure, that's fine. At last, they get the recognition that they deserve. Oh, it's such a good game. I just don't know whether, I don't know whether I should play it again yet. I simply don't know, 'cause I think it's, it's gonna be a It's already a classic, and it's gonna be a classic for, for a very long time now. It has established itself firmly in that as not just a I suppose what- Clair Obscur does better than any other game I think I've seen is being that the transition point between indie and triple A. Because, like, the, the general, like, indie scene is thought of like you've got teams of between one and five people, very small, no resources, and they put together something that's really good. And the idea of making something like Ghost of Yotei is we go, "Well, we can't make that unless you've got a, a massive studio, a 20-year-old studio with tons of resources and experience." Whereas this has shown that you can, you can sort of ad hoc a team of, uh, I think there was about 30 people at the, at the height of it, that you can, you can have a, a, a very ambitious... the ambitions of indie developers can look up to. You go this-- Yeah, they had lots of ex- plenty of experience amongst them, but they, they built it themselves from, from just an idea at the start. And so for, me as I, I, I will... I don't... a judgment of myself because I want to be a game designer. I've been learning and building my own game design stuff as well, and it has given me a profound boost in confidence as to what I, I can aspire to and hope to achieve without thinking, "Oh, well, I can only, I can only make something as good as this because it's just me and I haven't got any resources to put into it." When I looked at... I see Clair Obscur and think, "Holy shit, I can't, I can't believe this exists anyway." I made one of my mods I made for it. I made a slow motion mod for it. so going through, going through the, the, the project files, recognized so many of the assets from the Unreal Engine store that they had just bought and used. And half of those things I already own they are the, the free, the awesome high quality free assets that the Marketplace gives out. So it just, it, a, why I feel so strongly about it, I think, because it's, it's been, it's been so much more than just something I've played and has a very, very, a very, very important place in my heart moment. So I am very, very... I'm very glad that it won. I've just remembered two things that I'll, I'll, I'll brush over quickly. Um, the-- about performers, um, we need a, a mocap, performance capture motion capture award because holy shit, if you've seen any of the mocap from Obscur, the French actors in it, that's absolutely the, the foundation of how I perceive these characters in the world because the writers are so good that they just let there be periods of silence Where you're just watching the faces of these French actors and they're literally taking it directly from those scenes. the actress Charlotte Hopfner, who played Maelle's motion capture, should win every award because I'll send you guys some of the clips of that. And then I think that was it. I've forgotten the other thing. it'll come back. Uh, it just all felt, yeah, that I think that captures it really well. If it feels like put ChatGPT in and go, what would They're making a new game, James Bond if But it's a video game. we need a title, we need a title track for it. What should we do? you should get s- David Arnold. He's worked on James Bond songs before. Who's a, a popular artist, singing artist that we can sort of manage? 'Cause Lana Del Rey, I've no idea. I She's one of those names that I, I recognize the name, but I don't know any of her songs. Maybe I'm out of touch. Really? It just feels a bit like, it's like, you know with some Like ev- every, like, announcement of, like, who the host is gonna be is like, "Who, who's that? Do I know, do I recognize that person?" Whereas it should be, "This is, we've got, uh, Neil Newbon and," who plays, uh, Lady D in... Maggie Robertson. "We've got Neil Newbon and Maggie Robertson to come again." And everyone goes, "Ah," 'cause we know exactly who they are, and that's awesome. They're doing this awesome thing. But going, "We're doing," oh, the new James Bond game, which I'm excited about. But I am, I'm, content to just wait and let that come to me. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, like, hyper invested in it. I just know it's gonna be really good. There's no reason it won't be amazing. And then to go, "And here performing the soundtrack, Lana Del Rey," and that doesn't give me that response. And I don't know if it... It just feels like, it feels like a really safe, a really safe, like, thing that they've made with it, rather than... Yeah. Neutral. Neutral. That's what... That's the AI-ness of it, is that, that, that neutral going, "Oh, you should do this maybe perhaps, or maybe that other thing that's the opposite thing maybe perhaps." It just feels like it's a, yeah, we've got a singer, we've got a we've got the, the James Bond thing that's in every single one. you had Chris Cornell in a rock version in Casino Royale. Can't remember what was with Quantum of Solace. Skyfall, Adele, iconic James Bond song ever. you can't really top that. So you go sideways and you have Sam Smith come and do it. And this could have been the next big, we're going to do, I don't know what. It should be that thing of, I'd never even considered that. And there suddenly it's there presented in front of me. So just a bit disappointing here. So imagine it's going to be Hitman plus Wick, I think. That's my impression. Another odd choice that they've made is main bad guy of the level that they've showcased so far is How am I forgetting his name? Lenny Kravitz. Yeah. That's the sort of thing where you go, yeah, I know him, but why? Why? Why? and but now he's normal. It smacks of the same kind of perspective that the, the performer category being, uh, replacing the male and female performer thing. So you go in-- it sounds, it sounds good on paper where you go, "Well, gender is-- we want equality now. We want, uh, gen-the gender of the performer not to matter. So rather than going women and men and splitting them up, we'll put them together." And on paper that sounds good, but it's, uh, it's by far the simplest answer you could give to, well, gender is more than-- there are more than two genders nowadays. The, the, the categorization of gender has expanded and somewhere between going, "Right, we'll just choose one performer Or we'll have an award for every single letter in the LGBT alphabet. The, the right, the right balance is there to be found, but that can only be found through the community working it out amongst themselves. Uh, not amongst themselves, about the conversation being led by them, 'cause you might have people who, uh... There's, like, the, the phrase Latinx, and there are tons of, of, uh, Hispanic people who just go, "I've never heard of that before. I'm, I just, I'm Mexican," or, "I'm Argentinian," or whatever. Whereas that just feels like, "Oh, yes, we're gonna come in and solve this problem that you, you didn't come, you didn't come up with a solution for." So with this, trigger warnings are good. It's important to recognize the impact that certain things can have on people. 'Cause certain things are going to be... They're heavy topics, and art is critical for the managing of heavy topics because it, it gives a, a safe place for those kinds of feelings and experiences to be, to be shared and experienced. And having trigger warnings in the description of things and in the, the, like, the initial slides of any kind of presentation, that's good. But when you go, "Ah, this thing needs trigger warnings around it in order for us to, to show it and safeguard our audience," and that sounds good on paper, but then alongside trigger warnings is to trust that people, the people who are gonna be watching this thing are supporting themselves through, through something that might trigger them. 'Cause you could... the list of, trigger warnings that you, shared with us on the WhatsApp, Alex, it's not a black-and-white thing of, of how a, traumatic trigger works. you can, you could wa- someone who's experienced any kind of things could watch that trailer and it, it not impact you very much, and then another time it might impact you very badly. Um, and so just going, "We just, we just won't show it," rather than put it out and not, not present it with the trigger warnings it needs It just feels like the thing of going, "Oh yeah, trigger warnings are a good idea. We believe in trigger warnings and non-gender defined roles." But then when it comes into contact with the, the actual people, it's, it goes, "Oh, but we'll do it our way. We'll do it the way that we've, we've decided." So it just, it, it's just a shit thing that this person has had to experience, and it would be shit if it, if it was a first-person shooter game that had been made by a single person who'd, who'd been working on it for ages and managed to get it approved to, to have the trailer shown, and they'd gone, "Oh, it would be taken that way." Having it be this profoundly personal expression of yourself and have it just be yanked for being too, for, for being just... It's just a bit much, isn't it? Um, yeah. So just awful. Mm. Yeah. Bullshit. You thought, "Oh, this will bring the, this will bring the mood down. We've got Lana Del Rey coming on to sing a song. got Elle's The Witch. We've got... It's a Twitch event." It's got all that feeling of, oh, isn't everything going on really well, and not everyone's smiling all the time, through a, a wider range of human emotions. hate that when you see any, like, any presenters who are always smiling. going, "Ah." No, a place for... You have to decide what place it is, you can't, you can't say, "We're going to be the apex of art," and not appreciate, like, every kind of art. do that with the, the Oscars. go, "Oh, but that, that movie about a woman being raped and murdered, we can't, we can't possibly have that be, having an award because it'd bring the mood down." And, and just that, that speech just- Is just corporate speak. That's the voice that spoke with to me whether the, the BAFTAs got any, like, government funding, it's got that very BBC thing of we want to, we want it to look a certain way. We just want it to look like everyone's having a good time. It's all lots of fun. We're-- we've got a perfor-- we've, we don't have male and female roles anymore. We've got a performer role. Isn't that nice? Look how, look how bold just we are championing when all they really want is to just, it, it would just look nicer if we... We're just not gonna talk about that. than go, something not perfect about Israel and Palestine at the moment," it's going, "Oh, so we're just, we're just gonna not... We're just gonna pretend that doesn't exist." And that's what that smacks of it's going, "We don't-- we want-- we just, we just want everything to, look okay." And the, they, they choose the safe diversity. It's safe to go, "We'll, we'll have m-male and female performers in one role." But if you want to have a game that, a problem in society that is a threat to either capitalism and patriarchy or both, that's the root of this, is going, "That That threatens one of these two things. And so up with reasons and go, "Oh, it was very unfortunate that we weren't able to, to provide the trigger warning that we felt was necessary to safeguard our audience," rather than just going, "We, we don't care about that. We don't want to talk about that because then we'd have to take a stand on it put our money where our mouth is there." And they just go, has happens often, they just go, "We're just gonna squash that. We're just gonna silence that and pretend it isn't there." Yeah. I would-- It, it would be nice if it-- if they could champion games that aren't-- it not be about how best-selling they are. It's about they had-- they knew, they knew what it wanted to be and they executed it perfectly, and that's what-- almost perfectly like Split Fiction did. Um, I never remembered the second thing that I thought of half an hour ago, so that can be my final thought. Bye-bye.