Board 8 > BAFTA Game Awards & Most Influential Video Game of All Time Results

(+) Yeah! (+)

BAFTA Game Awards happened, Astro Bot won, no real surprise.

https://www.bafta.org/awards/games?award-year=2025

Best Game: Astro Bot
Animation: Astro Bot
Artistic Achievement: Neva
Audio Achievement: Astro Bot
British Game: Thank Goodness You're Here!
Debut Game: Balatro
Evolving Game: Vampire Survivors
Family: Astro Bot
Fellowship: Yoko Shimomura
Game Beyond Entertainment: Tales of Kenzera: ZAU
Game Design: Astro Bot
Multiplayer: Helldivers 2
Music: Helldivers 2
Narrative: Metaphor ReFantazio
New IP: Still Wakes the Deep
Lead Performer: Alec Newman (Still Wakes the Deep)
Supporting Performer: Karen Dunbar (Still Wakes the Deep)
Technical Achievement: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

But more importantly, a month ago BAFTA requested the public vote on the most influential game of all time, we had a topic here about it. Well here's the results, and... I certainly didn't guess the winner!

21. Grand Theft Auto
20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
19. Grand Theft Auto III
18. Dark Souls
17. Final Fantasy VII
16. Baldur's Gate 3
15. World of Warcraft
14. Metal Gear Solid
13. Pong
12. Tomb Raider
11. Tetris
10. The Sims
9. Half-Life 2
8. Super Mario 64
7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
6. Minecraft
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. Half-Life

3. Super Mario Bros

2. Doom

1. Shenmue

https://www.bafta.org/stories/the-most-influential-video-game-of-all-time

Most of that checks out other than horrific recency bias (or whatever that is) on #7 and to a lesser extent #16, really. And that #1, yeah.......

andylt posted...

Fellowship: Yoko Shimomura

Yooooo!

"BAFTAs highest accolade, the Fellowship, was presented to composer Yoko Shimomura, in recognition of her prolific and outstanding creative contribution to music in games."

Still going strong after all these years, ah... I always associate her with Kingdom Hearts in my mind but she was composing in the 90s, including SMRPG in 1996, damn.

I'd say BG3 is fine where it is on that list, speaking as someone who didn't love it

but yeah, KC:D2's placement reeks of disrespected gamer fanbase with an axe to grind

colliding posted...

I'd say BG3 is fine where it is on that list, speaking as someone who didn't love it

I haven't played and I know it was GOTY but "influential game of all time" for a game that came out in August 2023, not really time to "influence" and given it's "of all time", is where I find it to be a stretch.

KC:D2 has only been out since February. I like it as much as anyone, but I've never thought of it as changing the gaming landscape, not that much.

No Resident Evil is some crazy business

MartinFF7 posted...

I haven't played and I know it was GOTY but "influential game of all time" for a game that came out in August 2023, not really time to "influence" and given it's "of all time", is where I find it to be a stretch.

yeah, but I can definitely see the potential for it will be influential in the future

The fact that they didn't exclude games released in the last 5 years is astounding to me. What kind of games are coming out that say BG3 was one of their biggest influences? Oh wait, they're still being developed, so we don't know yet. A cutoff of 2019 makes sense because that's how far back you gotta go to see true influence.

That #1 is also pretty strange to me. Sure, it was an influential JRPG for its day, but people don't still talk about it the way they do FFVII. Tomb Raider being on here reeks of TJF and nothing more... though you could say that itself is a character design influence.

Are you thinking of Suikoden there? Shenmue isn't really a "JRPG".

The original GTA making that list is really cool. Most people look at it and think it's crap but if you were there at the time it was amazing. I can still play it today and have fun with it despite being pretty limited in what you can do.

Baldur's Gate I & II were definitely very influential on the WRPG genre, so maybe they put 3 in as a representative of the series as a whole?

Cut #1, #7 and #16 (the latter just for now most likely). Could probably do without a Half Life and the first GTA but okay.

Add instead Resident Evil, League of Legends and Pokmon RBY, then we are starting to talk.

Snake5555555555 posted...

No Resident Evil is some crazy business

I second this

But also Still Wakes the Deep throughly deserved the accolades they got. The VA is up there with the best I've ever seen

Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 are absolutely insane choices. So is Shenmue, but in a weird way I kinda respect the nonsense behind this choice. Though I definitely wish it was much lower, like #20 instead.

I can kinda see the argument for Shenmue being there (though maybe not number 1), KCD2 is the truly insane pick there

Was there a rally somewhere for Shenmue? Feels like an odd choice to be voted for organically.

These are the ones i'd get rid of from the list.

20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
16. Baldur's Gate 3
7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
6. Minecraft
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. Half-Life
1. Shenmue

Yesmar_ posted...

Was there a rally somewhere for Shenmue? Feels like an odd choice to be voted for organically.

Almost certain that the Shenmue fanbase caught wind of the voting and rallied together to see how far their votes could take it.

Uhhhhhhh.......I was gonna say it was a pretty good list until I got to the top 3

Shenmue is an interesting choice. It's a bad game by modern standards but I could see it having been pretty influential on action adventure games in Japan.

I'm glad it wasn't just a popularity contest, although as I said before they gave voters carte blanche when it came to criteria so it's pretty meaningless.

I've literally never heard of kingdom come whatever deliverance

paulg235 posted...

Almost certain that the Shenmue fanbase caught wind of the voting and rallied together to see how far their votes could take it.

What Shenmue fanbase? The Yakuza fanbase maybe, the director of the series worked on it and those games obviously owe a lot to it. I don't know about #1 but honestly it kinda makes sense to be on the list when you think about how popular life sim elements have become even in AAA games.

I don't understand why BG3 isn't simply BG1, Kingdom Come seems like interference, and I'm not sure why we've included both Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Everything else seems fine.

Edit: Actually thinking of Half-Life, one of the biggest snubs is Counter-Strike or any sort of multi-player shooter. If you're attributing those to being mods and clones of games on the list then sure I guess, but at this point I think CS has eclipsed Half-Life 1 in influence despite being its derivative