Vampire Survivors beats out Elden Ring and God of War to score Best Game win at BAFTAs

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Folks, I’m afraid we’ve gotta hand it tothe BAFTA Game Awards. After a night in which prestigious, expensive Sony titan God of War: Ragnarok swept six awards and Elden Ring took home two, it felt like the Best Game trophy was a dead heat between the pair of them. But the judges went and surprised us, giving it to Vampire Survivors instead.

Vampire Survivors was one of six games that were up for top gong at last night’s BAFTAs. The others were, of course, Elden Ring and GoW: Ragnarok, plus Cult of the Lamb, Stray, and Marvel Snap.

Those are some pretty good games! But VS managed to beat them all out in the eyes of the BAFTA jury, which was made up of “industry practitioners across a range of developers and publishers” and chaired by a BAFTA Games Committee member. My invitation must have been lost in the post.

VS took home another award last night, too: It nabbed the BAFTA Game Design trophy, where it was in competition with Cult of the Lamb, Elden Ring, GoW: Ragnarok, Tunic, and Horizon: Forbidden West.

Those weren’t the only awards handed out last night, of course. Here’s the full list of awards, nominees, and winners for your perusal:

Animation

Artistic Achievement

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Audio Achievement

Best Game

British Game

Debut Game

Evolving Game

Family

Game Beyond Entertainment

Game Design

Multiplayer

Music

Narrative

Original Property

Performer in a Leading Role

Performer in a Supporting Role

Technical Achievement

EE Game of the Year (Voted for by the Public)

And that’s your lot. I have to say, I’m happy Vampire Survivors won out. We gave Elden Ringour game of the year awardlast year, so I’d hardly be one to criticise if the BAFTAs had opted to award FromSoft’s wide-open opus, and hey, I’m sure GoW: Ragnarok is pretty good too. But nevertheless, Vampire Survivors is a special and tightly-designed thing. It’s good to see it get the accolades it deserves on a big and glitzy stage.

One of Josh’s first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he’s been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He’ll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin’s Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you’re all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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