BAFTA 2012 Video Game Awards Nominations Announced

Who will scoop up the all-important Best Game of 2011 Award?
The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards (or GAME BAFTAs, as they're traditionally known) is an event which is starting to rise up the ranks as a prestigious awards ceremony for the video games industry, recognising some of the best titles and developers of the past year and their various achievements. Best of all, the ceremony is hosted by none other than Dara O'Briain, a hilarious comedian with oh-so-many great jokes to make about this booming entertainment format. The full list of the nominations for this year's set of awards is as follows, with my opinions on which game should win each included too...
ACTION:
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Batman: Arkham City- Much as I loved some of COD, Creed, Deus Ex and Portal 2's action setpieces, Arkham City was a masterclass in action gaming, thrilling and engaging every moment of its extensive campaign and huge list of side missions.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Portal 2
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
ARTISTIC ACHEIVEMENT:
Batman: Arkham City
L.A. Noire
LittleBigPlanet 2
Rayman Origins- No game close to the wonderous, lush animated graphics the new Rayman provided us with. Ubisoft Framework had their work cut out, but the wonderful animations and visual styles on each and every level just show what can be done still on this generation of hardware.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT:
Batman: Arkham City- Another triumph for the Dark Knight: go to Crime Alley, kneel by the silhouettes of your parents' corpses, and just listen to the haunting, melancholic tune that wipes out all of the sounds of the city for your pleasure. Quite simply, it's one of the best pieces of music you'll ever hear in a video game. Special mention to Portal 2, though, with its great hilarious climactic song!
Battlefield 3
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Dead Space 2
The Nightjar
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
DEBUT GAME:
Bastion
Eufloria
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
L.A. Noire- Despite its all-too-lengthy campaign, Team Bondi's first game was an exercise in filmic storytelling and a great homage to the detective shows of old.
Rift
DESIGN:
Batman: Arkham City
L.A. Noire
Little Big Planet 2
Portal 2
Super Mario 3D Land
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim- I'll forgive Skyrim its bugs in this category, because the overall design of the huge game world was incredible, an astounding masterpiece pushing the 360 and PS3 to their absolute limits.
FAMILY:
Dance Central 2
Kinect Sports 2
LEGO Pirates of the Carribbean- LEGO and Jack Sparrow? No brainer. What a brilliantly fun game!
LEGO Star Wars 3
Little Big Planet 2
Mario Kart 7
INNOVATION:
Bastion
Child of Eden- It costed way too much at first to warrant a purchase, yet in the end it turned out to be one of Kinect's best games. A bit of an underappreciated gem, then.
From Dust
L.A. Noire
LittleBigPlanet 2
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
MOBILE/HANDHELD:
Dead Space
Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint
Peggle
Quarrel
Super Mario 3D Land- Mario 3D Land is by far the best showcase for the Nintendo 3DS yet. It isn't that original, but not many of the portable Marios are, and that really shouldn't matter.
The Nightjar
ONLINE MULTIPLAYER:
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Gears of War 3- Try playing Gears' hugely refined multiplayer and tell me that it isn't the only true candidate for this award. I was bowled over by how much playing this with mates and online felt like I was in the middle of a blockbuster movie!
Dark Souls
Little Big Planet 2
PERFORMER:
Aaron Stanton (Phelps, LA Noire)
Mark Hamill (Joker, Arkham City)
Nolan North (Nathan, Uncharted 3)
Stephen Fry (Narrator, LBP2)
Stephen Merchant (Wheatley, Portal 2)- This was a close contest for me between Stephen and Mark, but Portal 2 had me in absolute stitches thanks to Merchant for my whole first playthrough, and NO VIDEO GAME has ever had me laughing all the way through before, so this had to go to him.
Togo Igawa (General, Total War 2)
SPORTS/FITNESS:
Dance Central 2
Dirt 3
FIFA 12
Kinect Sports 2- The first Kinect Sports was a great utilisation of Kinect at its launch, so the sequel feels predictably in its stride now, and despite a few underwhelming game modes, it remains the most innovative sports title out right now.
F1 2011
Your Shape 2012
STORY:
Batman: Arkham City
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
L.A. Noire
Portal 2- Once again, I'll go with the game that had a masterfully-crafted plotline, woven wonderfully by jokes and script gags aplenty, yet also greatly designed in the sense that you never felt as if what you were doing wasn't going to pack in a surprise or a laugh soon enough. This, my friends, is how you do a puzzle platformer story mode!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
GAME AWARD OF 2011 (PUBLIC VOTE):
Batman: Arkham City- But ultimately, the Game of the Year award has to come back to Batman: Arkham City, which to me stands as the perfect (yep, you read right) licensed video game. Never before had I felt so much like the Dark Knight, so free to do as I pleased in an open world, and so totally engrossed by the world I inhabited. If you haven't played this yet, whether you're a fan of Batman or not, it's an essential purchase.
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
FIFA 12
L.A. Noire
Minecraft
Portal 2
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
The GAME BAFTAs will be announced on Friday, March 16th.