BAFTA - CALL OF DUTY CLAIMS HAT-TRICK AT VIDEOGAME BAFTAS

CALL OF DUTY CLAIMS HAT-TRICK AT VIDEOGAME BAFTAS

Military game Call of Duty 4 took three prizes at the 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Arts video game ceremony on Tuesday night.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which plunges its players into the frenzied epicentre of a 21st century war zon, won for Gameplay, Story & Character and also proved to be the public's game of choice, winning the GAME Award of 2008 with a record 60,000 gamers casting their votes this year.

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards which took place at the London Hilton on Park Lane, were hosted by comedian Dara O'Briain who described the 21st century as a 'Golden Age' for video games.

Horror survival game Dead Space took the coveted Bafta mask in both sound categories (Use of Audio and Original Score) while the fiercely contested Artistic Achievement prize went to the stitched and glued 3D world of LittleBigPlanet.

The Technical Achievement Bafta was claimed by Spore, which allows players to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a single cell organism, to an intelligent and social creature, a tribe, a civilisation and then once uploaded to the internet, interacting with other civilisations.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution was victorious in the Strategy category while Super Mario Galaxy was the surprise winner of the night in the Game of the Year section.

Race Driver: GRID overcame Wii Fit and Fifa 09 to claim the Bafta for Sport while Left 4 Dead took the Bafta in the Multiplayer category.

Fable II won in Action and Adventure, with Professor Layton and the Curious Village taking the Handheld prize and at the climax of the evening, Jonathan Ross presented the Academy's highest honour, the Fellowship, to one of the founding fathers of the video games industry, electrical engineer, entrepreneur and founder of Atari inc, Nolan Bushnell.

The winners of the 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Arts video game awards were:Gameplay: Call of Duty 4

Casual: Boom Blox

Sports: Race Driver: Grid

Story and Character: Call of Duty 4

Strategy: Civilisation Revolution

Best use of Audio: Dead Space

New Talent: Boro Toro

Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead

Best Technical Achievement: Spore

Original Score: Dead Space

Handheld: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

People's Choice: Call of Duty 4

Artistic Achievement: LittleBigPlanet

Best Action and Adventure: Fable II

Best Game: Super Mario Galaxy