Today, the six nominees for the EE Game of the Year Award have been announced ahead of the BAFTA Games Awards on Thursday 30th March 2023. Few games have ever inspired the same sense of awe that Shadow of the Colossus does within its first 10 minutes. Climbing that first ledge and coming face to face with the first Colossus is among the most impactful, and almost terrifying, experiences in all of gaming. From its beautiful, crumbling ruins to the hulking, ancient Colossi, Fumito Ueda’s sun-soaked action/adventure game is drenched in a muted, melancholy aesthetic that has become synonymous with his, admittedly limited, works. Part love story, part monster hunt, part parable, Shadow of the Colossus borrows heavily from what came before, but inspires much of what came after. - Zach Ryan (Read Our Review) 38. The Last of Us Part 2 The community of games fans can now vote for the EE Game of the Year Award at: https://ee.co.uk/baftagames

BAFTA Games Awards partners with EE, the UK’s number one network for gaming, to announce the return of the EE Game of the Year Award – the only award to be voted for by the public Tara Saunders, Chair of BAFTA’s Games Committee, said: "Huge congratulations to all of this year’s nominees for the EE Game of The Year award. All six of these games have captured the imaginations of people around the world and represent a diverse range of genres, storylines and gaming experiences. Our other category nominations will be revealed live on BAFTA's Twitch channel on Thursday 2nd March, and we can’t wait to announce the winners on Thursday 30th March.” The judges repeatedly faced this challenge: how many titles from a particular franchise should we include? How do you assess which game from a particular series deserves elevation above all others? These decisions were long-debated - to a depth you might not believe - but by leaning into the judging criteria listed above. Quite often, a game was chosen that’s not even *technically* the best in its own series. All Ghillied Up was my first glimpse of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in action, and as two camouflaged snipers worked their way through an irradiated Pripyat in Ukraine, I was instantly hooked. The highlight – not just of the demo but arguably of the entire game – was watching, breath held, as an entire armored patrol trundled past, inches from our hiding spot, and it’s a moment of tension that’s never been matched in a shooter since. Electric set-pieces and superb pacing make Modern Warfare’s single-player campaign one of the most memorable first-person shooters ever, but it’s the perfectly balanced multiplayer that made it the de rigueur online game for years to follow. Multiplayer shooters were never the same again. - Alex Simmons (Read Our Review) 62. Rise of the Tomb RaiderNot only were players treated to an excellent RTS experience in StarCraft, but their reward for completing sections of the campaign were evocative visuals that further immersed you in a world where humans are losing a war against brutal aliens. As I played through the storyline I learned to love the different little characters I interacted with and felt genuine anger when the Zerg managed to capture Kerrigan and bend her to their will. Still, the highlight of StarCraft is its multiplayer. Few gaming moments are as satisfying as defending your base against a Zerg rush as the Protoss or successfully sending in a fleet of Terran to decimate an enemy's base. - Destin Legarie 47. World of Warcraft

STRAY is an adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapuma Interactive. Stray is a third-person cat adventure game set amidst the detailed, neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity and the murky environments of its seedy underbelly. Roam surroundings high and low, defend against unforeseen threats and solve the mysteries of this unwelcoming place inhabited by curious droids and dangerous creatures. See the world through the eyes of a cat and interact with the environment in playful ways. Be stealthy, nimble, silly, and sometimes as annoying as possible with the strange inhabitants of this mysterious world. The game is available on PlayStation® 5, PlayStation® 4 and PC.With the mechanical abandon of a Mario game and the worldview of Werner Herzog, Inside spends its three brilliant hours of life holding the player in a loop of intrigue, delight, and disgust. Playdead's bleak, gorgeous puzzle-platformer builds on its predecessor Limbo in all the right places – hello, color palettes; goodbye, boring gravity puzzles. It leaves us with a game that sleekly pivots from brain-teaser to body horror until hitting an ending that ranks among gaming’s best. Inside’s quiet genius lies in how the puzzles creep beyond its ever-changing challenges, and into its story. I’ve spent as much time or more wondering what it all means as I did playing through. If you’ve played, you understand. If you haven’t, you need to. - Joe Skrebels (Read Our Review) 87. Titanfall 2 You can appreciate the difficulty. Ditto Pokemon (no one is making a case for Pokemon Go as a design masterpiece, but in terms of its cultural impact and personal significance to its community of players…). Don’t even get us started on Mario Kart (Surely SMK8 is best, but it was a sublimation of what came before). Super Mario is a 40 year-old icon whose games have spanned genres, if not defined genres.

As a result, the shortlist represents a diverse selection of games spanning eras and genres that had the X-Factor, that little sprinkle of magic, that means that have stood the test of time. Some of the shortlisted titles aren’t even - technically - brilliant games, at least not from a design perspective, but transcended their limitations to burn bright in the memory. Why didn’t you use another voting system and why are we only allowed to vote on 20 games? Indie games feature heavily throughout the shortlist with IMMORTALITY, Cult of the Lamb, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Neon White and Teardown rivalling established AAA in key categoriesHeavyweights MultiVersus, Elden Ring, Splatoon 3 and more will battle it out in the Best Multiplayer Game category Pokemon Crystal then came swooping in as a shiny enhanced remake of Silver and Gold, and it's especially notable sinceit was the first ever Pokemon title that let you decide whether you want to play as a boy or a girl. Thankfully this became a mainstay feature in every game that followed.