Baldur’s Gate 3 does what Elden Ring couldn’t, sweeps BAFTAs to become first game to win every big GOTY award

As if you needed more proof that Baldur's Gate 3 is, in fact, a pretty damn fine video game, Larian’s D&D RPG swept through the video game BAFTA awards yesterday, picking up five of the British entertainment org’s top trophies. Even more impressively - after all, Baldur’s Gate 3 winning a shedload of awards is old hat by now - its latest Best Game triumph means that the sprawling RPG-slash-fanfic machine is now the first video game to win all five of the industry’s major Game of the Year awards.

First, the BAFTAs! The video game answer to the UK’s leading film and TV awards ceremony handed Baldur’s Gate 3 trophies in the Music, Narrative and Best Game categories - all of which are voted for by industry juries - along with the public-voted award for EE Players’ Choice. Not much of a surprise to anyone who’s been anywhere near the internet since the Baldur’s Gate 3 fandom (thirstdom?) was unleashed last summer, frankly.

As well as the game itself, Andrew Wincott was named as the best Performer in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Raphael. (Wincott was joined on the shortlist by Tracy Wiles as Jaheira; meanwhile, the Performer in a Leading Role category was dominated by Baldur’s Gate 3 stars - including Amelia Tyler, Neil Newborn and Samantha Béart for their respective roles as the narrator, Astarion and Karlach - but ultimately went to Nadji Peter for playing Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.)

While Baldur’s Gate 3 walked away the biggest winner, Alan Wake 2 wasn’t too far behind with a double win for Audio Achievement and Artistic Achievement - which feels well deserved, in my opinion. (It was beaten in Technical Achievement by Zelda sequel Tears of the Kingdom.) Super Mario Wonder also had two wins - but isn’t on PC, so who really cares - as did nifty reality-bending photography puzzler Viewfinder, which picked up silverware for best British Game and the slightly dry-sounding New Intellectual Property.

Elsewhere, Hi-Fi Rush was recognised for its animation, touching cookery game Venba was named as the best Debut Game, Cyberpunk 2077’s hefty updates and Phantom Liberty expansion helped it secure a win for Evolving Game, definitely-not-an-indie Dave the Diver was praised for its Game Design, and charming adventure Tchia came out on top in the Game Beyond Entertainment category. BAFTA’s Special Award for outstanding contribution to the industry and medium of games went to UK charity SpecialEffect, who are just fab.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Best Game win at the BAFTAs completes a seriously impressive run of awards wins since it exited early access last August. Most notably, it’s now the first game to win the Game of the Year awards from the BAFTAs, Golden Joysticks, The Keighleys, the DICE Awards and the Game Developer Choice Awards. Like an EGOT, I suppose, except the acronym is something like BGJTGADAGDCA. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

This means that Baldur’s Gate 3 did what Elden Ring couldn’t, with From Software’s acclaimed open-world Soulslike scooping up all the major awards in 2022 except the BAFTA for Best Game, where it was pipped to the post by Vampire Survivors, of all things. Most importantly, of course, Baldur’s Gate 3 topped our own list of the best PC games of 2023, so I’m not sure why you’d need any more validation than that. Still, well done, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Larian - you made a hell of a game.