You may remember that I was ridiculously fortunate in that I got to go to the BAFTAs courtesy of This is My Joystick. I am a staff writer over there, and they were allocated a media spot. Lucky for me, I live in London, so was the obvious choice. I must confess to being very nervous in the run up to the event, as I have never had to do anything quite this prestigious. What’s more, UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves lead the nominations with 10 to their name; this was an event I did not want to screw up.
The talk in the media room before the ceremony understandably centred on whom we all thought might win. The feeling from the majority of the journalists there was that Modern Warfare 2 would collect the majority of the awards, with Batman, Assassin’s Creed 2 and UNCHARTED 2 taking the scraps. I wasn’t so sure; although I’ll admit to wondering whether or not it’s a game that BAFTA would really get. Nevertheless, I held out hope for our favourite. I knew they could do it.
The results were being piped through to the media room, with the journalists huddled around the TV. It became clear to me fairly quickly that I was the only person that had a really fierce allegiance to a particular game. Although I was there to report on the entire evening and all the awards and winners for This is My Joystick I had nailed my colours to the pole a long time ago, and could not hide my feelings. It is entirely possible to be a fan and a journalist at the same time.
The tension mounted as the first announcement approached. Action; one of the 10 that UNCHARTED 2 was up for. As UNCHARTED 2 was announced as the winning game I found it very difficult to conceal my joy. In fact, I found myself being congratulated by my fellow journalists as if I’d had anything to do with it! At this point my heart-rate hit the roof; Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra would be coming through the winners area! I would have time to prepare; they still had nine categories in which they were nominated. Keeping track of the winning games, keeping up to date with the Live Feed for This is My Joystick AND trying to get pictures was incredibly difficult, and as it was I found I was unable to physically do everything.
My plan of action was to try to get photographs of the winners as they posed with their gongs, and try to get soundbites from them in the process. This meant, due to the way in which the media room was set up, I could not see or hear the feed. Every few minutes I ran back in to the main room to see whom had been winning what. There was a white board upon which the winner’s names were being written as they were announced. ‘UNCHARTED 2‘ seemed to be appearing rather often. I was a bit disappointed that I missed the announcement for Original Score, as I have stated before, I genuinely love Greg Edmonson’s work on this. But finding out that UNCHARTED 2 was successful in this category was enough for me. More people were now congratulating me “It’s your night!”, “It’s looking good for you, isn’t it?” I kept hearing. As much as I was amused by this, I had nothing to do with the making of UNCHARTED 2!
When Batman: Arkham Asylum was announced as Best Game I didn’t feel disappointed. It is a great game and deserves all the praise it is getting. And UNCHARTED 2 had four awards. That is a pretty good haul by anyone’s standard. While photographing the Rocksteady Studio guys clutching their Best Game award, I asked how they felt at beating UNCHARTED 2 to the post. “Thrilled.”
I had a while to wait before Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra came through with their arms full of gongs. I spent this time accepting the kind words of congratulations of my fellow journalists. Finally (after asking the runners several times to please make sure Naughty Dog come through this way) I spotted Evan and Christophe down the corridor. My greeting: “Congratulations, and thank you SO much for bringing Nathan Drake into our world!” was met by their laughter. While I had their attention, I asked, (purely for the purposes of a good story, of course, and not for my own personal wishes) “Please tell me he is here to stay?” I am delighted to inform you, the readers of All Things Uncharted, that Nathan Drake will be with us for a long time to come. And that’s direct from the mouths of the head honchos of Naughty Dog!
Naughty Dog's Christophe and Evan at the 2010 GAME Awards
I was utterly delighted as they posed for me, with their gongs and their beaming smiles, and I was able to get the image above of them. For me, this was the highlight of a very long and very tiring day.