Today the nominees for the GAME British Academy Video Game Awards were announced and it’s quite the list! 40 games were nominated for various awards and represent some of the most innovative, popular and creative games in the industry. All of the nominees I think are pretty well matched in each category,

Some of the nominees include Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Brutal Legend, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed II. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves received the most nominations with CoD: Modern Warfare 2 not too far behind.

There is also a category this year for the publicly voted GAME Award 2009 which is nominated by a panel of journalists and enthusiasts and this year includes Assassin’s Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Beatles: Rockband, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA 10, GTA China Town Wars, Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks, Street Fighter IV, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Wii Sports Resort. Voting is now open and you can do so here!

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards will take place on Friday March 19th, and for those not overseas will be streamed live online at www.bafta.org and www.baftagameaward.com. For a complete list of the nominees you can visit the official site here or see below:

Action
Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
(Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal)

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
(Eidos/Rocksteady Studios)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
(Activision/Infinity Ward)

inFAMOUS
Brian Fleming, Bruce Oberg, Chris Zimmerman
(Sony Computer Entertainment/Sucker Punch Productions & SCE Foster City Studio)

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
(Valve/EA)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
(Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio)

Artistic Achievement
Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

Flower
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studio

Streetfighter IV
Yoshinori Ono
Capcom/Capcom

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Best Game
Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

FIFA 10
Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson
Electronic Arts/EA Canada

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Family & Social
The Beatles: Rock Band
Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall
Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems

Buzz! Quiz World
David Amor, Andrew Eades, Lee Clare
Sony Computer Entertainment/Relentless Software & XDEV Studio Europe

EyePet
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio

Guitar Hero 5
Brian Bright, Paul Robinson, Allen Freese
Activision/Neversoft Entertainment/Vicarious Visions/Budcat

New Super Mario Bros Wii
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura
Nintendo/Nintendo

Wii Sports Resort
Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita
Nintendo/Nintendo

Gameplay
Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

New Super Mario Bros Wii
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura
Nintendo/Nintendo

PixelJunk Shooter
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games & SCE Santa Monica Studio

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Handheld
Gran Turismo
Kazunori Yamauchi, Yuji Yasuhara, Hiroki Imanish
Sony Computer Entertainment/Polphony Digital Inc

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge Studio & XDEV Studio Europe

LocoRoco Midnight Carnival
Kenji Sakai, Saeka Horikoshi, Hiroya Matsugami
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Japan Studio

Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kubota
Nintendo/Nintendo

Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box
Akira Tago, Akihiro Hino, Tatsuya Shinkai
Nintendo/Nintendo

Scribblenauts
Jeremiah Slaczka, Marius Fahlbusch
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainmnent/5th Cell

Multiplayer
Battlefield 1943
Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke
Electronic Arts/EA DICE

The Beatles: Rock Band
Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall
Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

Halo 3 ODST
Development Team
Microsoft Game Studios/Microsoft

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio

Original Score
Assassin’s Creed II
Jesper Kyd
Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Hans Zimmer
Activision/Infinity Ward

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
James Hannigan, Zsolt Marx, Campbell Askew
Electronic Arts/EA Bright Light

PixelJunk Shooter
Dom Beken, Alex Paterson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games and SCE Santa Monica Studio

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Sports
Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Matt Horsman, Clive Moody, Guy Pearce
Codemasters/Codemasters Studios

FIFA 10
Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson
Electronic Arts/EA Canada

Football Manager 2010
Development Team
Sega/Sports Interactive

Forza 3
Development Team
Microsoft/Turn 10

Wii Fit Plus
Shigeru Miyamoto, Tadashi Sugiyama, Hiroshi Matsunaga
Nintendo/Nintendo

Wii Sports Resort
Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita
Nintendo/Nintendo

Story
Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut
Charles Cecil, Neil Richards, Tony Warriner
Ubisoft Entertainment/Revolution Software

Brutal Legend
Tim Schafer
Electronic Arts/Double Fine Productions

Dragon Age: Origins
Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Mike Laidlaw
Electronic Arts/BioWare

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Strategy
Command and Conquer 3: Uprising
Development team
Electronic Arts/EA Los Angeles

Empire: Total War
Development Team
Sega/Creative Assembly

FIFA Manager 10
Gerald Köhler, Cord Westhoff, Bernhard Maiberg
EA Sports/Bright Future

Football Manager 2010
Development Team
Sega/Sports Interactive

Halo Wars
Development Team
Microsoft/Ensemble Studios

Plants vs Zombies
George Fan, Tod Semple, Rich Werner
Popcap Games/PopCap Games

Use of Audio
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Development Team
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

DJ Hero
Jamie Jackson, Dan Neil, Tim Riley
Activision/Freestyle Games

Flower
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studios

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio

Use of Online

Battlefield 1943
Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke
Electronic Arts/EA DICE

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

FIFA 10
Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson
Electronic Arts/ EA Canada

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge Studio & XDEV Studio Europe

Singstar TakeThat
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio