BAFTA games nominations announced: Assassin's Creed up for seven

BAFTA has announced the nominations for the 2011 GAME British Academy Video Games Awards. 44 contenders appear amid the categories, but it's Ubisoft's historical adventure Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood leading the pack with an impressive seven nominations. Behind it, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Heavy Rain garner six each, while Mass Effect 2 manages five. There is one glaring omission, though. Rockstar's epic Western, Red Dead Redemption, one of the most critically acclaimed releases of the year, appears only in the publicly-voted 'GAME Award of 2010'. The publisher apparently decided not to submit the game to BAFTA for consideration. Elsewhere, I'm pleased to see the excellent Windows Phone 7 platformer Mush among the 'Ones to watch' nominations. We've been following the game since witnessing its inception at the X48 Game Jam last year, so good luck to Angry Mango . The award ceremony takes place at the London Hilton on March 16. Here's the full list. Let's have a think about potential winners... Action Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal) Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts/DICE) BioShock 2 (2K Games/2K Marin) Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard/Treyarch) God of War III (SCE Santa Monica Studio) Halo: Reach (Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie) Artistic Achievement Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Call of Duty: Black Ops God of War III Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream) LIMBO (Playdead Games) Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts/BioWare) Best Game Assassin's Creed Brotherhood FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada) Heavy Rain LIMBO Mass Effect 2 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) Family Dance Central (Harmonix) Kinect Adventures (Microsoft Games Studios/Good Science Studio) Kinect Sports (Rare) Kinectimals (Frontier Developments Ltd) LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (TT Games) Toy Story 3 (Disney Interactive Studios/Avalanche Software) Gameplay Assassin's Creed Brotherhood God of War III Heavy Rain LIMBO Mass Effect 2 Super Mario Galaxy 2 Handheld Cut the Rope (Chillingo/Zeptolab) God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready at Dawn, SCE Santa Monica) LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo/Level 5 Games) Sonic Colours (SEGA/Sonic Team) Super Scribblenauts (Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/5th Cell) Multiplayer Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Original Music Alan Wake (Remedy) Fable III (Lionhead Studios) Heavy Rain James Bond 007: Bloodstone (Bizarre Creations) Mass Effect 2 Super Mario Galaxy 2 Social Network Game Bejeweled Blitz (Popcap Games) Farmerama (Bigpoint) FIFA Superstars (EA Sports/Playfish) My Empire (Playfish) Zoo Mumba (Bigpoint) Zuma Blitz (PopCap Games) Sports F1 2010 (Codemasters Birmingham) FIFA 11 Football Manager 2011 (SEGA/Sports Interactive) Gran Turismo 5 (Polyphony Digital Inc) International Cricket 2010 (Codemasters/Trickstar Games) Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Konami/Winning Eleven Productions) Story Alan Wake BioShock 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment) Heavy Rain Mass Effect 2 Strategy Civilization V (2K Games/Firaxis) Fallout: New Vegas FIFA Manager 11 (EA Sports/Bright Future) Napoleon Total War (SEGA/Creative Assembly) Plants vs. Zombies XBLA (PopCap Games) Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment) Technical Innovation Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach Heavy Rain Kinectimals Super Mario Galaxy 2 Use of Audio Alan Wake Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Battlefield: Bad Company: 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops DJ Hero 2 (FreeStyleGames) LIMBO BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital Mush (Angry Mango) Sculpty (Team Tickle) Twang (That Game Studio) GAME Award of 2010 (voting is live here ) Call of Duty: Black Ops Dance Central FIFA 11 Halo: Reach Heavy Rain LIMBO Mass Effect 2 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Red Dead Redemption Super Mario Galaxy 2