Minecraft, The Witcher 2 and Battlefield 3 were multi-award winners at the European Games Awards on August 14, with additional plaudits bestowed upon browser game GoodGame Empire, mobile car-pinball Burnout Crash! and adorable adventure Botanicula among others.
Polish-made fantasy adventure The Witcher 2 was the night's crown prince at the celebration of European-made games, receiving six awards total, including the top title of Best European Game.
Battlefield 3, whose development was steered from Sweden, was given four awards, praised for its online multiplayer among other things.
The community construction and random rambling of Minecraft took two awards, another Swedish joint with 7 million copies sold despite a complete lack of major label backing.
Those with one or two awards to their name are not somehow less deserving of investigation. Burnout Crash!, essentially a vehicular pinball, was initially derided for departing from Burnout series convention, but here was recognized as Best European Mobile Game.
Botanicula, an unassuming chorophyll-filled point and click adventure, was pronounced Best European Adventure, and Driver: San Francisco, whose primary developer is housed in north east England, won in the racing category, in the face of competition from Codemasters' F1 2012 and Nadeo's breakneck Trackmania 2: Canyon.
Props too were doled out to cherished studios, with German crew Blue Byte acknowledged for the Anno series and Belarussian outfit Wargaming.net recognized for its cross-cultural rollouts World of Tanks and World of Warplanes.
Most anticipated? That goes Assassin's Creed III, developed by Ubisoft Montreal (and a multitude of other studios worldwide), part of the Ubisoft empire headquartered in Paris.
EGA 2012 award winners
The Witcher 2 (6 awards): Best European Game, Art Direction, Character Design, Gameworld, Game Design, Special Edition
Battlefield 3 (4 awards): Best European Multiplayer Game, Action Game, Sound, Console Game
Minecraft (3 awards): Best European Indie Game, Community, and Personality Award for creator Markus Persson
Anno 2070: Best European Strategy Game
Assassin's Creed 3: Europe's Most Wanted Game
Blue Byte: Best European Studio (Anno series)
Botanicula: Best European Adventure Game
Burnout Crash!: Best European Mobile Game
Driver: San Francisco: Best European Racing Game
GoodGame Empire: Best European Browser Game
Wargaming.net: Best European Publisher (World of Warplanes, World of Tanks)
World of Warplanes: Europe's Most Wanted Online Game
