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Baldur’s Gate 3 was the big winner at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, taking home five prizes including the prestigious best game.

It also won BAFTAs for music, narrative, and performer in a supporting role for Andrew Wincott, along with the EE players’ choice award, which is voted for by the public.

The Dungeons and Dragons-based game faced strong competition from Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Alan Wake 2 and indie hit Dave the Diver.

(L-R) Sarah Baylus, Swen Vincke and David Walgrave who won the best game award for Baldur's Gate 3
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(L-R) Sarah Baylus, Swen Vincke and David Walgrave who won the best game award for Baldur’s Gate 3

Alan Wake 2 won two BAFTAs for artistic achievement and audio achievement, while Super Mario Bros. Wonder also scooped two for family and multiplayer.

Awards host Phil Wang told Sky News: “There are some real legends of gaming here. Sam Lake, you know? I played as Sam Lake, I used to play so much Max Payne and now he’s here, sipping a mimosa.”

Phil Wang hosts the BAFTA Games Awards 2024 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 11 April. Pic: BAFTA
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Phil Wang hosted the ceremony. Pic: BAFTA


Sam Lake’s smash hit, Alan Wake 2, took him 13 years to create and over that time, it changed dramatically.

“There is very little from the original concept of Alan Wake 2 that still exists in what we have made today,” Mr Lake said.

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Games news was mostly just seen “on the business pages”, he said but “bit by bit, gaming has worked its way into culture”.

Alan Wake 2 creator Sam Lake attends the BAFTA Games Awards 2024. Pic: BAFTA
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Alan Wake 2 creator Sam Lake attends the BAFTA Games Awards. Pic: BAFTA

One of the Baldur’s Gate 3 writers Lawrence Schick told Sky News how proud he was to work for the team after winning the narrative award.

He was joined at the event at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall by a huge team, including narrator Amelia Tyler.

“[Baldur’s Gate 3] allows people to explore aspects of themselves in the game that they’ve never been able to explore,” he said.

“There are so many stories of players who have found out new things about themselves, about their sexuality, about their gender identity, about who they love or how they love them, from this game.”

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Hogwarts Legacy, the Harry Potter game played by more than 22 million people, lost in both categories it was nominated for, including the best family game section, and best animation – which was won by Hi-Fi Rush.

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Dave the Diver, the indie game where you play as a diver catching fish and working in a sushi restaurant, picked up one award for game design.

Best British game went to Viewfinder from Scottish-based studio Sad Owl, which also won a BAFTA for new intellectual property.

The creators of Dead Island 2, from Nottingham-based Dambuster Studios, were happy to be nominated for best British game.

“We tend to keep ourselves to ourselves, keep our heads down and get the work done so to get to the end of it all and get this [nomination] is really exciting.”

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Eddie Murphy: I’ll get an Oscars trophy eventually – when I’m old and have no teeth

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Eddie Murphy: I'll get an Oscars trophy eventually - when I'm old and have no teeth

Eddie Murphy has told Sky News he doesn’t ever expect to win awards – but will happily accept an honorary Oscar when he’s 90.

Murphy is one of the biggest stars in comedy after starting out on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1980 and starring in a number of big franchises from Beverly Hills Cop to Shrek.

His latest project is heist comedy The Pickup, centred on two security van drivers. Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson star alongside him.

Pete Davidson, Eddie Murphy and Keke Palmer in The Pickup. Pic: Amazon MGM Studios
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Pete Davidson, Eddie Murphy and Keke Palmer in The Pickup. Pic: Amazon MGM Studios

Murphy says award recognition was never something that shaped the projects he chose.

“The movies are timeless, and they’re special, so for years and years those movies play and the movies have commercial success.

“So you make a lot of money and people love it, so you don’t even think about ‘I didn’t win a trophy!’ The response from the people and that the movie has legs, that’s the trophy.

“You know what I’ve earned over these years? One day, they’ll give me one of those honorary Oscars. When I’m really old. And I’ll say thank you so much for this wonderful honour. I’ll be old like that and I’ll have no teeth. I’m cool with getting my honorary Oscar when I’m 90.”

Murphy, 64, has only been nominated once – for Dreamgirls in 2007, when Alan Arkin won the best supporting actor Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine.

Murphy’s co-star Palmer says she considers Murphy an icon in the industry, and The Nutty Professor was a true display of his artistry.

Eddie Murphy as Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Eddie Murphy as Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor. Pic: Reuters

“I feel like recognition and [being] underrated and all this stuff, it annoys me a little bit because I think impact is really the greatest thing, like how people were moved by your work, which can’t really be measured by an award or really anything,” Palmer says.

“It’s very hard to make people laugh, and so when I think about it like The Nutty Professor, Eddie was doing everything, and I swear that the family members were real people.

“He didn’t camp it to the point where they weren’t realistic. His roles had integrity, even when he was in full costume. And I do think that’s something that should change in our industry. Comedy, it should be looked at just as prestigious as when you see somebody cry, because it’s that hard to make somebody laugh.”

Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson in The Pickup. Pic: Amazon MGM Studios
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Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson in The Pickup. Pic: Amazon MGM Studios

Recalling his time on the 90s comedy, Murphy says he’s still in disbelief of what they achieved in making the film with him playing seven characters – Professor Sherman Klump, Buddy Love, Lance Perkins, Young Papa Klump, Granny Klump, Ernie Klump and Mama Klump.

“You can only shoot one character a day. And the rest of the time you’re shooting, I’m talking to tennis balls where the people were sitting.

“So to this day when I watch it, I’m like, wow, that’s a trip. But we were able to mix all that stuff up and different voices and make it feel so that you don’t even feel like when you’re watching it, someone have to tell you, hey, you know, those are all one person.”

The film won best makeup at the 1997 Academy Awards.

Security guards buddy comedy

Palmer says their new project, The Pickup, is responsible for one of the most memorable moments of her life when she mistook Murphy’s acting for real praise.

“First of all, Eddie gives me this big speech before I do the monologue, where he’s like, ‘this is not playing around. This is a pivotal point in the movie’.

“I’m crying in the scene, and then it comes to the end, and Eddie’s [clapping] like, and I’m literally like, ‘oh my gosh, thank you so much’. And he’s like, ‘I’m acting’. When I tell you, it was so crazy, yeah. That’s like one of my most memorable moments in life.”

Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson star in The Pickup
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Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson star in The Pickup

Davidson is excited to see how the UK puts its own stamp on SNL, the show where both he and Murphy got their start on-screen.

“It’s a smart idea to have SNL over there because it’s not that it’s a different brand of comedy, but it is a little bit. A lot of the biggest stuff that’s in the States is stuff that we stole from you guys, like The Office or literally anything Ricky Gervais does.

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard anything American going to the UK, so I think it’s great. I think it’s great to have two opposite sorts of takes on things, but both be funny. That just shows you how broad comedy can be, you know?

The Pickup is out on Prime Video now.

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Ex-Superman Dean Cain to join ICE ‘ASAP’ to ‘save America’

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Ex-Superman Dean Cain to join ICE 'ASAP' to 'save America'

Dean Cain has been branded the “worst superman ever” as he announced he will join the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “ASAP”.

The 59-year-old, who was cast as Superman in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, announced he had joined the team amid the federal agency’s unprecedented immigration raids.

He told Fox News on Wednesday his recruitment video on Instagram had gone viral and since then, “I have spoken with some of the officials over at ICE and I will be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP”.

“You can defend your homeland and get great benefits,” he said in the Instagram post where he appealed for his followers to join ICE.

Speaking with the Superman theme song in the background, he said “hundreds of thousands of criminals” had been arrested since US President Donald Trump took office.

He then told his followers they would get a series of benefits if they joined ICE, including a $50,000 (£37,407) signing bonus and student loan repayment.

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“If you want to help save America ICE is arresting the worst of the worst and removing them from America’s streets,” he said, before adding: “I voted for that.”

ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Mr Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

Cain’s post on Instagram received some backlash, with one user commenting: “Worst superman ever”.

Another said: “Shame on you Dean – that’s the most un-Superman thing you could possibly advocate.”

One fan turned against him and said: “Until I saw this I was such a fan. What a sad human being you must be.”

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Anna Friel: Pensioner who stalked Marcella star for nearly three years to be sentenced next month

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Anna Friel: Pensioner who stalked Marcella star for nearly three years to be sentenced next month

A man who stalked actress Anna Friel for nearly three years is to be sentenced next month.

Phil Appleton, 71, sent numerous messages, visited the actress’s home address several times and left “unwanted” gifts between January 2022 and December last year, Reading Crown Court previously heard.

The defendant, described online as an actor and retired pilot, admitted stalking under Section 2A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 earlier this week.

Appleton was due to be sentenced on Thursday but judge Alan Blake adjourned the hearing until 18 September for a pre-sentence report to be carried out.

The court heard the pensioner, from Windsor in Berkshire, has been in custody for six months and has spent time in a mental health facility.

Granted conditional bail, he was told he must not contact Ms Friel or enter the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and is to co-operate with those conducting the pre-sentence report.

Friel, 49, rose to fame with her role as Beth Jordache in Channel 4 soap opera Brookside.

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She achieved international renown in 2007, starring as Charlotte “Chuck” Charles in the ABC comedy series Pushing Daisies.

In 2017, she won the International Emmy for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the ITV and Netflix mystery drama series Marcella

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