Personal use of this material is permitted. Abstract--This paper introduces a novel application of Supervised Contrastive Learning (SupCon) to Imitation Learning (IL), with a focus on learning more effective state representations for agents in video game environments. The goal is to obtain latent representations of the observations that capture better the action-relevant factors, thereby modeling better the cause-effect relationship from the observations that are mapped to the actions performed by the demonstrator, for example, "the player jumps whenever an obstacle appears ahead." We propose an approach to integrate the SupCon loss with continuous output spaces, enabling SupCon to operate without constraints regarding the type of actions of the environment. Experiments on the 3D games Astro Bot and Returnal, and multiple 2D Atari games show improved representation quality, faster learning convergence, and better generalization compared to baseline models trained only with supervised action prediction loss functions.

In a video game year dominated by dark, bloody fantasy adventures – and continued job losses and studio closures – it was a cute robot that stole the night at the 2025 Bafta video game awards. Sony's family-friendly platformer Astro Bot won in five categories at yesterday evening's ceremony, including best game and game design. The rest of the awards were evenly spread across a range of Triple A and independent titles. Oil rig thriller Still Wakes the Deep was the next biggest winner with three awards: new intellectual property, performer in a leading role and performer in a supporting role. Clearly actors looking for Bafta-winning roles need look no further than the North Sea.

It's easy to feel a bit beset by doom these days. The other week, I watched the heinous AI-generated "Trump Gaza" video and was so appalled that I impulse-bought a kayaking guide book. It felt like the only sane response was to take to the water and paddle away. Video games are a reliable antidote to existential doom, but layoffs, corporate homogenisation and AI slop are all encroaching on my safe haven, making it more difficult to get a brief reprieve from what's happening in the outside world. Thank God, then, for the Bafta games awards nominations, which reliably remind me that video games are pretty great, actually.

Our review of Astro Bot earlier this year called it "one of the best games Sony has ever made," and it seems the industry and game-playing public agree. As always, the long, long stream was a hybrid award ceremony, advertising reel and game announcement marathon. There were countless announcements interspersed throughout the awards, including all-new games like Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet from Naughty Dog, The Witcher 4 from CD Projekt RED and Split Fiction from It Takes Two studio Hazelight. It was also a show of revivals, with long-dormant franchises like Okami, Onimusha, Ninja Gaiden and Virtua Fighter returning. You can view all of the winners at the Game Awards' official site.

Much like Christmas is a lot less enjoyable for the person who has to organise all the presents and cook the dinner, game-of-the-year season is rather intimidating for the people who have to put together the shortlists. Every November, I tot up all of the year's acclaimed games I've yet to play, the underground recommendations I've yet to follow up on and the games I loved back in February but forgot about. I feel a mounting panic. And when all of the year-end lists come out, I inevitably find I've missed something anyway. The Game Awards have just announced the nominations for this year's ceremony, taking place on 12 December in Los Angeles.

Astro Bot, one of Sony's greatest triumphs, is getting new content for those who live life (or at least play PS5) in the fast lane. Developer Team Asobi said on Wednesday that the first of five free speedrunning levels teased at Sony's September State of Play will arrive on Thursday, October 17. The first speedrun level is Building Speed, where you'll get an assist from your robot bulldog friend Barkster. Team Asobi promises you'll "blast your way through a sky-high city." Dodging cranes, smashing through crates and zipping through a flying car wash are part of the festivities.

When I say that Astro Bot reminds me of Super Mario Galaxy, I could pay it no higher compliment. It has taken me around its own small galaxy of planetoid-style levels, from bathhouses to diorama-sized jungle temples to rainy islands, each host to a brilliant one-shot idea, such as a pair of frog boxing gloves or a backpack monkey or a time-stopping watch that lets you freeze giant zooming darts in place so you can jump on them. It is splendid to witness this development team's creativity let loose. Team Asobi has previously made a couple of short-form Astro Bot games – one for the PSVR, Rescue Mission, and another that came packaged with the PS5 at launch, Astro's Playroom – but this one is full-length, complete with challenging bonus levels that play out like electrified skill-check gauntlets for the generation raised on 3D platformers. It is supremely funny and characterful, thanks to the titular chibi blue-and-white robot and his crowd of friends, many of whom are dressed up as characters from the most obscure crevices of PlayStation history.

You can attribute much of the PlayStation 4's amazing run of the last seven years to its exclusive titles. While Nintendo remains the most prolific producer of high quality exclusive console games, Sony amassed considerable might during the PlayStation 4′s run, acquiring acclaimed studios that would go on to produce titles that would sweep awards shows. It's why Microsoft has invested in its own studios, including last year's atomic announcement that Xbox now owns Bethesda Game Studios, the creators of the "Elder Scrolls" series. Gene Park: "Bloodborne" was a game so good, it helped me completely get over my last, serious and long-term relationship. It was early 2015, and there were going to be some big changes in our lives. I was looking to move out of Hawaii, while she wanted to expand her local business's footprint. Our relationship was already on the rocks before "Bloodborne" released, and we'd already had some legendary battles and arguments between us, you know, the kind that end in screaming matches and tearful apologies.

Sony Santa Monica's God of War has received 10 nominations for this year's Bafta game awards, leading a diverse pack of nominees. Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 also picked up six nominations, as did Florence – a game about a relationship played from the perspective of a young woman – and Return of the Obra Dinn, a lo-fi monochrome mystery set on an abandoned ship. The contenders for best game are Assassin's Creed Odyssey, PlayStation VR game Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, Celeste, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Return of the Obra Dinn. Last year's winner was What Became of Edith Finch, an emotionally charged magical-realist game about the fate of an ill-fortuned family. The games beyond entertainment category, introduced to recognise games whose impact extends into the real world, comprises Celeste, Aardman Studios' first world war game 11-11 Memories Retold, Life is Strange 2, My Child Lebensborn, and Nintendo Labo.