Vice City motors home in Baftas

Vice City was praised for its design and sound

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has swept the board at the first Bafta games awards, taking five of the gongs.

The acclaimed title was chosen as the best PlayStation 2 and PC game as well as winning awards in the design, action and sound categories.

But Vice City lost out on the award for best game of the year, which went to the World War II shooter, Call of Duty.

Bafta decided on a dedicated awards ceremony for games in recognition of the importance of the industry.

Readers' choice

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, by Rockstar games, is set in a fictional city modelled on Miami in the 1980s.

In the game, you play a gangster called Tommy Vercetti, who roams the streets crossing the paths of all kinds of people.

It has been widely praised for its attention to detail in recreating the era of the 1980s, with the soundtrack featuring 80 different tracks from bands of the period.

MAIN BAFTA WINNERS Year's best game: Call of Duty PlayStation 2: GTA: Vice City Xbox: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic GameCube: Metroid Prime PC: GTA: Vice City Gameboy Advance: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Mobile: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Sports: Fifa 2004 Children: Eyetoy: Play Review: Call of Duty brings war home

As well as taking home the greatest number of Baftas, Vice City also won the Sunday Times Readers Award.

Two other games picked up two awards each. Sony's Eye Toy: Play triumphed in the children's and technical achievement categories.

Nintendo's Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising took the Baftas in the categories for Gameboy Advance and strategy.

There was some consolation for the PC war game, Call of Duty, which had been nominated for the strategy and PC Baftas.

It won the much sought after award for the best game of the year on any platform.

As well as walking away with several gongs, Sony had reason to celebrate at Wednesday's ceremony.

The president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Chris Deering, was presented with a special award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his outstanding contribution to the games industry.

"The honour of this award is rightfully shared with the thousands of outstanding British game creators who have been global innovators in the merger of art and computer science since the earliest days of computer games," said Mr Deering.