Today, HMV hosted their 30th annual Golden Joystick Awards which were presented by Ed Byrne. For those of you who missed it and want to see what the results were (or if you just can’t be bothered sitting through the whole thing) here’s a coverage of the awards that were won and by who.
The first award was best Action/Adventure title and the winner was Batman Arkham City, with Assassin’s Creed Revelations coming 2nd and Uncharted 3 trailing in 3rd.
Next was the best Strategy game and that was awarded to Civilisation 5: Gods and Kings. Total War: Shogun 2 snatched 2nd and Might & Magic Heroes 6 went home with 3rd.
The award for Best Mobile/Tablet game was given to Angry Birds Space- a rather predictable result- with Assassin’s Creed Recollection in 2nd and Temple Run in 3rd.
Minecraft for Xbox 360 took the award for best downloadable game, followed by The Walking Dead and then Journey. I was honestly disappointed with this result myself, given Minecraft for Xbox 360 was, if we’re honest about it, just a watered down version of the original. Still, I’m happy that my own favourite for the category, The Walking Dead, did as well as it did.
Next up was Best Fighter which was awarded to Mortal Kombat: Complete Edition. The runner up was Soulcalibur 5 with Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Storm Generations coming in 3rd.
After this, we had Best Shooter which Max Payne 3 came 3rd in, Call of Duty MW3 2nd and Battlefield 3 1st. Honestly this was surprising and yet, kind of invigorating. I let out a sigh thinking that Call of Duty was going to win this award as they have done for the past few years.
Then the award came for Best MMO, which was taken by World of Tanks with League of Legends taking 2nd and Star Wars: The Old Republic coming in 3rd.
The next award was for Best Handheld title and this was a peculiar one indeed. It was presented by Stephen Fry but not exactly in the flesh. He was operating a talking robot replica of himself by remote control that had cameras for eyes so he could see the crowd. It was quite a neat little display for sure. The awards themselves were as follows: Super Mario 3D Land in 3rd, Mario Kart 7 in 2nd and Uncharted: Golden Abyss placing in 1st.
The title of Best Gaming Moment was awarded to Skyrim for “climbing the Throat of the World”. The runner up was Battlefield 3′s “Going Hunting” mission and in 3rd place was Mass Effect 3′s “Tuchanka” decision. Honestly this award seemed a bit silly. Perhaps it just never hit me that hard but all I saw “clmbing the Throat of the World” was just walking up a path while occasionally dealing with Ice Wraiths. There are far greater moments in Skyrim in my opinion and certainly much greater moments in gaming.
Next was the “One to Watch” award, basically Most Anticipated Game and the winner was Grand Theft Auto V. Assassin’s Creed 3 placed 2nd and The Elder Scrolls: Online came in 3rd.
Then there was the best DLC award which was given to Portal 2 for the “Perpetual Testing Initiative” DLC. The other winners were Skryim’s “Dawnguard” and in 3rd, “Harley Quinn’s Revenge” from Batman Arkham City.
After this we had the Best YouTube Gamer award which, besides from being a rather pointless exercise, was a horrifying thought for who may have won it. I won’t name any names but we certainly each have our own fears of who could have won that award. But anyway, the winner was Yogscast, followed by The Syndicate Project and Total Halibut in last place.
The most predictable award of the evening- Best RPG- went to Skyrim, of course. Diablo 3 came in 2nd with Mass Effect 3 landing 3rd. This was pretty disappointing really, with not so much as an honourable mention for Dark Souls who really should have been in that category.
Following this there was the award for Best Sports Game. Fifa 12 took home the prize of course, with SSX as the runner up and Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 coming last.
Slender took away the award for Best Browser/Flash game, followed by Draw Something and then Ghost Recon Commander.
The award for Best Racer was handed to Forza Motorsport 4 with Need For Speed: The Run taking 2nd and Twisted Metal taking 3rd.
There was also a special award for Greatest Contribution Towards the Industry. You won’t believe your eyes when you read that the winner of this “prestigious” award was EA Sports and FIFA.
Finally there was the painfully predictable Game of the Year award which was awarded to (I don’t really need to tell you this) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Battlefield took a respectable 2nd and Diablo 3 came in last.
So there it is. All of the winners of one of the biggest gaming award ceremonies of the year. Bring on the next one!
