Golden Joystick Awards 2010
by Rob
Friday saw the 28th annual Golden Joystick Awards here in London and, with the prestigious event in its 28th year, this has been its biggest and most celebrated year yet. Pulling in over a million and a half votes from gamers showing their support for titles spread over sixteen categories, the ceremony itself had to be moved to a new venue in the Park Plaza Hotel alongside the Houses of Parliament, and this new location meant that a lot of additional time and effort went in to the presentation of the event. This was my first time attending the awards and, I have to say, it was a great experience.
As press we were shown previews of some up and coming games, such as Def Jam Rapstar and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, with Deus Ex being a sizeable demo preview of the much anticipated next installment of the FPS stealth RPG series and Def Jam Rapstar offering an interesting look at what other genres the music and rhythm side of gaming is venturing in to. This was, perhaps, also a neat little preview of some potential nominees, or winners, for the next annual Golden Joysticks.
Although the demo previews of the games were obviously great, the main reason for us being there was the Golden Joystick award ceremony itself and, at times, I felt like I was attending a more condensed version of the Oscars, and loved it. The ceremony was presented by the American comedian Rich Hall, who did a fantastic job of making people laugh and presenting the awards along with the familiar voice of the national lottery announcer, Alan Dedicoat, announcing the nominees which added nicely to the event.
With a grand venue and a cracking attention to detail, the winners were announced for each category so, without further ado, here they are:
Action/Adventure
The Action/Adventure Game Of The Year, in association with Nuts
Winner: Assassin’s Creed II
Runners Up: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Red Dead Redemption
Shooter Of The Year, in association with IGN Game On
Winner: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Runners Up: Bad Company 2, Left 4 Dead 2
Racing Game Of The Year, in association with T3
Winner: Forza Motorsport 3
Runners Up: Need For Speed: Shift, Colin McRae: Dirt 2
Role Playing Game
RPG Of The Year, in association with GamesRadar
Winner: Mass Effect 2
Runners Up: Fallout 3: Game Of The Year Edition, Final Fantasy XIII
Puzzle Game Of The Year, in association with NGamer
Winner: World of Goo
Runners Up: Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box, Scribblenauts
Fighting Game Of The Year, in association with Official Nintendo Magazine
Winner: Street Fighter IV
Runners Up: Tekken 6, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
Sports Game
Sports Game Of The Year, in association with Mousebreaker
Winner: FIFA 10
Runners Up: Wii Sports Resort, Skate 3
Strategy Game Of The Year, in association with PC Gamer
Winner: Plants vs. Zombies
Runners Up: The Sims 3, Age of Empires III: Collection
Music Game Of The Year, in association with Total Film
Winner: Guitar Hero 5
Runners Up: DJ Hero, The Beatles: Rock Band
Portable Game
Online Game Of The Year, in association with CVG
Winner: League of Legends
Runners Up: Aion: The Tower Of Eternity, Farmville
Download Game Of The Year, in association with Green Man Gaming
Winner: Plants vs. Zombies
Runners Up: Battlefield 1943, Call of Duty: World At War: ZOMBIES
Portable Game Of The Year, in association with Habbo
Winner: Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
Runners Up: Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines, Plants vs. Zombies
One To Watch
Soundtrack Of The Year, in association with Metal Hammer
Winner: Final Fantasy XIII
Runners Up: Brutal Legend, Assassin’s Creed 2
The One To Watch, in association with MSN
Winner: Call of Duty: Black Ops
Runners Up: Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: The Old Republic
Ultimate Game of the Year, in association with GamesMaster
Winner: Mass Effect 2
Runners Up: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed 2
UK Developer Of The Year in association with Edge
Winner: Jagex
Runners Up: Rockstar North, Codemasters
So, as you can see, some top games won some great awards although, in my opinion, some of them were a little predictable, for example Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 grabbing the Shooter Of The Year award and FIFA 10 getting Sports Game Of The Year. Some really did take me by surprise, such as Final Fantasy XIII taking the Soundtrack Of The Year, defeating the likes of Brutal Legend which, in my opinion, had a much better soundtrack (can you tell I’m not a Leona Lewis fan).
Plants Vs Zombies stole more of the show that I initially thought it would and, even though it has been re-released on iTunes, PlayStation Network and XBox LIVE Arcade, it is still a relatively old game and yet holds enough charm that gamers love it enough to vote for even now. Having said that, even though it is a great game, it is a shame it beat games such as Warhammer 40,000 Dawn Of War II in the Strategy category and Shadow Complex in the Downloadable Games category.
With all that said, I am glad that Super Street Fighter IV won the Fighter of the year category; the game is truly awesome and is a fantastic reboot to the classic 2D fighter which, in turn, has created a whole new league of 2D fighters such as BlazBlue – further proof that the 2D platform for fighting games is still favoured by most. All in all the 2010 Golden Joystick awards, for me, went down really well; some well deserved awards and some surprises – some pleasant and others not so much.
Bring on next year.
Last five articles by Rob
- Do Games Need A Reboot?
- What Makes A Good Fighter?
- Golden Joystick Awards 2010
- Duke Nukem Forever
- Is It All Down To The Gamerscore?
Glad you had fun at the event, Rob!
It’s a shame that nothing I voted for won, or in most cased even got a runner-up award. Still, congrats to the winners, and hopefully there’ll be a good selection of nominees next year, too
Lucky sod, getting to go to that.
I voted for Assassin’s Creed II so I’m happy enough that it won something. That “best shooter” going to CoD Modern Warfare 2 is total bullshit though. I’m guessing that Reach will be included next year because it was released too late or something, but even so, Left 4 Dead 2 would have been a better shout.
Eternal problem with public voted awards… hype wins over substance.
Agree with you there samuel, hype usually does win over substance. The golden joysticks year usualy is from may to may meaning that Reach will definalty be in the running for nexts years shooter of the year…..If Black ops doesn’t steal it of course…
Problem with having awards now is that between now and and Christmas games coming out probably would have taken most of these awards. Why they do it now is baffling.
Gaming industry still lacks a credible and worthwhile awards ceremony, all the ones we have are flawed to high heaven.
Where’s PONG in all this?? Does nobody ever recognise PONG? Such a shame. Sounds like you had a good time mate, glad you enjoyed it. I love champagne… I think next time I’d consider going for the free flowing champagne! I think it was perhaps the right decision for Brutal Legend not to have won Best Soundtrack as it wasn’t a score written specifically for the game, it was just a compilation of kick ass metal tunes whereas, presumably, the FF soundtrack is a fully composed and orchestrated score. I dunno though, haven’t played it!