And The Gamers Have Spoken! – Winners of the 26th annual Golden Joystick Awards

Sunday 16 November 2008 @ 9:22 pm | By Sol Comment now!

Golden Joystick Logo

Well, at least 856,262 of you to be exact. The 2008 Golden Joystick Awards have been released. Voted in by the general gaming public, the Golden Joystick Awards are the world’s oldest gaming awards ceremony.

Celebrating its 26th year, the ceremony is held in the United Kingdom. Each award category has their own sponsor, the most important part about these awards are that it’s done by us gamers. However, the highlight this year was the introduction of a new category ‘Grand Master Flash’. And the award ceremony was quite a bash.

A full list of the awards and highlights after the jump.

[GoldenJoystick]

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Grand Master Flash - Stickman Madness

Handheld Game of the Year - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Family Game of the Year - Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Nintendo Game of the Year- Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Xbox Game of the Year & Soundtrack of the Year - Grand Theft Auto IV 

PlayStation Game of the Year - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Mobile Game of the Year - Bejeweled 2

All-Nighter Multiplayer - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Hat-Trick Game of the Year - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Made Possible by…

Retailer of the Year - Play.com

One to Watch - Call of Duty: World at War

UK Developer of the Year - Rockstar North

Publisher of the Year - Activision

Most Wanted - Fallout 3

E4.com – Grand Master Flash – Stickman Madness

Stickman Madness

Developer: Goda Januskeviciute Stickman

I recommend everyone check this out. It’s fun, sharp and full of bullet dodging, mouse clicking violence.

GMF finalists a rchive

Bliss – Handheld Game of the Year - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Playing on old concepts, but merging with the control scheme of the DS touch screen was a breath of fresh air. To paraphase another DDNer – Jonathan_Leo If you haven’t bought this by now, buy it now, doofus.

Further review on DDN

The Sun – Family Game of the Year – Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Even if this may be the same formula with the GH series, you have to admit, it allows you to unleash that inner rocker. A slight interjection, I would have rather gone for Rock Band, but whatevs.

Nintendo Game of the Year - Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Button smashing + a little bit of strategy = a cluster f’ worth of fun.

BBC1Xtra – Soundtrack of the Year -Grand Theft Auto IV
ARVATO – Xbox Game of the Year -Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

If you are a gamer you should enjoy this series. If it’s not for the straight-up violence, random carjacking, and the inevitable police chase, then the music should pull you in. Since GTA3 I’ve been acquiring the soundtracks for each game. They are all very good, but my favorite is still Chatterbox FM.

PlayStation: The Official Magazine – PlayStation Game of the Year - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

While is rumored that MGS 4 may come to the X360, this marks the end of an epic, OMG why can’t I skip through 20 minute ingame vignettes, series.

4Talent – Mobile Game of the Year - Bejeweled 2

Bejeweled 2

Puke. You know in a time where nearly every phone can double as digital assistant. If you are playing this, you should get a better game.

Nuts – All-Nighter Multiplayer – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

The United Kingdom e-Sport Association & Virgin Media & Games Radar’s Online – Game of the Year – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Continuously new content, maps, a quasi-rpg-esqui development system and fun multiplayer (albeit even with cheaters), Modern Warfare is well deserved of this crown.

While you can’t consider the following awards as game based awards, you can give credit where it is due.

Activision/Blizzard – Retailer of the Year – Play.com

This is how you know it’s based in the U.K. A fairly recent IGN Poll stated that Wal-Mart was the top videogames retailer in the U.S. ßThat is scary on its own.

Play.com – One to Watch - Call of Duty: World at War

Even though we plunge back into WWII, the nazi-zombie mode will be the highlight of owning COD5.

Further review on DDN

CVG.co.uk – UK Developer of the Year - Rockstar North

They make the GTA series if you don’t know them, you should.

Publisher of the Year - Activision

The recent merger with Blizzard has brought a synergistic aura to this giant. Activision knows what they are doing and with frequent movie tie-ins, position themselves eyelevel at your brick and mortar retailers.

Edge Magazine – Most Wanted - Fallout 3

RPG? FPS? Fallout 3 brings lots to the table and with some DLC to boot. Plan on spending A LOT of time with this game. You’ll be having fun.

Some award ceremony pictures below courtesy of Computer And Videogames. Our brethren in the land of tea and crumpets know how to throw quite the party for our virtual-selves.