Future Publishing has
revealed the results of the Golden Joystick Awards 2004 at a lavish ceremony held today at
the Park Lane Hotel. The industry gathered to see Little Britain star Matt Lucas reveal the
verdict of a record-breaking 200,000-plus consumers, who'd been voting for their favourite
games and hardware released between November 14th 2003 and October 28th 2004.
Despite
this largest-ever response to the Golden Joysticks, no single publisher dominated the
awards, with a wide-range of games and publishers sharing the spoils.
Warren Spector
was welcomed to the Golden Joysticks Hall of Fame (sponsored by Barrington Harvey) thanks to
his sterling contribution to the furthering and development of the interactive entertainment
medium. He joins last year's inaugural entrant Shigeru Miyamoto in this most prestigious of
clubs.
Activision's Doom 3 was the only game to scoop two awards, picking up PC Game
of the Year and Ultimate Game of the Year beating off heavy-hitters Far Cry, Fable and Pro
Evolution Soccer 4.
Electronic Arts grabbed three awards: Burnout 3: Takedown
(PlayStation 2 Game of the Year); Battlefield Vietnam (Online Game of The Year); and
Publisher of the Year, capping off a tremendous twelve months which has seen it dominate the
charts with every release, as well as claiming last year's Christmas Number
One.
Nintendo maintained its strong showing with the Golden Joystick Awards voters,
picking up three accolades: Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Game Cube Game of the Year); GBA SP
NES Classic Edition (Hardware of the Year) and The Legend of Zelda (Most Wanted Game For
2005).
Radio One's Colin and Edith Show's listeners rated Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas as the game they were most looking forward to the Most Wanted For Xmas Award. And
The Sun's readers declared Sonic The Hedgehog their 'Ultimate Gaming Hero'.
Fable
(Microsoft) was awarded Xbox Game of the Year. Sonic Advance 3 (THQ) picked up Handheld Game
of the Year, and the two editor awards voted for by the staff of Future publishing went
to Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Editors Award: Game of the Year) and Vivendi's The
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Editor's Award: Unsung Hero Game of the
Year).
In the non-game award, Amazon.co.uk pipped GAME and Play.com to the Retailer
of the Year Award.
The full list of winners is as follows:
PS2 Game of
the Year: Burnout 3: Takedown (EA Games)
Runners-up: Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (Konami);
Spider-Man 2 (Activision)
Game Cube Game of the Year: Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
(Nintendo)
Runners-up: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Konami); Final Fantasy Crystal
Chronicles (Nintendo)
Handheld Game of the Year: Sonic Advance 3 (THQ)
Runners-up:
Metroid Zero Mission (Nintendo); Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (Nintendo)
Xbox Game of
the Year Sponsored by Sonopress: Fable (Microsoft)
Runners-up: Splinter Cell: Pandora
Tomorrow (Ubisoft), GTA: Double Pack (Rockstar)
PC Game of the Year Sponsored by PC
Retail: Doom 3 (Activision)
Runners-up: X2: The Threat (Deep Silver); Far Cry
(UbiSoft)
Online Game of the Year: Battlefield Vietnam (EA Games)
Runners-up:
Burnout 3: Takedown (EA Games); Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (Valve)
Publisher of
the Year Sponsored by Macrovision: Electronic Arts
Runners-up: THQ,
Ubisoft
Retailer of the Year Sponsored by Electronic Arts:
Amazon.co.uk
Runners-up: GAME; Play.com
Hardware of the Year: GBA SP NES Classic
Edition
Runners-up: Creative Labs Gigaworks S750; GBA Wireless Adapter
Unsung Hero
Game of the Year (Editors' Award): The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (VU
Games)
Runners-up: The Suffering (Midway); Mashed (Empire)
Game of the Year
(Editors' Award): Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami)
Runners-up: Zelda: Four Swords
(Nintendo); Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising (NovaLogic)
Hall of Fame Industry
Personality of the Year: Warren Spector (Ion Storm)
Radio One Colin & Edith Show Most
Wanted Game For Xmas: GTA San Andreas (Rockstar Games)
Runners-up: Half-Life 2 (VU
Games); Halo 2 (Microsoft)
Most Wanted Game For 2005: The Legend of Zelda
(Nintendo)
Runners-up: Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater (Konami); Resident Evil 4
(Capcom)
Ultimate Game Of The Year: Doom 3 (Activision)
Runners-up: Fable
(Microsoft); Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami)
The Sun Ultimate Gaming Hero: Sonic The
Hedgehog (Sega)
Runners-up: Master Chief (Halo 2, Microsoft); Lara Croft (Tomb Raider,
Eidos)
