Mass Effect 2 Nabs Golden Joystick Ultimate Game of the Year Award

[Greg Tito]

Mass Effect 2 Nabs Golden Joystick Ultimate Game of the Year Award

The 2010 Golden Joystick Awards were announced with BioWare's Mass Effect 2 taking top honors and Modern Warfare 2 grabbing Shooter of the Year.

Videogame awards season has begun. While the Golden Joysticks are one of the first announced for 2010, that's because they judge games that were released between August 2009 and August 2010. These awards are also completely judged by popular vote, with 1,543,309 votes being tabulated this year. The U.K.-based Golden Joysticks are the oldest awards presented to the videogame industry, starting in 1982 and running every year since. This year's winners were announced yesterday over Twitter but we've collected all of the winners and nominees below.

While I'm happy with Mass Effect 2 grabbing Game and RPG of the Year, my personal vote would have been Red Dead Redemption. Most of the other picks I agree with, except for PvZ grabbing Strategy Game of the Year. Sure, it's fun and there is strategy involved but I would have gone with StarCraft 2 or even Civilization. What do you think of the winners? What would you have chosen?

Action/Adventure Game Of The Year - Assassin's Creed II

Nominees: Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Just Cause 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Red Dead Redemption, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Download Game Of The Year - Plants Vs Zombies

Nominees: 'splosion Man, Assassin's Creed 2: Bonfire of the Vanities, Battlefield 1943, Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, FIFA 10, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Little Big Planet, Plants vs. Zombies, Shadow Complex and Trials HD.

Fighting Game Of The Year - Super Street Fighter IV

Nominees: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, Fight Night Round 4, Punch Out!!, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, Super Street Fighter IV, Tatsunoko vs Capcom Ultimate All Stars, Tekken 6, UFC 2009 Undisputed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010.

Music Game Of The Year - Guitar Hero 5

Nominees: Band Hero, DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero on Tour: Modern Hits, Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Just Dance, Lego Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band.

One To Watch - COD: Black Ops

Nominees: Brink, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Crysis 2, Dead Space 2, F1 2010, Fable III, Fallout: New Vegas, Final Fantasy XIV, Gears of War 3, Halo: Reach, Mafia 2, Medal of Honour, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and The Legend of Zelda Wii.

Online Game Of The Year - League Of Legends

Nominees: 2029 Online, Aion: The Tower Of Eternity, Allods Online, Bejeweled Blitz, Champions Online, Dragonica, Fallen Earth, Farmville, Gangster City, Global Agenda, League of Legends, Need for Speed: World, Star Trek Online, Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.

Portable Game Of The Year - Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver

Nominees: Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, Assassin's Creed: Discovery, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Mobilised, Call of Duty: World at War: ZOMBIES, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Little Big Planet, Plants vs Zombies, Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Professor Layton and Pandora and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Puzzle Game Of The Year - World Of Goo

Nominees: 3D Pictocross, Ace Attorney Inverstigations: Miles Edgeworth , Arkanoid Plus!, Brain Exercises with Dr Kawashima, Katamari Forever, LUXOR: Mah Jong, Professor Layton and Pandora's Box, Scribblenauts, Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll and World of Goo.

RPG Of The Year - Mass Effect 2

Nominees: 3D Dot Game Heroes, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening, Fallout 3: Game Of The Year Edition, Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect 2, Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Risen, The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Torchlight.

Racing Game Of The Year - Forza 3

Nominees: Colin McRae: Dirt 2, ModNation Racers, Need for Speed: Shift, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Split/Second and Wipeout HD Fury.

Shooter Of The Year - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Nominees: Aliens vs. Predator, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Bioshock 2, Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3: ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Metro 2033, Metriod Prime Trilogy and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat.

Soundtrack Of The Year - Final Fantasy XIII

Nominees: Assassin's Creed 2, Brutal Legend, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Final Fantasy XIII, GTA IV: Episodes From Liberty City, Halo 3: ODST, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2, Metro 2033 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Sports Game Of The Year - FIFA10

Nominees: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, Blood Bowl, FIFA 10, Football Manager 2010, Madden NFL 10, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Skate 3, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort.

Strategy Game Of The Year - Plants Vs Zombies

Nominees: Age of Empires III: Complete Collection, Anno 1404, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising, Napoleon: Total War, Plants vs Zombies, Supreme Commander 2, The Sims 3, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising and Worms iPhone.

UK Developer Of The Year - Jagex

Nominees: Codemasters, EA Bright Light, Jagex, Lionhead, Media Molecule, Rare, Rockstar North, Rocksteady Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment London Studios, and Team 17

Ultimate Game of the Year - Mass Effect 2

Nominees: Aion: The Tower Of Eternity, Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3: Game Of The Year Edition, Final Fantasy XIII, Football Manager 2010, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Left 4 Dead 2, Mass Effect 2, Metro 2033, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Plants vs Zombies, Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Red Dead Redemption, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Source: VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2010/10/29/2010-golden-joystick-awards-are-live-here-are-your-winners/]

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[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Wasn't a terrible choice.

Personally I voted for Metro 2033.

 

[Woodsey]

Good.

It would have been a tough choice between that, Arkham and AC2 for me I think. Still think ME2 would have one though. Simply amazing.

 

[Deofuta]

Woot! Im happy LoL was on the map as well.

Surprised to see Jagex up there, are they working on something else big apart from Runescape?

 

[Quad08]

...but I don't know about Guitar Hero 5 over Rock Band 3.

The awards are presented for games between August 2009 and August 2010

 

[Chaossebba]

Strategy Game Of The Year - Plants Vs Zombies

Nominees: Age of Empires III: Complete Collection, Anno 1404, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising, Napoleon: Total War, Plants vs Zombies, Supreme Commander 2, The Sims 3, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising and Worms iPhone.

What the hell, Starcraft 2 isnt even nominated for strategy? lolwut.

 

[Notthatbright]

Its a popular vote, in the UK. It holds about as much weight as my flabby little girly arms.

 

[Galaxy613]

Strategy Game Of The Year - Plants Vs Zombies

Nominees: Age of Empires III: Complete Collection, Anno 1404, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising, Napoleon: Total War, Plants vs Zombies, Supreme Commander 2, The Sims 3, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising and Worms iPhone.

What the hell, Starcraft 2 isnt even nominated for strategy? lolwut.

I think they figure that Starcraft 2 doesn't need any help from awards to sell. But either way, apparently the people who voted think a Popcap game is better than DoW2, Sup Comm 2, and C&C 4:TT. Which I find hiliarious

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I'd give "Nier" soundtrack of the year, over FF13.


This is Chrono Cross/Final Fantasy 9 levels of soundtrack quality. The game's not perfect, but the soundtrack is.

I don't know how Mass Effect 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Heavy Rain, Metro 2033, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves even made it on the soundtrack awards list. I can't remember a single piece of music from any of those games. And I beat all of them.

 

[JeanLuc761]

I think they figure that Starcraft 2 doesn't need any help from awards to sell. But either way, apparently the people who voted think a Popcap game is better than DoW2, Sup Comm 2, and C&C 4:TT. Which I find hiliarious

Given how high quality Plants vs. Zombies is, I'm not too surprised. I despise Dawn of War 2, and I hear nothing but problems with SupCom 2 and C&C4

 

[TheEvilCheese]

ME2 was a fair choice, but plants versus zombies?
Seriously?

Did anyone apart from the people I know (im in the uk) even play SC2?

 

[Magners]

FF XIII best soundtrack? really? I can't remember a single tune from the entire game

 

[coldshadow]

UK Developer Of The Year - Jagex?

really? how and why?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

FF XIII best soundtrack? really? I can't remember a single tune from the entire game

I can recall the various battle themes. And that's about it...

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'm uncertain about this. Given that I didn't care enough about most of the games to even give them a second glance it automatically means that from my opinion Mass Effect 2, Batman: AA and L4D were the only contenders, but even out of those three I'm not sure.

Mass Effect I've been through two times now, which totals sixty hours of gameplay, Left 4 Dead I've replayed endlessly to the point where I know recoil in terror from fat people and crying women and even Batman i've been through at least four times, thuogh more to complete all the difficulty settings and collect awards and stuff.

I guess technically overall Mass Effect would be my game of the year but only because I liked Mass Effect 1 so much, which doesn't count, the the same applies to Left 4 Dead 2 and L4D 1. This unfortunately means that my top game of the year was a game released last year.

Also, is there even any point in the music games award? There are only two competitors! Sure it's trying to find the difference between the dozens of releases they've crammed into a year but that's more like arguing as to whether a compilation CD is better than a single-artist CD. The most innovative was probably DJ Hero but that was a massive pile of useless shit so I don't quite see why any of the games deserve an award. Rock Band 1 had the last major innovation of adding a full band, since then it's all been circling the drain and just adding more and more obscure bands and songs. (Dancing games count even less than Guitar Hero)

 

[thebighead01]

the best game won by far...not to sure about the other games though I mean you have some games that are rubbish but still in the list, and others that shouldn't be there at all.

 

[Sevre]

C&C4 gets nominated for Strategy of the Year....and Starcraft 2 doesn't?

 

[Delusibeta]

The lack of Starcraft 2 in the nominations list suggests to me that it's fallen off this year's awards and is going to appear next year. It was released 3 days before the cut-off point for this year, after all. Kind of disappointed BlOps got the One To Watch award, and only one nomination for Just Cause 2? Still, no arguments on whether Mass Effect 2 was a deserving winner here.

 

[MellowFellow]

I am glad to see Mass Effect 2 win, it is definitely my game of the year. Also glad to see Assassins Creed 2 win adventure game, that game is good and I am excited for Brotherhood coming out in a couple weeks.