Future Publishing, UK-based publisher of Edge and other gaming publications, has announced 2004 winners of its Golden Joystick gongs.
The results were revealled at a ceremony held yesterday at the Park Lane Hotel. A record-breaking 200,000-plus consumers had 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 thanks to his "sterling" contribution to the furthering and development of the interactive entertainment medium. He joins last year's inaugural entrant, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto.
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!! (GameCube Game of the Year); GBA SP NES Classic Edition (Hardware of the Year) and The Legend of Zelda (Most Wanted Game For 2005).
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 (Editor's 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).
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)
