Microsoft’s breakthrough title, Gears of War, has been honoured as the Ultimate Game of the Year at the 25th annual Golden Joystick Awards at the Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane.
Developed by Epic Games, Gears of War offered gamers a unique blend of tactical action and survival horror and was this year’s big winner scooping a massive four awards in total including Xbox Game of the Year, the All-Nighter Award and Editors’ Choice award. In the 25th anniversary year of the UK’s longest-established and most popular games awards, it was the diverse range of pioneering software that grabbed the attention of gamers as nearly 750,000 votes were cast, up on last year’s 540,000 votes.
Guitar Hero II and Nintendo were the ceremony’s other notable winners, each receiving two awards each. Played with a special guitar controller, Guitar Hero II was honoured in both Soundtrack of the Year and Girls’ Choice Award. Nintendo triumphed as Publisher of the Year, while the ultra successful Wii console scooped the Innovation Award, "gazumping" Sony’s PlayStation 3 console, which was last year’s winner of the One To Watch award.
Elsewhere in the awards, ‘GameTribe’s Online Game of the Year’ and the ‘Mobile Game of the Year’, sponsored by Channel 4’s 4Talent, proved successful categories with gamers, attracting significant votes overall.
Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade topped the online game category while the mobile version of long-running fantasy series Final Fantasy hit the top spot of the mobile game category.
Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto series was again acknowledged, with Vice City Stories scooping the Handheld Game of the Year award for the second consecutive year, while Wii Sports claimed its first Golden Joystick Award triumphing as Family Game of the Year. Codemasters was victorious in the newly-created Developer of the Year category.
The winners of the 25th annual Golden Joystick Awards in full are as follows:
The bliss Girls’ Choice Game of the Year 2007: Guitar Hero II
The Sun Family Game of the Year 2007: Wii Sports
The Games Radar Handheld Game of the Year 2007: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
The 4Talent Mobile Game of the Year 2007: Final Fantasy
The T3 Innovation of the Year 2007: Nintendo Wii
The BBC 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year 2007: Guitar Hero II
The Nuts All-Nighter award 2007: Gears of War
The GameTribe Online Game of the Year 2007: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
The Next-Gen.biz UK Developer of the Year 2007: Codemasters
The Total Film One to Watch 2007: Assassin’s Creed
The Vivendi Retailer of the Year 2007: Game
Publisher of the Year 2007 – sponsored by Future: Nintendo
Editor’s Choice Award 2007 – Gears of War
Official Nintendo Magazine’s Nintendo Game of the Year 2007: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Official Playstation Magazine’s PlayStation Game of the Year 2007: God of War II
The PC Gamer PC Game of the Year 2007: The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
The Sonopress Xbox Game of the Year 2007: Gears of War
The 02 Ultimate Game of the Year 2007: Gears of War
For more information, visit goldenjoystick.com.
