Topic: Golden Joystick Award Nominees Announced

[Robert]

A look at the 2004 runners & riders.

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Golden Joystick 2004 Awards Unveils Shortlist; THQ Leads Charge With Most Nominations; Tables On-Sale Now

Friday 17 September 2004/... The Golden Joystick Awards 2004 organiser Future Publishing has today released the final shortlist for this year's event – with publisher THQ up for potentially nine awards at this year's bash. Last year, Nintendo swept the board, and with eight nominations it's still well in with a shout. Activision and Microsoft are up for six awards.

The Golden Joystick Awards are the industry's longest-running games honours and celebrate the very best games released in the 12 months prior to the event. This year's bash takes place on November 5th 2004, at the Park Lane Hilton.

"The world's gamers have been logging on to www.goldenjoystick.co.uk in their droves to vote, and we're delighted to unveil the fans' nominations for the best games of the year," says Emily Ford, marketing manager, Future Publishing. "These really are the people's choice – and it's interesting to see what our audience has voted for, rather than reading industry opinion."

Voting for the shortlist is now live at www.goldenjoystick.com, with the results unveiled at the November 5th bash.

PC Game of the Year:
 Doom 3 (Activision)
Far Cry (Ubi Soft)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (Atari)
Wahammer 40,000: Dawn of War (THQ)
X2: The Threat (Deep Silver)

Handheld GOTY
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (Nintendo)
Max Payne (Rockstar)
Metroid Zero Mission (Nintendo)
Sonic Advance 3 (Sega)
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Ubi Soft)
Tony Hawks Underground (Activision)

Online GOTY
Battlefield Vietnam (EA)
Burnout 3: Takedown (EA)
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (Vivendi)
Full Spectrum Warrior (THQ)
Joint Operations:Typhoon Rising (Novalogic)
Project Gotham Racing 2 (Microsoft)

Gamecube GOTY
Animal Crossing (Nintendo)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (Nintendo)
Mario Kart: Double Dash (Nintendo)
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Konami)
Splinter Cell:Pandora Tomorrow (Ubi Soft)
WWE Day of Reckoning (THQ)

Xbox GOTY
Fable (Microsoft)
Full Spectrum Warrior (THQ)
GTA Double Pack (Rockstar)
Ninja Gaiden (Microsoft)
Project Gotham Racing 2 (Microsoft)
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Ubi Soft)

PS2 GOTY
Burnout 3: Takedown (EA)
Driv3r (Atari)
Onimusha 3 (Capcom)
Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami)
Spiderman 2 (Activision)
WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain (THQ)

Hardware of the Year
Creative labs Gigaworks (Creative)
GBA SP - NES Classic Edition (Nintendo)
GBA Wireless Adaptor (Nintendo)
Nokia QD (Nokia)

PUBLISHER
Activision
Electronic Arts
Microsoft
Nintendo
THQ UK Ltd
Ubi Soft

RETAILER GAME
Amazon
Gameplay
Gamestation
Play.com
Toys R Us

MOST WANTED AWARDS (inc. Future Publishing 'Most Wanted' votes)
 
Most Wanted for Xmas
Gran Turismo 4 (Sony)
GTA: San Andreas (Rockstar)
Halo 2 (Microsoft)
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Nintendo)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (Activision)
WWE Smackdown vs Raw (THQ)

Most Wanted for 2005
Hitman: Blood Money (Eidos)
Metal Gear Sold 3: Snake Eater (Konami)
Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo)
The Punisher (THQ)

ULTIMATE AWARD

Ultimate GOTY
Doom 3 (Activision)
Fable (Microsoft)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi)
Ninja Gaiden (Microsoft)
Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami)
WWE Smackdown! Here comes the pain (THQ)

The Golden Joystick Awards 2004 will take place at the Park Lane Hotel on November 5th 2004.

[Ian Sane]

Why the hell is Driv3r nominated for PS2 GOTY?!  That's like The Butterfly Effect getting nominated for an Oscar.

Too bad there's no Cube games in the Ultimate GOTY (which for some reason has unreleased titles like Half-Life 2 included) but judging by the Cube GOTY nominees Europe didn't get the best Cube games this year, where as here in North America we got Pikmin 2 and Four Swords Adventures.

[Djunknown]

Yeah you beat me to it Ian. Half Life 2 getting nominations? WTF? I can imagine Gabe Newell's acceptance speech:

"I'd like to thank our dumb...errr patient European fans who making us the first game that hasn't been released to get an award. Your blind stupidity and ignorance....I mean your understanding means the world to us. You people were gulliable enough... uhh convinced that our game was better, and you the people haven't played it. Don't worry, the game will come out 'When its done.' I'd also like to thank Vivendi for believing our crazy and baseless excuses to delay this game well into the blue beyond. You mean everything to us. Thank you, and good night."

Nintendo wise, its an interesting list. Animal Crossing? Sounds soo 2002

[KDR_11k]

Animal Crossing isn't released yet, either.

Gah, I'm sure HL2 will win the "best PC" award. I think it got last year's GOTY, too. Then it comes out, everyone realizes it's an ETM-style flop and goes angry...
But hey, nice to know they nominated X2, which is the ONLY game out of the PC list that isn't an FPS or RTS game...

[WackerJr]

Lol! Yep, Half-Life 2 is yet to be released, same with Animal Crossing, Fable as well, AND Pro Evo 4! This means that out of the 6 finalists for Overall Game, only 3 have actually been released!!!!!

Also, Driver 3 was only released last week, Doom 3 a couple of weeks ago... it's a completely messed up system!!! See, we Europeans only muppets sometimes! No, we haven't had it good as Nintendo fans for a long time now so it's not surprising that there aren't any Nintendo games in the best overall!

Oh yeh, and I expect Fire Emblem would've been up there in the best handheld but Nintendo have decided to stop sending it out to retailers just a matter of weeks after it's release! Meaning some of us can't get hold of the game! (not that I'm bitter about it or anything!)

You know what, here's hoping that Half-Life 2 wins it, it would be a hell of a laugh and maybe give us European gamers a load of stick!!!

[KDR_11k]

But what if I don't WANT HL2 to win that award? People will be seriously diappointed by the game (no matter what Valve actually delivers, the hype has gone beyond any control), anyway.

[RABicle]

Well it has been a shockingly bad year of the poor old PS2 whcih would explain Driv3r and Spiderman 2 getting nominated.

Pro Evolution Soccer 4 will win PS2 GOTY and Ultimate GOTY.
And it hasn't been released either.

[KDR_11k]

Pro Evo 4 ultimate GOTY? When THE hype game (HL2) is competing? Suuuure....