Comedian and Mock of the Week regular Ed Bryne, kicked off proceedings and rounded off the awards with a fantastic set. He was kind enough to pose for Geek Speak before meeting up with a robotic Stephen Fry after revealing that the Golden Joystick awards received smashed the 4m vote mark.Lianna Brinded
Comedian and Mock of the Week regular Ed Bryne, kicked off proceedings and rounded off the awards with a fantastic set. He was kind enough to pose for Geek Speak before meeting up with a robotic Stephen Fry after revealing that the Golden Joystick awards received smashed the 4m vote mark.Lianna BrindedNo gaming award would be complete without a robotic Stephen Fry. Presenting the award for Best Handheld game, the robot, controlled by Fry himself at home, gave Uncharted: Golden Abyss for PS Vita the gong.Lianna BrindedCivilization V beat Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai and Might and Magic: Heroes VI, with its winning combination of both religion and espionage mechanics, in the franchises latest expansion pack. “Obviously, it’s a fantastic game of sheer depth and wealth that was a key ingredient for the game’s success,” enthused Ben Laurence at Firaxis'.Lianna BrindedSony Computer Entertainment’s David Wilson picks up the gong for Uncharted: Golden Abyss. David Wilson, who accepted the award said “there was some degree of trepidation shaking a robotic Stephen Fry’s hand. I had an image of him crushing my fingers like an Ed 209 robot being out of control.” “This is terrific for us and everyone seems to love it. We’ve launched 23 titles on Vita and we’ve looking to go into Xmas with renewed energy and vigour with Call of Duty, Fifa and Assassin’s coming out,” he added.Lianna BrindedCo-founder of internet sensations Yogcasts, Simon Lane, collects the award after their channel, which features off-the-cuff films about computer gaming, achieved 1bn views on its YouTube channel and gets 3m people tuning in each day. “I’ve never been to an award show like this before, but clearly it shows that if you turn up, you get an award. Well I think that’s how it works,” said Lane. So where will his award be going? “Well we have a specially built cabinet which so far has one trophy, but of course we will be trying to win an award every, single year,” said Lane.Lianna BrindedFor a gamer, it was no surprise that Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition won the Best Downloadable Title of 2012, after years of cultivating a rich and deep following. Pawan Bhardwaj, by-product manager for Xbox Live said “the success of Minecraft is that it resonates so well with our customer base, we had over a million downloads in the first week, we smashed all previous records and we’re still doing so well.” Forza 4 picked up the Best Racing game and beat Need for Speed: The Run and Twisted Metal. “It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the success of the game but there is no doubt that there is a pedigree of excellence when it comes to the in-game racing the game provides,” said another rep from Xbox 360 live.Lianna BrindedAnnounced on the night, the winning sniper received a Golden Joystick Award for the Hitman: Sniper Challenge Ultimate Assassin Award, which will also mean that the UK's Ultimate Assassin will have their likeness captured in a future Hitman release. The Sniper Challenge features global leaderboards and competitions, which can be tracked on the game's official website. “It really is a bit of a shock and the game is really addictive. There are so many different ways to play the game and you just can’t put it down,” said Craig McVeigh.Lianna BrindedSean Brennan and Sarah Seaby nearly buckled under the weight of three awards for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Not only did the game win the coveted Ultimate Game of the Year, it also picked up Best RPG and Top Gaming Moment in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim: Throat of the World Although, they were enjoying the fruits of their labour, Brennan said “there’s work to be done later and you don’t win awards by having drinks at award ceremonies.” “I suppose it’s so immersive and so large and crafted with such detail and such love that you can lose yourself in the game for hours,” added Seaby.Lianna BrindedNo awards ceremony would be complete without the after-party. Need for Speed was available on a range of monitors inside the hall.Lianna BrindedAfter a tiring press run for the winners, the rest of ceremony kicked back with games, a disco and jager-bombs. As you do.Lianna Brinded
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Golden Joystick Awards got a record number of public votes - over four million - for recognising some of the top video games of 2012.
Not only there was there a plethora of nerds, gamers and superstar developers, there was also Ed Byrne and, erm, a robotic Stephen Fry.
The event is also one of few opportunities outside trade shows such as E3 and GamesCom for the industry to get together under one roof to celebrate the year's greatest gaming achievements and is one of the only awards that is voted ON by the public, rather than a panel of "stuffy judges", say organisers.
Of course, Geek Speak was there to bring you the latest and here are some our highlights from one of the best video gaming events of the year.
