ROCKSTAR STOLE MY JOYSTICK

ROCKSTAR STOLE MY JOYSTICKGTA3 Distributed by
Rockstar GamesPosted: October 27th, 2002.

Grand Theft Auto IIIemerges as the star of the show at Friday’s Golden Joystick Awards ceremony.

Rockstar Games’Grand Theft Auto III(GTA III) hasclearly stolen the hearts and minds of the UK’s games-buying public, asthe game has picked up no less than three of the awards on offer at today’s Golden Joystick Awards, which were presented by Jonathan Ross at astar-studded event at London’s Dorchester Hotel.

In addition to GTA III’s three awards – ‘PlayStation 2 Game of the Year’,‘Game Innovation of the Year’ and overall ‘Game of the Year’ – there werealso awards for the game’s developer, Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, andeven an accolade for the game’s eagerly-awaited sequel, Grand Theft Auto:Vice City, which was voted ‘Most Wanted Game for Christmas’.

The Golden Joystick Awards, the UK’s premier awards for interactiveentertainment, are hosted by Dennis Publishing, a leading publisher ofmagazines in the computer and video games sector. The awards have beenvoted for by more than 30,000 readers of Dennis’ magazines and visitors toits consumer websites.

“After all of the hard work and effort which has gone into staging theseawards, we are delighted that today’s ceremony has been such anunqualified success,” says Tara Leathers, Games Division Publisher forDennis Publishing. “That said, we have no intention of resting on ourlaurels and we look forward to an even bigger Golden Joystick Awards for2003.”

Other big winners in today’s ceremony were Electronic Arts, which won ‘PCGame of the Year’ (for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault) and ‘Publisher ofthe Year’; and Vivendi Universal Games, which walked away with ‘OnlineGame of the Year’ (for Counter-Strike) and ‘Best Use of a Film Licence’(for The Thing).

Microsoft’s Xbox beat off competition from Nintendo and AMD to claim the‘Hardware of the Year’ prize, while the ‘Sports Game of the Year’ titlewent to Konami’s acclaimed Pro Evolution Soccer, which also took theDennis Publishing ‘Editors’ Award’.

This year’s Golden Joystick Awards were sponsored by Jungle.com, VivendiUniversal Games, Electronic Arts and Macrovision.

The full list of winners and runners-up is as follows…

Xbox Game of the Year
• Winner: Halo (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Runners-up: Dead or Alive 3 (Tecmo), Max Payne (Take 2 Interactive)

GameCube Game of the Year

• Winner: Resident Evil (Capcom)
• Runners-up: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (LucasArts), SuperSmash Bros. Melee (Nintendo)

Handheld Game of the Year

• Winner: Golden Sun (Nintendo)
• Runners-up: Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Nintendo), Super Mario World: SuperMario Advance 2 (Nintendo)

PS2 Game of the Year

• Winner: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games)
• Runners-up: Final Fantasy X (SCEE), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty(Konami)

Online Game of the Year

• Winner: Counter-Strike (Vivendi Universal Games)
• Runners-up: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (EA Games), Warcraft III: Reignof Chaos (Vivendi Universal Games)

PC Game of the Year

• Winner: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (EA Games)
• Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games), Warcraft III: Reign ofChaos (Vivendi Universal Games)

Best Use of a Film Licence

• Winner: The Thing (Vivendi Universal Games)
• Runners-up: Spider-Man (Activision), The Sum of all Fears (Ubi SoftEntertainment)

Sports Game of the Year (voted for by listeners to Radio 1’s breakfast show)

• Winner: Pro Evolution Soccer (Konami)
• Runners-up: Championship Manager (Eidos), FIFA 2002 (EA Sports)

Game Innovation of the Year

• Winner: ‘Open-ended play’ in Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games)
• Runners-up: ‘Bullet time’ in Max Payne (Take 2 Interactive), The D-Daylanding in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (EA Games)

Hardware of the Year (sponsored by Vivendi)

• Winner: Microsoft Xbox
• Runners-up: AMD Athlon XP Processor, Nintendo GameCube

British Developer of the Year

• Winner: Rockstar North
• Runners-up: Electronic Arts, Rare

Publisher of the Year (sponsored by Macrovision)

• Winner: Electronic Arts
• Runners-up: Activision/LucasArts, Microsoft Game Studios

Retailer of the Year (sponsored by Electronic Arts)

• Winner: Gameplay.com
• Runners-up: GAME, Amazon.co.uk

Most Wanted Game for Christmas (voted for by readers of The Sun and The Sun Online)

• Winner: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Rockstar Games)
• Runners-up: Splinter Cell (Ubi Soft), Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo)

Editors’ Award (voted for by the editorial staff at Dennis Publishing)

• Winner: Pro Evolution Soccer (Konami)
• Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games), Halo (Microsoft GameStudios)

Game of the Year (sponsored by Jungle.com)

• Winner: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games)
• Runners-up: Halo (Microsoft Game Studios), Medal of Honor: Allied Assault(EA Games)

News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2002.

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