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 GamesGrand Theft Auto III(GTA III) hasclearly stolen the hearts and minds of the UKs games-buying public, asthe game has picked up no less than three of the awards on offer at todays Golden Joystick Awards, which were presented by Jonathan Ross at astar-studded event at Londons Dorchester Hotel.
In addition to GTA IIIs three awards PlayStation 2 Game of the Year,Game Innovation of the Year and overall Game of the Year there werealso awards for the games developer, Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, andeven an accolade for the games eagerly-awaited sequel, Grand Theft Auto:Vice City, which was voted Most Wanted Game for Christmas.
The Golden Joystick Awards, the UKs 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 todays 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 todays 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).
Microsofts Xbox beat off competition from Nintendo and AMD to claim theHardware of the Year prize, while the Sports Game of the Year titlewent to Konamis acclaimed Pro Evolution Soccer, which also took theDennis Publishing Editors Award.
This years 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)
- Winner: Resident Evil (Capcom)
- Runners-up: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (LucasArts), SuperSmash Bros. Melee (Nintendo)
- Winner: Golden Sun (Nintendo)
- Runners-up: Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Nintendo), Super Mario World: SuperMario Advance 2 (Nintendo)
- Winner: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games)
- Runners-up: Final Fantasy X (SCEE), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty(Konami)
- Winner: Counter-Strike (Vivendi Universal Games)
- Runners-up: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (EA Games), Warcraft III: Reignof Chaos (Vivendi Universal Games)
- Winner: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (EA Games)
- Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games), Warcraft III: Reign ofChaos (Vivendi Universal Games)
- Winner: The Thing (Vivendi Universal Games)
- Runners-up: Spider-Man (Activision), The Sum of all Fears (Ubi SoftEntertainment)
- Winner: Pro Evolution Soccer (Konami)
- Runners-up: Championship Manager (Eidos), FIFA 2002 (EA Sports)
- 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)
- Winner: Microsoft Xbox
- Runners-up: AMD Athlon XP Processor, Nintendo GameCube
- Winner: Rockstar North
- Runners-up: Electronic Arts, Rare
- Winner: Electronic Arts
- Runners-up: Activision/LucasArts, Microsoft Game Studios
- Winner: Gameplay.com
- Runners-up: GAME, Amazon.co.uk
- Winner: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Rockstar Games)
- Runners-up: Splinter Cell (Ubi Soft), Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo)
- Winner: Pro Evolution Soccer (Konami)
- Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games), Halo (Microsoft GameStudios)
- Winner: Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games)
- Runners-up: Halo (Microsoft Game Studios), Medal of Honor: Allied Assault(EA Games)
GameCube Game of the Year
Handheld Game of the Year
PS2 Game of the Year
Online Game of the Year
PC Game of the Year
Best Use of a Film Licence
Sports Game of the Year (voted for by listeners to Radio 1s breakfast show)
Game Innovation of the Year
Hardware of the Year (sponsored by Vivendi)
British Developer of the Year
Publisher of the Year (sponsored by Macrovision)
Retailer of the Year (sponsored by Electronic Arts)
Most Wanted Game for Christmas (voted for by readers of The Sun and The Sun Online)
Editors Award (voted for by the editorial staff at Dennis Publishing)
Game of the Year (sponsored by Jungle.com)
News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2002.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.