It’s one of the biggest video game awards of the year, and the shortlist is in.
Awarded by Computer and Video Games magazine, it’s considered the second biggest video games awards in the world, after the Arcade Awards, having dished out accolades for gaming excellence since 1883.
Best of the Best
Covering 15 categories of games, studios, innovations, and even YouTube gamers, this selection just goes to show how great 2013 has been. Whilst many of the big studio titles are gobbling up nominations like a Vegas breakfast buffet, surprisingly one or two indie games have really made their mark on this year’s shortlist.
Hotline Miami is nominated in no less than five categories, not only including “Best Indie Game,”but also the sought after “Game of the Year;” an absolute coup de grâce for Dennaton Games. However, despite several other indie games squaring off with big studio names in various categories, Hotline Miami is the only title to equally rival big name developers.
Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us dominates the line-up with a total of six nominations; one more than fellow blockbuster, Bioshock: Infinite, who matches them in all categories bar “Best Newcomer.”
“Game of the Year,” of course, is the most sought after award, and this year looks like some stiff competition. The shortlist is as follows:
- Bioshock: Infinite
- Borderlands 2
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Dishonored
- Far Cry 3
- Fire Emblem: Awakening
- Forza Horizon
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Guild Wars 2
- Halo 4
- Hotline Miami
- The Last of Us
- Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
- Pikmin 3
- Saints Row IV
- Splinter Cell Blacklist
- Tomb Raider
- The Walking Dead
A dead certain winner? The Last of Us mops up nominations. Screenshot courtesy of Naughty Dog.
Best of the…Worst?!
Of course, there are a few surprises. Maxis and Electronic Art’s battered and bruised city builder SimCity sneaks into the “Best Online” category, despite wide-spread disappointment from fans, and one of the rockiest game launches in history. Now on its seventh version/patch, with significant improvements to some of the game’s integral mechanics, means that this is probably one of the biggest surprises in the nominations.
Also unexpectedly on the list is Capcom’s Remember Me. Having received overall luke-warm praise, it’s currently sitting pretty in the “Best Newcomer” category.
Strangely, some games are also shortlisted despite only having just received a release, like Saints Row IV and Final Fantasy XIV, which just seems pretty presumptions. But with nominations taking into account all games from August 25th 2012 and September 24th 2013 means that also, more puzzlingly, games like Grand Theft Auto V are included, even though its more than two weeks away from launch!
But whether these will be chosen by the public, and catapulted to glory, is something that only time will tell.
iPad Mini, I Choose You!
The Golden Joystick Awards is also refered to as The People’s Awards, because the public pick the winners from the shortlists. To encourage gamers to come out and vote, once you’ve submitted your votes, if you write about your favourite games from the year, you could be in for a chance to win an iPad mini.
To vote and find out more about the awards, visit www.computerandvideogames.com/joystick. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London, UK on October 25th 2013.
