From Software’s ridiculously punishing RPG Dark Souls 2 managed to win the Game of the Year award at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards with over nine million votes coming in from gamers around the world. This is certainly a great indication that gamers enjoy a challenging experience rather than a game that holds your hand at every turn. The 32nd annual Golden Joystick Awards had plenty of other categories as well, with The Last of Us: Left Behind, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and Hearthstone being the only games that managed to win two of them. The Last of Us took home the awards for Best Storytelling and Best Gaming Moment while AC: Black Flag grabbed Best Visual Design and Best Audio. Meanwhile, Blizzard’s increasingly popular CCG Hearthstone won in the Best Online Game and Best Mobile Game categories. The full list of winners from this year’s Golden Joystick Awards (as seen on CVG) can be found below.
- Best Original Game in association with Digital Spy: DayZ
- Best Online Game in association with PC Gamer: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Best Storytelling: The Last of Us: Left Behind
- Best Visual Design: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Best Audio in association with PDP: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Playfire Most Played Game of the Year: Rust
- Best Multiplayer in association with Absolute Radio: Battlefield 4
- Best Indie Game in association with Official X-Box Magazine: DayZ
- Innovation of the Year in association with T3: Oculus Rift DK2
- Best Gaming Moment in association with Sony Xperia Z3: The Last of Us: Left Behind – “The kiss”
- Best Handheld Game: Pokemon X & Y
- Best Mobile Game in association with Kiss FM: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Most Wanted in association with The Sun: The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
- Gaming Personality of the Year in association with Kotaku UK: PewDiePie
- Studio of the Year in association with CVG: Ubisoft Montreal
- Gaming Platform of the Year in association with GamesRadar: Steam
- Lifetime Achievement: Hideo Kojima
- Game of the Year in association with Green Man Gaming: Dark Souls II
It’s interesting to see that Ubisoft Montreal won Studio of the Year despite all the controversies surrounding them this year. Granted, the studio has plenty of projects going on and has already released a big hitter earlier this year in the form of Watch Dogs along with some smaller (but still great) games like Child of Light. However, the best is yet to as Ubisoft Montreal has two more high-profile titles scheduled to release next month: Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed Unity.