And the nominees are...

Message to UK games industry notables - start preparing your ‘impromptu’ acceptance speeches, as the official nominations for this year’s Golden Joystick Awards are announced today.

Amongst the front-runners at this stage are EA Games’ Medal of Honor franchise, which has been nominated in five categories (including Game of the Year and Online Game of the Year), Take Two’s Grand Theft Auto III (three nominations) and Blizzard’s WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos (also three nominations). In total, more than 60 computer and video games, products and services have been nominated across 14 separate categories.

“Whatever the eventual result, everyone involved in all of the companies and products short-listed today should be proud of their achievement and should remember that their nomination has come direct from the most important source – their customers,” says Tara Leathers, Games Division Publisher for Dennis Publishing. “We will be actively encouraging all of the nominees to encourage their customers to register their votes between now and the final closing date and will supply any materials we can that will help with this process.”

In addition to the platform-specific ‘Game of the Year’ awards, there are a number of other accolades up for grabs, covering all sections of the UK trade, including hardware, publishing, development and retail.

Retailer of the Year will see a battle between the traditional high street shop and the emerging online retail sector, with GAME, Virgin Megastores, Gamestation and HMV representing the former and Amazon, Gameplay, Play and Jungle representing the ‘dotcoms’.

In the Hardware of the Year category, the two video games consoles released in the last 12 months (Microsoft’s Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube) are joined by a range of PC hardware innovations (NVIDIA’s GeForce 4600, Intel’s Pentium 4 and AMD’s XP processor) and, in what must be a first for any awards ceremony, Nintendo’s GameCube Game Boy Advance cable.

Some pointers towards this year’s seasonal best-sellers might be found in the ‘Most Wanted Game for Christmas’ category, where some of the biggest franchises in gaming are set to face off. The nominees for this award include Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, Metal Gear Solid II: Substance, Splinter Cell, Super Mario Sunshine, Unreal Tournament 2003 and WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth.

Perhaps the most hotly-contested category of all will be the Game of the Year award, which sees nominations from all of the major hardware platforms. Included in this category are Final Fantasy X, Grand Theft Auto III, Halo, Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault, Metal Gear Solid II: Sons Of Liberty, Neverwinter Nights, Shenmue II, Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros. Melee and WarCraft III: Reign Of Chaos.

While voting was completely open up until this point, only votes cast for nominated products will be counted from today forward. Voting continues at the Golden Joystick Awards website (www.goldenjoystick.co.uk) until the final closing date of Friday October 18th. The winners will be announced at the Golden Joystick Awards ceremony, which will be hosted by Jonathan Ross and will take place at London’s Dorchester Hotel on Friday October 25th.

The Golden Joystick Awards are sponsored by Jungle.com (Game of the Year), Vivendi Universal Games (Hardware of the Year), Electronic Arts (Retailer of the Year) and MacroVision (Publisher of the Year).

The full list of nominees is as follows:

PS2 Game of the Year

Final Fantasy X
Grand Theft Auto III
ICO
Medal Of Honor: Frontline
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty
Pro Evolution Soccer


PC Game of Year

Grand Theft Auto III
Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault
Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III
Neverwinter Nights
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
WarCraft III: Reign Of Chaos


Xbox Game of the Year

Championship Manager
Dead Or Alive 3
Halo
Jet Set Radio Future
Max Payne
Project Gotham Racing


Gamecube Game of the Year

Luigi's Mansion
Pikmin
Resident Evil
Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II
Super Monkey Ball
Super Smash Bros. Melee


Handheld Game of the Year

Advance Wars
Golden Sun
Doom Advance
Mario Kart Advance: Super Circuit
Sonic Advance
Super Mario World: Mario Advance 2


Online Game of the Year

Counterstrike
Day Of Defeat
Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault
Phantasy Star Online v2
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
WarCraft III: Reign Of Chaos


Hardware of the Year

AMD Athlon XP Processor
GameCube/GBA link cable
GeForce Titanium 4600
Microsoft Xbox
Nintendo GameCube
Pentium 4 Processor


British Developer of the Year

Codemasters
EA Games
Lionhead
Rare
Rockstar North (DMA Design)
Sony


Publisher of the Year

Activision/LucasArts
EA Games
Eidos Interactive
Konami
Microsoft
Sony


Retailer of the Year

Amazon.com
GAME
Gameplay.com
Gamestation
HMV
Jungle.com
Play.com
Virgin Megastores


Game Innovation of the Year

Open-ended play in Grand Theft Auto III
Style of ICO
Bullet Time in Max Payne
D-Day landing in Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault
Mission creation tools in Neverwinter Nights
Control system in Pikmin


Most Wanted Game for Christmas

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Metal Gear Solid II: Substance
Splinter Cell
Super Mario Sunshine
Unreal Tournament 2003
WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth


Game of the Year

Final Fantasy X
Grand Theft Auto III
Halo
Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault
Metal Gear Solid II: Sons Of Liberty
Neverwinter Nights
Shenmue II
Super Monkey Ball
Super Smash Bros. Melee
WarCraft III: Reign Of Chaos