‘Fortnite’ named Ultimate Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick awards

By Georgina Torbet November 17, 2018

This year’s Golden Joysticks, the gaming awards handed out by GamesRadar, have been announced and Fortnite has been named the Ultimate Game of the Year. The mobile battle game has been a global sensation this year, but the award comes as something of a surprise to many who expected the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2 to take the top honor. Red Dead Redemption 2 wasn’t ignored, however — it did win the award for Critics Choice. Other notable awards are the Mobile Game of the Year which went to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile, Best Competitive Game which also went to Fortnite, and Esports Game of the Year which went to Overwatch.

These awards demonstrate that something of a divide is opening up between story-based and primarily single player games like Red Dead Redemption and multiplayer online battle games like Fortnite. The history of PC gaming has leaned strongly towards single player games, in part due to fast internet connections being less common in past years than they are now, but in the last decade multiplayer and mobile gaming have exploded in popularity. With the fact that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 does not have a single player mode on top of Fortnite becoming such a sensation, it seems like multiplayer is on course to win this battle in the long run.

Recommended Videos

There was an award specifically for story-based games given out as well though, and the Best Storytelling award went to God of War, which also picked up honors for Best Visual Design and Best Audio as well as being name PlayStation Game of the Year. The brimming and diverse category of indie games was recognized too with a Best Indie Game award for Dead Cells. Xbox Game of the Year went to Forza Horizon 4, PC Game of the Year went to Subnautica, and Nintendo Game of the Year went to Octopath Traveler.

The Golden Joystick awards are voted for online by members of the public and attract millions of voters each year. The ceremony this year was streamed on Twitch and was held at the Bloomsbury Big Top on 16 November 2018, hosted by Danny Wallace.

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Gaming

Fortnite’s Rocket Racing is so fun, it could have been its own game

rocket racing hands on impressions jumping through air

Yesterday, Fortnite began its biggest expansion yet by dropping Lego Fortnite, a full survival crafting game that's playable for free within Fortnite. It was a pleasant surprise, but it isn’t the best piece of new content coming to the live-service juggernaut this week. That honor goes to Rocket Racing, an arcade racing game from the developers of Rocket League that’s available in Fortnite today.

This isn’t a simple kart racer that anyone could have put together in Fortnite’s creative mode. It’s a full-throated, free-to-play game that features 26 tracks at launch and some surprisingly deep driving systems. While Lego Fortnite may have had trouble standing on its own two feet outside of the Fortnite client, Rocket Racing could very well have launched as its own game -- and it still would be the best racing game of its type this year.

Gaming

This year’s biggest Game Awards snub is this can’t-miss shooter

El Paso, Elsewhere's main character leans on the hood of a car.

After months of anticipation, The Game Awards 2023 nominees were all revealed on Monday. While there will always be debates over what should and shouldn't have made the cut, there is one pretty glaring omission for me. This year's show snubbed one of the best indie games of the year: Strange Scaffold’s El Paso, Elsewhere.

Released for PC and Xbox on September 26, this indie is a narrative-focused action game inspired by games like Max Payne. While it looks like a thrilling shooter that’ll make you feel like a badass on the surface, it also tells a more compelling story about relationships and abuse. It’s one of the best games of the year and now something that might go very overlooked by general audiences as it’s not nominated at The Game Awards 2023. If you haven’t given it a shot yet, I urge you to check it out before the end of the year.
One of the year’s best
El Paso, Elsewhere's old-school third-person shooter gameplay might seem derivative at first glance, but it actually takes the formula those classic Max Payne games established and executes it better than it ever has been. The game intuitively makes me feel like a badass whenever I walk into a room and take some enemies down during a slow-motion dive. Still, players can’t ever go in completely guns-blazing, as each weapon has limited ammo. That makes each level a delicate ballet of dodging enemies and switching between guns, and that only intensifies with each new level.

Gaming

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 lead this year’s Game Awards nominations

Key art for The Game Awards 2023.

The nominees for The Game Awards 2023 are here following a livestream hosted by Geoff Keighley on Monday morning. It's been an excellent year for video games, and the nominations reflect that, at least in the AAA space. Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 garnered the most nominations, with eight each, but titles like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder also garnered several nominations.

In terms of indies, none got that much love in the show's biggest categories. However, games like Cocoon, Dredge, Viewfinder, and Terra Nil did pop up multiple times in the indie-friendly categories. We'll have a few weeks to think about all of these nominations ahead of The Game Awards 2023. This Keighley-hosted event is essentially the video game industry's version of the Oscars. It's one of the biggest stages where developers are awarded for their work and also doubles as a lengthy showcase featuring many game announcements and other gaming-related world premieres. This year is shaping up to be no different and might even go bigger as it's the 10th annual The Game Awards show.