Microsoft’s breakthrough title, Gears of War has been honoured as the ‘O2 Ultimate Game of the Year’ at today’s 25th annual Golden Joystick Awards, which took place at the prestigious Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane.

Developed by Epic Games, Gears of War offered gamers a unique blend of tactical action and survival horror and was this year’s big winner scooping a massive four awards in total including ‘The Sonopress Xbox Game of the Year’, the ‘Nuts All-Nighter Award’ as voted for by Nuts readers and the prestigious ‘Editors’ Choice’ award. In the 25th anniversary year of the UK’s longest-established and most popular games awards, it was the diverse range of pioneering software that grabbed the attention of UK gamers as nearly 750,000 votes were cast, up on last year’s 540,000 votes.

Guitar Hero II and Nintendo were the ceremony’s other notable winners each receiving two awards each. Played with a special guitar controller, Guitar Hero II was honoured in both ‘BBC 1Xtra’s Soundtrack of the Year’ category and ‘bliss magazine’s Girls’ Choice Award’. Nintendo triumphed as the ‘Publisher of the Year’ while their ultra successful Wii console scooped the ‘T3 Innovation Award’, gazumping Sony’s Playstation 3 console, which was last year’s winner of the ‘One To Watch’ award.

Elsewhere in the awards, ‘GameTribe’s Online Game of the Year’ and the ‘Mobile Game of the Year’, sponsored by Channel 4’s 4Talent, proved successful categories with gamers, attracting significant votes overall. Blizzard Entertainment’s stunning World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade topped the online game category while the mobile version of long-running fantasy series Final Fantasy hit the top spot of the mobile game category. In keeping with the Golden Joystick Awards’ celebration of gaming talent, Tom Dowding, a budding mobile game developer was presented with a cheque for £2500 from Channel 4 and will receive a hothouse work placement with EA Mobile. Tom successfully pitched his ‘Let It Grow’ mobile game concept to a panel of industry experts, beating eight other shortlisted competitors as part of an initiative between 4Talent, the Golden Joystick Awards and EA Mobile. With mobile gaming becoming increasingly more accessible, the Golden Joystick Awards is proud to be supporting the future of gaming.

Rockstar Games’ unstoppable Grand Theft Auto series was again acknowledged, with Vice City Stories scooping the ‘The Games Radar Handheld Game of the Year’ award for the second consecutive year, while Wii Sports claimed its first Golden Joystick Award triumphing as ‘The Sun’s Family Game of the Year’. Game, grabbed the ‘Vivendi Retailer of the Year’ award while Warwickshire-based Codemasters were victorious in the newly-created ‘Next-Gen.biz Developer of the Year’ category.

The winners of the 25th annual Golden Joystick Awards in full are as follows:

The bliss Girls’ Choice Game of the Year 2007: Guitar Hero II

The Sun Family Game of the Year 2007: Wii Sports

The Games Radar Handheld Game of the Year 2007: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

The 4Talent Mobile Game of the Year 2007: Final Fantasy

The T3 Innovation of the Year 2007: Nintendo Wii

The BBC 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year 2007: Guitar Hero II

The Nuts All-Nighter award 2007: Gears of War

The GameTribe Online Game of the Year 2007: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

The Next-Gen.biz UK Developer of the Year 2007: Codemasters

The Total Film One to Watch 2007: Assassin’s Creed

The Vivendi Retailer of the Year 2007: Game

Publisher of the Year 2007 – sponsored by Future: Nintendo
Editor’s Choice Award 2007 – Gears of War

Official Nintendo Magazine’s Nintendo Game of the Year 2007: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Official Playstation Magazine’s PlayStation Game of the Year 2007: God of War II

The PC Gamer PC Game of the Year 2007: The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

The Sonopress Xbox Game of the Year 2007: Gears of War

The 02 Ultimate Game of the Year 2007: Gears of War