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40th Golden Joystick Awards nominations (2022)

PeachyTofu

PeachyTofu

Magazine Journalist - PLAY, PC Gamer, Edge
Verified
Jul 9, 2021
172
United Kingdom
The nominations for this year's Golden Joystick Awards have been announced!

Voting is open now over at GamesRadar (www.gamesradar.com/goldenjoystickawards/) and the full list of this year's nominees is below:

Best Audio:
We Are OFK
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Metal: Hellsinger
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Gran Turismo 7
OlliOlli World

Best Storytelling:
IMMORTALITY
Return to Monkey Island
Horizon Forbidden West
NORCO
I Was A Teenage Exocolonist
Wayward Strand

Best Game Community
Dreams
Final Fantasy XIV
GRID Legends
No Man's Sky
Splatoon 3
Warframe

Best Game Expansion
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course
GTA Online: The Contract
Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
Total War: Warhammer III - Immortal Empires

Best Gaming Hardware
Playdate
Steam Deck
Analogue Pocket
Backbone One: PlayStation Edition
Roccat Kone XP
WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD for PS5

Best Indie Game
Cult of the Lamb
Tunic
Rollerdrome
Dorfromantik
Neon White
Teardown

Best Multiplayer Game
Elden Ring
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenue
MultiVersus
Splatoon 3
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Best Visual Design
Elden Ring
Horizon Forbidden West
Cult of the Lamb
Ghostwire: Tokyo
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Lost in Play

Most Wanted Game
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Final Fantasy XVI
Assassin's Creed Mirage
Dead Island 2
Forspoken
Street Fighter 6
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Honkai: Star Rail
Starfield
Exoprimal
Redfall
Hogwarts Legacy
The Day Before
Mass Effect
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Kerbal Space Program 2
Dead Space

Nintendo Game of the Year
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Live A Live
Splatoon 3
Nintendo Switch Sports

PC Game of the Year
Neon White
Return to Monkey Island
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Teardown
Total War: Warhammer 3
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters

PlayStation Game of the Year
Gran Turismo 7
Horizon Forbidden West
Stray
Elden Ring
The Last Of Us Part I
Sifu

Xbox Game of the Year
Halo Infinite
Scorn
Grounded
As Dusk Falls
Sniper Elite 5
Dying Light 2: Stay Human

Still Playing
Genshin Impact
The Sims 4
Destiny 2
Final Fantasy XIV
Minecraft
Fortnite
Pokémon GO
Apex Legends
Lost Ark
The Elder Scrolls Online

Studio of the Year
Roll7
Terrible Toybox
Half Mermaid
FromSoftware Inc.
Interior / Night
Tribute Games

Best Early Access Launch
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Slime Rancher 2
Dune: Spice Wars
Core Keeper
Vampire Survivors
Gloomwood

Best Game Trailer
The Callisto Protocol The Truth of Black Iron Trailer
Goat Simulator 3 Announcement Trailer
skate. Still Working On It Trailer
Bloody Hell Hotel Reveal Trailer
Time Flies Announcement Trailer
Alan Wake 2 Reveal Trailer

Public voting is open now and runs until Friday November 4, 2022. The winners will then be revealed in a digital broadcast ceremony on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 available on all major streaming platforms!
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,431
This really has not been a good year for games so far. So...yeah, take as many awards as you can, Elden Ring. There's no meaningful competition.

Best Audio:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
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BWAAAAAAH, THAT'S A RARE DOO-DAH RIGHT HERE
I'M THE GIRL WITH THE GALL *repeat ad infinitum*
 
Betty

Betty

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,604
Stray didn't get an indie nom? No Splatoon 3 for visual design?

Steam Deck vs an SSD… c'mon now.

Don't know why Elden Ring is only in the PS GOTY list.

Xbox GOTY list is 😕
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,322
They need a Best Soundtrack category because there's no way something like Xenoblade 3 should be anywhere near a Best Audio award given how bad its mixing is.
 
Masagiwa

Masagiwa

Member
Jan 27, 2018
9,899
RE4 Remake not in the most wanted category

this_is_bullshit_the_wire.gif


It's legit my most anticipated title along with FF16 next year
 
Yeona

Yeona

Banned
Jan 19, 2021
2,065
PlanetSmasher said:
This really has not been a good year for games so far. So...yeah, take as many awards as you can, Elden Ring. There's no meaningful competition.
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I almost always agree with every take you have, but this one I will have to ask for an opinion-divorce on! lmao

For JRPG fans it's been WILD, man. At least for me it has! And there's still so many more to come this year.

Yuntu said:
XC3 not in storytelling is sadge. When Horizon is ther XC3 easily belongs there.
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The real tragedy is Trails From Zero and Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker not being on there.
 
Masagiwa

Masagiwa

Member
Jan 27, 2018
9,899
PlanetSmasher said:
This really has not been a good year for games so far. So...yeah, take as many awards as you can, Elden Ring. There's no meaningful competition.
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Honestly, the only sure bet in these for ER is probably Fromsoft for best studio. The visual design could go to Cult of the Lamb or Horizon easily and it's def not getting MP game. For Playstation title has a good chance but Stray is a strong contender there as well.
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,431
Masagiwa said:
Honestly, the only sure bet in these for ER is probably Fromsoft for best studio. The visual design could go to Cult of the Lamb or Horizon easily and it's def not getting MP game. For Playstation title has a good chance but Stray is a strong contender there as well.
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I don't really think Stray has a chance of eclipsing Elden Ring. Stray is cute and nice but it's not the kind of game people are going to talk about in 2-3 years the way ER still will be.
 
BaconHat

BaconHat

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,097
While i dont see them winning, seeing so much monkey island on that list is giving me life.
 
Yeona

Yeona

Banned
Jan 19, 2021
2,065
Yuntu said:
Can't just Zero myself (yet) but wasn't Endwalker last year or am I that out of whack.

But then again its votable in Best Xpac ... whats the timeframe for nominations?
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Endwalker was last year yeah. I suppose since it's an MMO, the nominees for ongoing games are usually given a bigger timeline?

Also, hope you enjoy Zero and Azure when you get to them!
 
jroc74

jroc74

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,991
Well now, these are some interesting nominations, lol

Seeing GT7 for audio feels good. The music is also great.

I saw this GTA Online: The Contract and went huh? I thought this came out Dec 2021. But then I remembered I guess its based on cut off times?
JMcAddledMind said:
Elden Ring not even cracking the top 6 picks for Xbox is... odd.
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The Xbox list is just interesting overall.

Scorn over Elden Ring is kinda wild to be honest. One hasnt even launched yet.
 
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JMcAddledMind

JMcAddledMind

Member
Sep 22, 2021
60
jroc74 said:
The Xbox list is just interesting overall.
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I thought for sure that I would be deliberating between Elden Ring Vs Immortality for Xbox, and neither of them are options. Elsewhere there are games that haven't been released and others that came out last year, so I don't even get the calendar they're working with. Ah well.
 
jroc74

jroc74

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,991
JMcAddledMind said:
I thought for sure that I would be deliberating between Elden Ring Vs Immortality for Xbox, and neither of them are options. Elsewhere there are games that haven't been released and others that came out last year, so I don't even get the calendar they're working with. Ah well.
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Yup, I just updated my post about seeing Scorn but no Elden Ring on the Xbox list is.....something, lol.
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,322
Jeffram said:
No God of War Ragnorok on the most wanted list is weird.
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It might work like the PSblog awards where the most anticipated game can only win once to prevent a case where some huge game is winning it every year until its release. In the case of Ragnarok and this show, it won it in 2020 before it was even officially called Ragnarok.
 
kinoki

kinoki

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,696
I always feel it's so weird that games always announce their awards in Q4 for the entire year. When there are several months left of the year with potentially dozen of games that automatically disqualified.
 
JMcAddledMind

JMcAddledMind

Member
Sep 22, 2021
60
Jeffram said:
No God of War Ragnorok on the most wanted list is weird.
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Ok, so I'm pretty sure the nominations are for games released after 5th November 21 (Forza Horizon 5 came out on 5th and I'm pretty sure it would win more noms than Sniper Elite 5 on Xbox if it qualified) but before Halo Infinite on 15th November or December if it's single player focused, and because the event is on 22nd November GOW Ragnarok can neither be GOTY on PS5 nor on the most anticipated list.

As for Elden Ring on PS but not on Xbox, I'm still left guessing.
 
Belphegor

Belphegor

Member
Sep 24, 2021
1,105
i don't understand why are these awards announced so early when there are still many big games releasing in the next few months.
 
BrickArts295

BrickArts295

GOTY Tracking Thread Master
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,718
Interesting that they aren't doing an Ultimate Game of the Year this year.
 
jaymzi

jaymzi

Member
Jul 22, 2019
6,534
I am assuming they want to nominate a game only once total for the individual platform category since Elden Ring just appears on the PlayStation list.
 
Servbot24

Servbot24

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
43,052
Why is Halo Infinite there? I guess games released late last year qualify? Why not just make the cutoff January instead.
 
RMChoodie

RMChoodie

Member
Dec 27, 2021
765
American in Costa Rica
Best Storytelling:
IMMORTALITY
Return to Monkey Island
Horizon Forbidden West
NORCO
I Was A Teenage Exocolonist
Wayward Stran

where is Citizen Sleeper? (IMMORTALITY is going to win)
Horizon is great but its story is just fine
could also be up for best indie but Tunic or Cult has got that award
 
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