Are you a gamer? I am and a lot of my favourite celebrities are. It was partly how I got back into it as I used to spend hours on the Nintendo GameBoy and SNES before I went to university. At uni, I replaced gaming with nights out but as I got back into it, playing games on XBox 360 Live in my living room with or against celebs (eg Dizzee Rascal, Vernon Kaye and Danny Dyer) and other journalists turned out to be just as fun as nights in a bar. There are no queues for the bar in your own house, the toilets tend to be a lot cleaner and you can control who sits in the VIP area with you. Plus there’s no minimum spend!
But just as not all nightclubs are fantastic, not all games are going to be worth playing. It’s vital to do your research and the only way to do that is by reading games publication. You can get this info online or in a magazine, in a specialised publication or in a mainstream newspaper or a magazine (even The Guardian and The New Statesman have gaming sections). The Games Media Awards honoured the best of the best in gaming journalism and it was really interesting to witness as it showed me just how many people are involved in games journalism in the UK.
The awards took place at Vinopolis near London Bridge train station and the room was packed.
Before I move on to who won what, I must just say that the awards were hosted by the most hilarious comperes. Ricky Gervais at the Emmy’s was only mildly funny compared to these guys. They’re a five piece improv comedy group called The Noise Next Door and they make up songs and in less than a minute. They got members of the audience shout out words and then composed a catchly song based around it. Highights were a song about porn, fishermen and Jimmy Saville and a dedication to a female member of the audience about vodka, cheese fear and Mexico.
Please check out this video below for an example…about The Queen and tortoises
Now onto the awards and I want to start with a category I am very proud of – the Rising Star award. My brother Ben Griffin was nominated. If you want to get reviews on a wide variety of games from Pokemon to GTA V then I would definitely advise you to check out his writing for Future publications here. He may not have won, but he was shortlitsted in the top 6 and he’s related to me so those are a couple of reasons to check out his pieces.
The finalists (and winners in bold) are:
RISING STAR
Daniel Krupa, IGN
Bex May, AskMen
Sam White, Future
Vaughn Highfield, Pocket Gamer
Ben Griffin, CVG
Cara Ellison, Freelance
SPECIALIST WRITER – PRINT
Michael Gapper, Edge
Rich McCormick, PC Gamer
Gillen McAlllister, Gamereactor
Matthew Castle, ONM
Jason Killingsworth, Edge
Joel Gregory, OPM
SPECIALIST WRITER – ONLINE
Christian Donlan, Eurogamer
Jon Blyth, OXM
Keza MacDonald, IGN
Simon Parkin, Eurogamer
Andy Kelly, CVG
Steve Hogarty, PCGamesN
Rob Crossley, CVG
Oli Welsh, Eurogamer
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER WRITER
Matt Kamen, The Observer
Keith Stuart, The Guardian
David Jenkins, Metro
Lee Price, The Sun
Dan Silver, Sunday Mirror
Talal Musa, Daily Mail
MAINSTREAM MAGAZINE WRITER
Rory Buckeridge, Nuts
Julia Hardy, Front
Matt Hill, T3
Daniel Nye Griffiths, Wired
Simon Ward, Zoo
Helen Lewis, New Statesman
Jonathan Pile, Shortlist
GAMES MAGAZINE
PC Gamer
Edge
GamesTM
Official Xbox 360 Magazine
Gamereactor
Retro Gamer
GAMES WEBSITE
IGN
Eurogamer
Videogamer
Rock Paper Shotgun
Pocketgamer
CVG
PCGamesN
VG247
GAMES BLOG
Midnight Resistance
Killing Time
Ready Up
Fifasoccerblog.com
Average Gamer
The Game Jar
GAMES VIDEO
OXM Breakdown
Videogamer TV
The Blurb
Feedbackula, Gamespot
PlayStation Access
SB.TV
Yogscast
GAMES RADIO/PODCAST
Adam Rosser, Radio Five Live
Guy Cocker’s Podcast
This is my Joystick
IGN UK Podcast
Gamespot UK Podcast
OneLifeLeft
COVERAGE BY A MAINSTREAM WEBSITE
Askmen
Digital Spy
BT Games
Sci-fi London.com
Sabotage Times
Huffington Post
TOP TWEETER
Steve Hogarty @misterbrilliant
Andy Kelly @ultrabrilliant
Gav Murphy @cymrogav
Glans Gruber @gamewank_jim
Rob Crossley @Rob_Crossley_
Sean Bell @CaptainToss
Lee Bradley @Lee_Bradley
Martin Gaston @squidmania
With all these publications, we’re spoiled for choice when comes to reading about the latest games and getting tips. Check some out and it will help you pick the perfect game for you Us VIPs need the best!