Golden Joystick Awards 2012: Top Gaming Moment category – who are you voting for?

Only one can take home the coveted Golden Joystick

Words: GamesRadar_MattCundy on October 18, 2012

As voting for the Golden Joystick Awards 2012 enters its final weeks, we take a look at each of the individual categories. Today is the turn of Top Gaming Moment category.

Best Top Gaming Moment shortlist (for an explanation of each moment, head to Golden Joystick Awards):

Asura’s Wrath – Asura vs. Wyzen
Batman: Arkham City – The Ending
Battlefield 3 – ‘Going Hunting’
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – ‘Turbulence’
Dark Souls – Beating Ornstein & Smough
Dragon’s Dogma – Griffon Battle
Gears of War 3 – ‘Score a Point for the Cougars’
Journey – The Ending
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Sand Sea
Mass Effect 3- Tuchanka Choice
Max Payne 3 – Hoboken Graveyard Shootout
Resident Evil: Revelations – Two Ships!
Sniper Elite V2 – Assassinating Hitler
Sonic Generations – ‘City Escape’
Spec Ops: The Line – White Phosphorus
The Darkness 2 – Alternate Ending
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Throat of the World
The Witcher 2: AoK – Bathhouse Bonk
Uncharted 3 – ‘Sink or Swim’

Who are we voting for?

Matt Cundy (UK Editor): Journey. When it was over I just sat and thought about everything me and my anonymous human companion had experienced together. It was deep. There were deep emotions. I sat on my sofa and contemplated these deep inter-human emotions. I wanted to find my anonymous human companion and give him/her a hug, a genuine hug of love to say “thanks for joining me on this journey. It has been incredible and although it has now ended the memory of the journey will stay with me forever. Thank you. I love you. I will leave you alone now. Goodbye.”

David Houghton (UK Associate Editor): The ending of Journey. From the brutal last stages of the mountan climb, to the strained, agonising last moments, to the incandenscent joy of the final run and the peaceful catharsis of the very end, Journey's final revelations are the most powerful, painful and elating sequence in games from the last year. Longer than that, in fact. When the truth of the last mosaics is seen and the secrets of the opening are revealed, everything you've previously done, seen, experienced and shared makes utter sense on such a profound unspoken level that you can't help but sob all over your big ecsatic grin.

Justin Towell (UK Content Editor): From this list? It has to be Resident Evil: Revelations. I did wonder why the two rooms were the same yet different. Wrong boat, weren’t it? What a klutz.

Those are the top gaming moments getting our votes, but what about you – who are you voting for? Tell us in the comments.

Head to Golden Joystick Awards to vote. Voting closes 22 October. The Golden Joystick Awards 2012 take place 26 October.

Platforms:

Xbox 360, PS3, PC, 3DS, Wii

Topics:

Golden Joystick Awards, Sponsored

17 comments

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kylemulderick - October 18, 2012 3:33 p.m.

Darkness II, hands down. I've been a diehard fan of the comic for over a decade. What they pulled at the very end was the most twisted, tragic and heartbreaking moment I ever had in a game.
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zombi3grim - October 18, 2012 1:26 p.m.

Out of these? The ending to Arkham City, by far.
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Druupwnz - October 18, 2012 12:13 p.m.

For me, it's gotta be the ending of Arkham City. I mean ... wow. I should be happy, everything should be okay ... but it's totally not and everyone knows it. I'm just saying, it hit me RIGHT in the feels.
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talleyXIV - October 18, 2012 12:13 p.m.

These awards are so misplaced in time. We are voting for things that came out last year at this time. Just weird. Skyward Sword had epic moments all over it.
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lazer59882 - October 18, 2012 1:07 p.m.

dude i completely agree. i was just looking at this articles title thinking, shouldn't we hold off on this till all the holiday season games come out? but then i see it's all of last years games, so this years games will be voted on next year. weird, and kinda unnecessary. that said, throat of the world. if you're like me and took your time getting around to the main quest, by the time you got to the top of that mountain it was so awesome to be able to see a huuuuge stretch of land you'd just spent the past x-amount of hours trekking through.
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BladedFalcon - October 18, 2012 11:55 a.m.

Beating Smoug and Ornstein for me. A lot of the other moments mentioned in the nominations are pretty great, yes. But none of them feel as rightfully earned and satisfying as when you're finally able to beat what's quite possibly the hardest boss battle in this gaming generation. (At least without getting into broken or unfair boss fights that have bosses that break the rules of their own game. AKA Shao Khan.) The other one for me would be Journey... although It's not the ending that stood out for me the most, but the part in which you're gliding down the sand desert nonstop, the sunset bathing the entire scenario and the uplifting music creating a truly beautiful moment that has been stuck with me ever since.
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vitor_gbr - October 18, 2012 11:37 a.m.

WHERE IS ASSASSINS CREED REVELATIONS? Death of altair was fucking epic !
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jackthemenace - October 18, 2012 10:19 a.m.

I think I'd have voted for Gears, because of all of those, the only ones I've played have been Gears and Skyrim. And though Gears wasn't great, that scene has been the only time in the history of the series that I even slightly liked Cole. Pity it didn't last.
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winner2 - October 18, 2012 6:47 a.m.

Ornstein and Smough for me. Holy jesus that was a great moment. Felt like the physical manifestation of badassery. And I love how y'all keep making references to Dark Souls. It's just sad reminder after sad reminder that I still haven't gotten around to beating it since I met Seath months ago.
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Firepunch - October 18, 2012 6:25 a.m.

Defiantly Spec Ops. Never has a game metaphorical punched me in the nuts so hard
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KnightDehumidifier - October 18, 2012 5:48 a.m.

Where is DayZ when you finally realize every other player in the game is out to kill you for your scarce but vital rations? Also, no love for Xenoblade?
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wwfmankind - October 18, 2012 5:15 a.m.

For me, it's a toss up between Arkham City and Spec Ops...
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crazor89 - October 18, 2012 5:08 a.m.

This is a really tricky choice. Loved the end of Arkham City and the Throat of the World in Skyrim was really memorable, as not only was it the highest point on the map but it was the first time I'd seen the game's Aurora Borealis. But I have to go for Tuchanka in Mass Effect 3, that whole section was probably my favourite part of the game.
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Sjoeki - October 18, 2012 4:45 a.m.

Journey was simply amazing, the whole experience, but I actually felt sad for what happend during the ending and the credits of Arkham City. Also enjoyed pretty much everything about mass effect 3, specially helping out the quarians.
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BaraChat - October 18, 2012 4:26 a.m.

I think mine would have to be Journey as a whole. But as a precise moment I would waver between Arkham City's ending and Skyrim's Throat of the World.
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pos3000 - October 18, 2012 4:19 a.m.

Spec Ops: The Line – White Phosphorus. I don't think I've ever felt as bad about myself as I did after I played that scene.
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taokaka - October 18, 2012 2:19 a.m.

I voted journey even though the ending wasn't the most powerful part in my opinion. The most powerful part for me was one specific instance when I waited for my partner who I'd had for most of the game to catch up, I waited for quite a while however I realized I had lost them forever and I felt really sad about it.
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