It may be an awful name for an awards ceremony, but the Golden Joysticks is still one of the more prestigious gaming events of the year. This year’s winners – announced over the weekend – included ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ and ‘Final Fantasy XIII’, while ‘Mass Effect 2’ won the ‘ultimate game of the year’.

The big winner on the night.

The UK-based awards show, also saw ‘Mass Effect 2’ walk away with the role-playing game (RGP) of the year, as ‘Plants vs. Zombies’ also took home two prizes

Winners are voted for by UK fans (with 1.5 million votes cast this year) and the event is now in its 28th year. Back in 1982 ‘Jetpac’ won the first ultimate game of the year, an award handed out by former Radio 1 DJ, Dave Lee Travis (or ‘The Hairy Cornflake’ as Alan Partridge used to call him)

Spread across 16 categories, other winners at this year’s Golden Joysticks included ‘Assassin’s Creed II’ (action game), ‘FIFA 10’ (sports game) with ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ bagging the One to Watch prize.

Notes a BBC report, racing game of the year went to ‘Forza Motorsport 3’, while ‘Super Street Fighter 4’ won the fighting game award and ‘Guitar Hero 5’ was voted music game of the year. The portable game prize went to ‘Pokemon Heart Gold/ Soul Silver’, ‘League of Legends’ picked up online game of the year and ‘World of Goo’ was voted puzzle game of the year.

Cambridge-based firm Jagex, behind titles such as online multiplayer ‘RuneScape’ and strategy game ‘War of Legends’, picked up the UK developer of the year prize.

The full list of winners are as follows:

Action game of the year: ‘Assassin’s Creed II’

Game On Shooter of the year: ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’

Racing game of the year: ‘Forza Motorsport 3’

RPG of the year: ‘Mass Effect 2’

Puzzle game of the year: ‘World of Goo’

Fighting game of the year: ‘Super Street Fighter 4’

Sports game of the year: ‘FIFA 10’

Strategy game of the year: ‘Plants vs Zombies’

Music game of the year: ‘Guitar Hero 5’

Online game of the year: ‘League of Legends’

Downloadable game of the year: ‘Plants vs. Zombies’

Portable game of the year: ‘Pokemon Heart Gold/ Soul Silver’

Soundtrack of the year: ‘Final Fantasy XIII’

One to watch: ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’

UK Developer of the year: ‘Jagex’

Ultimate game of the year: ‘Mass Effect 2’