The new-look awards, which will be voted for by game fans throughout the UK, will be presented by TV presenter, Radio 2 DJ and celebrity game fan Jonathan Ross at a glittering awards ceremony at London's Dorchester Hotel on Friday October 25th.

Fourteen of the 15 awards on offer will be voted for by members of the public, either through the dedicated voting website at www.goldenjoystick.com or through Dennis Publishing's leading games portal at www.computerandvideogames.com.

"The Golden Joystick Awards will be the biggest multi-format gaming awards the UK has seen," says Tara Leathers, Games Division Publisher for Dennis Publishing. "Today, gaming is in the mainstream and to celebrate we are bringing back the Golden Joystick Awards, bigger and better than ever. The Golden Joystick Awards recognise the hard work and achievements of the industry and capture the massive and widespread passion for gaming in the UK."

Voting will remain open in its current form until Tuesday September 17th, at which point the leading candidates in each category will be recognised as official nominees. Voting will then continue, for nominees only, until the final closing date of Friday October 18th.

The complete list of award categories is as follows�

• Game of the year (sponsored by Jungle.com)
  
• PC game of the year
  
• PS2 game of the year
  
• Xbox game of the year
  
• Game Cube game of the year
  
• Handheld game of the year
  
• Online game of the year
  
• British developer of the year
  
• Publisher of the year
  
• Hardware of the year (sponsored by Vivendi Universal Games)
  
• Game innovation of the year (PC)
  
• Game innovation of the year (console)
  
• Most wanted game of Christmas 2002
  
• Retailer of the Year (sponsored by Electronic Arts)
  
• Editorial Award (voted by Dennis staff)
  

The first Golden Joystick was awarded in 1982, when the awards were hosted by Computer and Video Games magazine (then owned by EMAP). The awards were last presented in 1997.