The Golden Joysticks: six games you won't vote for but should

This year's GamesMaster Golden Joysticks Awards are almost upon us, care of the lovely HMV and people who like slapping shiny medals on things. Voting closes on 22nd October, and the ceremonies themselves take place on the 26th - that's Monday and Friday, for all you calendar-impoverished souls.

I'm sure you can make a few educated guesses as to the likely winners - talk of "level playing fields" notwithstanding, any RPG category with Skyrim on-board isn't a category other games want to inhabit. That's the case with most award ceremonies, of course - there's always an obvious favourite - and that's why I've written the below, deeply frivolous thought exercise, which champions a few of the titles that are probably destined to sink without trace.

You've already snapped up eleventy billion GOTY awards, Bethesda! Yes, we know your game got 10/10 and won the internet - so why is it necessary to remind us? Let somebody else have a crack at the podium.

Driver: San Francisco

Why you won't vote for it:

Because you've no idea what on earth's going on. Wasn't this Tanner guy in a hospital a few moments ago? How did he wind up driving a cab? Why's the view gone all Google Maps? Why are all of life's problems exclusively solvable via a hearty administration of car?

Why you should:

Because damn it all to hell, man - who cares about rational explanations for things when you're playing what is possibly the only good story-driven racing game this generation has ever offered? Not to mention the first great Driver game since Driver 2.

Binary Domain

Why you won't vote for it:

Binary Domain practically goes out of its way to be offputting. There's that not-quite-workable Kinect-driven ally scheme, for starters, where you boost squadmate loyalty and thereby, performance by saying nice things to them at key junctures. Then you actually meet your squadmates, and they're a circus of cliché - lumbering black cowboys, Chinese ice maidens, French robots wearing flamboyant neckerchiefs. Of course, long before all that you'll have cottoned onto the idea that it's "just another cover shooter".

Why you should:

Go on, shoot a robot. Just one. See how magnificently they crumple and burst under fire. Notice that shearing limbs away pays into the tactical equation, buying the squad a few seconds to fall back while part-shattered opponents stoop to prise the guns from chopped-off hands. Now give your friend Bo a hug. He might be a yee-hawing African-American stereotype, but he's also a very well-realised stereotype who's genuinely fun to be around. Now stop hugging! Shoot another robot!

Asura's Wrath

Why you won't vote for it:

Understated, "grown-up" characterisations in videogames? Asura's Wrath director Seiji Shimoda must have missed that particular memo. Or if he got it, he was too busy punching gods to death by way of their index fingers to respond. Other memos Shimoda may have missed include the one about games being driven by player action, and cutscenes being the cherry on the cake, rather than the cake itself.

Why you should:

Asura's Wrath is more of a sprawling cosmic soap opera than a game - the interactive parts frequently devolve to jumping up and down on B button while your living room implodes - but it's strangely loveable nonetheless, so flagrantly and unabashedly out of tune with the other members of the action/adventure category that you can't help humming along. Believe it or not, the story's rooted in Buddhist folklore. See, there's more to Buddhism than namby-pamby "eternal calm".