A few weeks back the video game industry gathered in Los Angeles for the annual E3 event. This year the event was energetic, chaotic, and full of hype, hope, and buzz, the exact opposite of last year’s rather tame event that saw Ubisoft dominate the show. This sentiment was reflected in the reactions of the gamers on FAN’s forum who voted on this year’s awards to the tune of a lot more variety in the votes and a lot closer races for the awards.
Before I get on to announcing the winners, I would like to explain a few omissions. First, Naughty Dog’s excellent The Last of Us was disqualified from the awards entirely despite being at the show, because the game didn’t really need to be at the event, releasing literally the day after E3 ended. Secondly, due to the sheer lack of Xbox 360 exclusives at the event, the Best Xbox 360 Exclusive award has been dropped this year. And now on to the awards.
Best Press Conference
Winner: Sony
In a unanimous decision by the voters, Sony’s press conference was crowned the best this year. A great showing of games was punctuated by Sony’s Jack Tretton standing on stage lining up Microsoft’s Xbox One in his crosshairs as he checked off the list of features the PS4 would allow you to do that the Xbox One wouldn’t, with the killing blow coming just minutes later in the form of a $100 cheaper price tag announcement. The two announcements were repaid with genuine thunderous cheering from the crowd, a rarity at E3 these days, and the lasting effect of this press conference caused Microsoft to announce just a week after E3 that the Xbox One wouldn’t have any of the restrictions they originally planned it to have.
Best Graphics
Winner: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Powered by the brand new Fox Engine, Metal Gear Solid V is a gorgeous open world stealth game coming to the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, and PS3. The game’s visual feast of a trailer was the right way for Microsoft to kick off their press conference.
Best New IP
Winner: The Evil Within
With the way that the mainstream entries in the survival horror genre have rapidly been shifting into action-horror games, the genre needs a new shot in the arm. In comes the newest creation from the father of the genre itself, Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, to answer the call. The game follows a detective named Sebastian who has to survive in a world of monsters, madness, and death.
Best Puzzle Game
Winner: Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure
Another year, another Scribblenauts. This time Maxwell and his sister are sucked into the DC Comics universe and players have the entire DC catalog of named characters to call upon in addition to the vast vocabulary of the previous games. Want to rescue a cat out of a tree with a giant vampiric pirate Batman? Go right ahead.
Best Platformer
Winner: Super Mario 3D World
Mario makes his 3D platforming debut on the Wii U in a follow up to the award winning 3DS game, Super Mario 3D Land. For the first time in a 3D Mario title, the game features multiplayer, allowing players to choose from Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and a Toad. The last time these four were all playable in a flagship Mario game was Super Mario Bros. 2. Add in some new power ups like a cat suit and it looks like Mario is ready to take back his crown as the king of the platformers.
Best Sports Game
Winner: FIFA 14
The latest entry in the world wide leader of footy games looks to add new physics, animations, and graphics thanks to the new Ignite Engine that powers the game on Xbox One and PS4.
Best Fighting Game
Winner: Super Smash Bros. 4
Nintendo’s beloved party fighting series finally has a new entry, and for once it is coming on two platforms. The 3DS version will have some stages based on popular Nintendo handheld games, such as the DS Zelda games, Nintendogs, and Fire Emblem. The announcement that Mega Man, Wii Fit Trainer, and Animal Crossing’s homicidal Villager were included in the game’s playable roster was a pleasant surprise as well.
Best Driving Game
Winner: The Crew
Mixing equal parts The Fast & the Furious and Criterion’s open world racing games, The Crew looks to be a great new addition to the racing genre. The game has you infiltrating criminal groups in a reportedly 20 hour long single player campaign and features persistent drop-in, drop-out multiplayer that isn’t separated from the single player mode.
Best Role-Playing Game
Winner: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 looks to be one of the most ambitious RPGs ever built, with a giant evolving open world that morphs to your decisions. The series’ first ever appearance on multiple consoles, coming to the Xbox One and PS4 in addition to the PC, will be the swan song of the series’ titular Witcher, Geralt.
Best Action-Adventure Game
Winner: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Kojima and crew are famous for putting out some of the best stealth action-adventure games to date, and now they look to break the series’ mold by making an open world stealth game. Kojima said this move was made to increase tension, let’s hope it does.
Best Third Person Shooter
Winner: Tom Clancy’s The Division
Much like how Ubisoft closed out their press conference last year by unveiling Watch Dogs, they debuted the latest entry in the massive Tom Clancy series. The Division is an MMO set in the aftermath of a disease spreading on Black Friday. Players can engage both AI enemies and other players. In addition, players can hop in and play the game via supported tablet devices to man aircraft and other things.
Best First Person Shooter
Winner: Destiny
After years of wondering what Bungie’s first game in their partnership with Activision would look like, we were treated to the game’s first gameplay during Sony’s press conference. The always-online Destiny features a living world that matches players together to take on missions and accrue loot. Destiny has a lofty legacy to live up to, though, as the successor to Bungie’s Halo franchise.
Best PS Vita Exclusive
Winner: Tearaway
Media Molecule’s charming papercraft adventure game appears to use every single control input option of the Vita. Despite the rather thin trickle of upcoming exclusives, Tearaway managed to still shine and give Vita owners something worthy to look forward to.
Best 3DS Exclusive
Winner: Pokemon X & Y
The 6th generation of the massively popular Pokemon franchise is set to get underway this fall with the first ever global launch in the franchise’s primary series. The new game takes place in a French-styled region, features a new Pokemon type in the Fairy-type, and features for the first time fully 3D visuals and the ability to customize your trainer’s appearance beyond their gender.
Best PC Exclusive
Winner: Total War: Rome II
The long awaited sequel to 2004’s beloved Rome: Total War was one of the most notable of PC exclusives at the show this year. Rome II allows players to go back to the time of the Roman Republic, but now with the newer gameplay changes made in some of the series’ more recent releases.
Best PS3 Exclusive
Winner: Gran Turismo 6
Sony’s much loved and successful Gran Turismo series is getting another release on the PlayStation 3 to the surprise of many who assumed the next GT game would come out on the PS4. Can Polyphony Digital bring the series back to its former height after the slight disappointment of Gran Turismo 5?
Best Wii U Exclusive
Winner: X
Currently the full name of Monolith Soft’s next entry in their Xeno series is only known by X. The game is a gorgeous open world role-playing game where players can fight giant monsters in transforming mechs or on foot. Their previous game, Xenoblade Chronicles, was much beloved by RPG fans with a Wii, so there is a lot of anticipation on more news regarding this game.
Best Xbox One Exclusive
Winner: Below
Below is a roguelike adventure game being made by Capybara Games, the creators of the acclaimed Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. The game is being designed to be difficult and to include permanent death as well as randomly generated environments.
Best PS4 Exclusive
Winner: Killzone: Shadow Fall
Set 30 years after the events of Killzone 3, Shadow Fall takes the series back to the planet Vekta, more specifically to a single city where both Vektans and Helghast refugees are living in, albeit separated by a giant wall. The tensions are high between the two factions, leading to a cold war that grows hot when a group of Helghast extremists attack Vektan civilians.
Best Multiplatform Game
Winner: Tom Clancy’s The Division
The Division looks like one of the more fun new IPs shown off at E3 this year, and its MMO-esque nature was in line with one of the prevailing themes of the new IPs on display at this year’s event. The good news, though, is that The Division is coming to both the Xbox One and the PS4, so regardless of which next generation console you pick up, you can enjoy this interesting looking title.
Best in Show
Winner: Watch Dogs
Well, Watch Dogs now has a lot of expectations from the voters, as for the second year in a row Ubisoft’s open world hacking game has taken home the coveted Best in Show award. Can Aiden Pearce live up to the lofty hopes of the fans, or have we been backing the wrong dog in the fight?
And that wraps up what turned out to be an excellent E3 this year and was an event that rejuvenated the expectation for excitement that comes with the expo after a few years in a row with very few new IP being shown off and a lot of safe bets making appearances.