Best of E3 2015 awards

E3 2015 was fun—not to mention the first E3 with a show dedicated to PC gaming—and we came away with a lot of excitement for the next year-and-a-half of games. It's a little silly to celebrate marketing—cinematic trailers, scripted gameplay demonstrations, and proclamations of "epicness"—but we still enjoy a bit of revelry, even with one hand shielding our eyes from the hype. So we've compiled our favorite moments, reveals, and demonstrations from the show—the stuff that made us smile, that gave us something to look forward to—and awarded them our coveted and extremely specific Best of E3 2015 awards.

"Best surprise game playable at E3"

Awarded by: Wes Fenlon

It’s rare for a completely new, surprising game to be announced at E3—and then be immediately playable at the show. Ubisoft managed that this year with For Honor, its medieval swordslinging combat game that’s like Chivalry-lite with a touch of Dynasty Warriors. My short play session with For Honor left me impressed, too. It was tons of fun, and while I was left wondering how the strategy would hold up over repeat play sessions, I definitely want to play more of it. The sword combat strikes a great balance of hefty attacks, breezy movement, and strategic swinging and parrying.

"Most likely to be miles better than its predecessor"

Awarded by: Phil Savage

Hitman Absolution is not a good game, and it's definitely not a good Hitman sequel. In Hitman games, traditionally, Agent 47 does hits. In Absolution, he painstakingly works his way towards a cutscene in which he doesn't do a hit. The new Hitman is simply called "Hitman," and it sounds like it's again about being a Hitman. Developer IO seems to have learned the lessons of Absolution's failure. They're promising bigger and more open levels, and a sandbox-style structure. New missions are planned for after the initial release, and some of them will give just a single chance to take out your target. These clever touches are welcome, but the real test will be whether or not this new Hitman can be a worthy successor to the still brilliant Blood Money. I think it's got a chance.

"Best Mirror’s Edge game that’s still totally Mirror’s Edge"

Awarded by: Wes Fenlon

What I got to play of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst was an all-too brief 10 minute tease of the open world, but it was enough to know that DICE hasn’t messed with what works. This is still very much the beautiful, acrobatic first-person platformer so many of us fell in love with years ago. And I’m thrilled that DICE has removed the ability to pick up guns altogether—they didn’t do much in the first game but muck up the pacing. Catalyst’s movement still feels great, so the big question is how the open world and mission variety will hold up. I’m a bit worried that the game could end up with a few mission archetypes that we repeat over and over again, and those goals could get old, even if traversing the world doesn’t. If DICE can keep them interesting, though, it’s going to be a hell of a game.

"Best reason to not care about story"

Awarded by: Chris Livingston

In what Todd Howard laughably described as a “completely optional” feature, Fallout 4 will let you build a settlement. Multiple settlements. Build them, power them, attract citizens, run caravans between them, even set up automated defenses to protect them from raiders. Bethesda’s main storylines are typically the least interesting thing about their games, and building settlements in Fallout 4 looks like the perfect way to not bother with the main storyline altogether.

"Semi-spiritual experience in a sea of marketing"

Awarded by: Evan Lahti

Here are the notes that I tapped into my phone as I was watching Abzû for the first time: “Feels like church”; “Showing not telling”; “MYSTERY”; “Light filtered through hazy water”; “God rays for days”; “Gently latch onto a sea turtle”; “Kelp tendrils”; “Austin Wintory.”

There’s an exciting little trend of underwater games right now—Subnautica, Depth, Stranded Deep, but these games are mostly driven by their mechanics. Abzû, absent of UI and cloaked in an ethereal Austin Wintory (The Banner Saga, Journey) soundtrack, expresses the gracefulness of diving and the natural beauty of pristine seascapes. Abzû finds a delicate balance between letting you explore and move through it without any explicit instruction and organizing its spacious underwater world in a way that naturally guides you onto the next kelp garden, cove, or mysterious underwater coral tree. That silent structure is a great thing to inherit from Journey, the breakout hit that some of its team members worked on.

"Best game to somehow look just like a 1930s Fleischer cartoon"

Awarded by: Tom Marks

The first time I saw Cuphead’s E3 2015 trailer, I didn’t realize it was actually showing off gameplay. Its animation absolutely nails the 1930s style it pretends to be, to the point where you probably could bring this game back to the 30s in a time machine, play it before a talky, and the lack of horribly racist content would be the only tell that Cuphead wasn’t made that very year. I think South Park: The Stick of Truth is the only game to look more like a cartoon, but that had advantage of being made by the show’s actual creators. Without access to a real time machine, the developers of Cuphead have done a fantastic job of replicating a very old and loved style of animation.

"Most exciting game I believe nothing about"

Awarded by: Tyler Wilde

I don’t know if Mass Effect: Andromeda’s target footage trailer is what Mass Effect: Andromeda will look like, or if that leaked survey from April is full of truth, and we’ll be really FTLing around the new galaxy setting up colonies (though it’s starting to look very possible). I don’t even know if it’ll release winter 2016, or if it’ll be delayed to February 2017—which is why any award that didn’t simply acknowledge that more Mass Effect is exciting, and that Ghost Riders in the Sky was a cool song choice, would be assuming too much. It’s a good trailer, though, and I enjoyed speculating about all its little hints. So congratulations, Mass Effect: Andromeda. We are excited to not hear anything else about you for a while, watch a slow drip of trailers next year, read some big reveal feature somewhere, and eventually play a game that I hope is very good.

"Most endearingly nervous presenter"

Awarded by: Chris Livingston

Amidst the clinically professional reveals of big-budget titles by marketing executives and CEOs came a very happy, nervous man holding a little doll made of yarn. Martin Sahlin of Swedish game studio Coldwood presented a trailer for the game Unravel, which was nearly as charming as Sahlin’s appearance on stage. Not to say all those professional presenters don’t love the games they’re showing, but Sahlin’s excitement and passion was so utterly genuine it was impossible not to be excited not just for the game but for Sahlin himself.

"Best game which made me weep for my lost teenhood"

Awarded by: Tim Clark

The weird thing about getting old as a gamer is that, if you wait around long enough, Moore’s Law means your fantasies will almost inevitably be fulfilled. Specifically, in my case, the dream I had a couple of decades ago, as the owner of eternally half-painted miniature orc, elf and Empire armies, of a videogame that captured the lunatic grandeur of Warhammer of Fantasy Battle (without spattering mothers carpets in ‘Chaos Black’ paint). Having patiently ignored Games Workshop’s licensed misfires, at E3 last week I finally saw my imagined game come to fruition in the form of Total War: Warhammer. Thousands of troops strung across Black Fire Pass! Orc boyz pouring forward on boars! Karl Franz on a motherfriggin’ griffon! As we left the demo I almost hugged Wes. Will the game be as good as it looks? Probably, I mean it’s hardly like Creative Assembly are out of their comfort zone. Should I be the one to review it? Absolutely not. 14 year-old me is about as unbiased as observers get.

"Best reminder of how little I’ve grown"

Awarded by: James Davenport

South Park: The Stick of Truth was one of my favorite games of 2014, and I dedicate the bulk of that love towards a certain ‘climactic’ scene that took place in certain parents’ bedroom. If you played it, well, you know. And while the obscenities were mighty appealing to a grown baby like myself, what tied the bow on my experience with the game was its dedication to authenticity in adaptation. This was Matt and Trey’s’ vision, and both were heavily involved in the development—the game was a pure, distilled, authentic representation of their show, the same I grew up secretly watching with my siblings whenever our parents weren’t looking. Even if South Park: The Fractured but Whole is posited as a game cut from the same template, I can’t help but find myself terribly excited (and existentially troubled) to see what kind of poop jokes they think of next.

"Best improvisation during a technical malfunction"

Awarded by: Chris Livingston

When Hakan Abrak, production director for Io-Interactive took the stage at the PC Gaming Show (watch the segment here), there was one little problem: his mic didn’t work. Luckily, host Sean Plott thought on his feet—technically, thought on his butt, as he was sitting—and simply had Abrak lean in close to use the mic Sean was wearing on his own head, and they continued the interview huddled close together. It was a moment I've seen referred to as “awkward,” but it wasn’t! It was funny, and memorable, and just one of Plott’s many great ad-libs that proved he was the perfect choice to host our show.

"Best game I didn’t care about at all before the start of the show"

Awarded by: Tim Clark

Having been weaned on lunchtime PES sessions by my peers when I started writing about games for a living, a few years ago most of us did the previously unthinkable and switched to FIFA. In football terms, it was the equivalent of ‘crossing the City’ to play for a hated rival. Collectively, we did a Sol Campbell, and I doubt many beyond the Konami ultra apologists ever looked back. EA always had the licensing clout to get all the clubs, and for the best part of a console generation they also had the better game too. But last year’s model didn’t offer much in the way of substantial improvements beyond slightly better grass. So it was with some interest I took an appointment to try the new PES. Two things to note: 1) It plays a lot like FIFA. 2) It arguably feels better across the board. I had a greater sensation of being in control, able to beat men, and crack off shots without the heavy, chewiness that still bedevils FIFA. In short: a surprise, and assuming the community can ‘fix’ the kit issues quickly, I think this could be the year I finally switch back. Like the giant fairweather Judas I most definitely am.

Most excited we’ve ever been about ‘Nam

Awarded by: Evan Lahti

Our affection for Rising Storm is well-documented. It was our multiplayer GOTY for 2013, mostly on the back of its ambitious representation of asymmetry between the American and Japanese sides in the Pacific theater of WWII. How the hell do you balance an FPS where one side has semiautomatic rifles and the other (for the most part) has bolt-action rifles? Tripwire and Antimatter Games managed to find a sweet spot between authenticity and fun, and Vietnam seems like another compelling space to explore asymmetrical combat—what tactics and equipment will the Vietcong have that the Americans won’t? In the initial PC Gaming Show trailer we can see (attack and transport) helicopters, RPGs, and vast, marshy jungle separating two sides furiously fighting. Apart from Killing Floor 2, this will be Antimatter and Tripwire’s first crack at a post-WWII setting, and it’ll be interesting to see how ‘modern’ weapons will translate to their style of FPS.

"Best announcement that wasn't even at E3"

Awarded by: Chris Livingston

So while we’re all at E3 or watching E3 or reading about E3 or writing about E3, who decides to throw their own news into the overstuffed pot despite not even showing up at E3? Valve, of course! “No big deal,” they said right in the middle of everything, “we’re just completely redesigning this little Dota 2 game you’ve probably never heard of.” They even drizzled the announcements out over the entire week, just because. Everyone wants Half-Life 3, but Valve does this instead, zero Pucks given.