Every year, nearly 40 publications vote on the annual E3 Games Critics Awards. I've put the full list of award nominees below (with the winners bolded), but here are a few highlights:
- Bethesda's Open World Post-Apocalyptic RPG Fallout 4 wins three awards (Best of Show, Best PC Game, and Best RPG), while Guerrilla Games' Open World Post-Post-Apocalyptic RPG Horizon: Zero Dawn wins only one (Best Original Game). Post-Post-Apocalypses take note.
- In what is surely a mistake of some misfiled paperwork, Just Cause 3 is nowhere on this list. That's... odd.
Uncharted 4 actually took home the same number of awards as Fallout 4: Best Console Game, Best Action/Adventure Game, and a "Special Commendation for Graphics." The game didn't have any competition for that last one. I don't just mean that it looked really good, I mean that the category wasn't even listed on the nominee list.
- Fallout Shelter, which was up for the Best Handheld/Mobile Game award, might just be the first nominee to technically be released before the E3 it debuted out. It is not, however, the first mobile game to be nominated in the primarily Handheld focused category: Contre Jour was nominated in 2011, and Infinity Blade Dungeons was nominated in 2012. The latter was never released.
- Yeah I just double checked and apparently there isn't even a "Most Dashing" award for Just Cause 3's Rico Rodriguez to win, so I don't know what these awards are even good for, really.
- Like major awards in other media, these lists often feel focused narrowly on products and developers with the biggest established cultural cache. I don't think you need to get all conspiratorial to groan at this: It's just the nature of the industry and of E3 as an event that the majority of games critics only get to see the Big Games. But that show floor was filled with really great looking (and totally playable) games from developers both new and established. I know it's a big thing to ask, but I'd love to see these awards figure out how to reflect the breadth of E3's offerings in the future.
- The Oculus Touch won the Hardware/Peripheral category, beating out multiple VR/AR headsets, including the Oculus Rift itself. I would've sworn that having two Oculus entrants would lead to the vote being split, but I guess not!
Anyway, I put the full list below and I'm at least vaguely interested in all of these games... But I didn't get to play any of the winning titles this year. So here are my First Annual, (Un)Official "Austin Walker (is a) Game Critic" Awards and Honors for E3 2015. This year, the theme is "Touch":
Game I Most Wish I Touched: Just Cause 3
Strangest Touch Controls: Butt Sniffin Pugs
Moment That Most Touched Me: That time Shigeru Miyamoto showed off his old design notebooks.
Game That Got Me Touched Most: In Tune (Which Vinny and I discussed on The Beastcast a few weeks ago.)
Game That I Was Promised I'd Get To Touch More This Summer: Galak-Z: The Dimensional (Please don't be lying to me, Jake!)
Game Where I Reached Out and Touched Someone With a Blood Laser (Yeah, for real): Moon Hunters
Game That Most Made Me Feel Like I'd Lost Touch With Reality: Wattam
The First Annual "Finishing Touch" Special Commendation for Polish in Art and Animation: Cuphead
Okay, okay. I'm done. I'm done. You can see the real awards below.
Game Critics Awards Best of E3 2015 Winners
Best of Show
- Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
- Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/SCE)
- Oculus Touch (Oculus VR)
- Star Wars Battlefront (DICE/EA)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/SCE)
Best Original Game
- Abzu (Giant Squid/505 Games)
- Cuphead (Studio MDHR)
- Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/SCE)
- The Last Guardian (GenDesign/SCE Japan/SCE)
- Unravel (Coldwood Interactive/EA)
Best Console Game
- Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
- Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/SCE)
- Star Wars Battlefront (DICE/EA)
- Super Mario Maker (Nintendo)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/SCE)
Best Handheld/Mobile Game
- Fallout Shelter (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
- Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (AlphaDream/Nintendo)
- Persona 4 Dancing All Night (Atlus)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (Nintendo)
Best PC Game
- DOOM (id Software/Bethesda)
- Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
- Just Cause 3 (Avalanche Studios/Square-Enix)
- Star Wars Battlefront (DICE/EA)
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Best Hardware/Peripheral
- Microsoft HoloLens (Microsoft)
- Oculus Rift (Oculus VR)
- Oculus Touch (Oculus VR)
- Project Morpheus (Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Xbox Elite Wireless Controller (Microsoft)
Best Action Game
- DOOM (id Software/Bethesda)
- Halo 5: Guardians (343/Microsoft Studios)
- Just Cause 3 (Avalanche Studios/Square-Enix)
- Star Wars Battlefront (DICE/EA)
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Best Action/Adventure Game
- Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/SCE)
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Kojima Productions/Konami)
- Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Microsoft Studios)
- The Last Guardian (GenDesign/SCE Japan/SCE)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/SCE)
Best RPG
- Dark Souls 3 (From Software/Bandai-Namco Games)
- Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
- Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
- Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (AlphaDream/Nintendo)
- Sword Coast Legends (n-Space/Digital Extremes/Wizards of the Coast)
Best Racing Game
- Forza Motorsport 6 (Turn 10/Microsoft Studios)
- Need for Speed (Ghost Games/EA)
- Trackmania Turbo (Nadeo/Ubisoft)
Best Sports Game
- FIFA 16 (EA Canada/EA)
- NHL 16 (EA Canada/EA)
- Madden NFL 16 (Tiburon/EA)
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Konami)
- Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (EA Tiburon/EA)
Best Family/Social Game
- Disney Infinity 3.0 (Avalanche Software/Disney Interactive)
- Guitar Hero Live (FreeStyleGames/Activision)
- LEGO Dimensions (TT Games/WBIE)
- Rock Band 4 (Harmonix)
- Super Mario Maker (Nintendo)
Best Online Multiplayer
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III (TreyArch/Activision)
- Halo 5: Guardians (343/Microsoft Studios)
- Star Wars Battlefront (DICE/EA)
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- Tom Clancy's The Division (Massive/Ubisoft)
Best Independent Game
- Abzu (Giant Squid/505)
- Below (Capy Games)
- Cuphead (Studio MDHR)
- No Man's Sky (Hello Games/SCE)
- Wattam (Funomena)
Special Commendation for Graphics
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 4)