E3 2015 may not have had much in the way of big surprises, but what it lacked in left-field excitement it made up for with a slew of impressive gameplay trailers for titles we’ve been itching to find out more about, including the Doom reboot, Fallout 4 and Mario Maker. However, there’s a lot to take in, especially if you look at the hours of conference videos there are, so to make it easy for you, here’s our pick of the best games from E3 2015, slit out between Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo exclusives, and the cream of the crop from the many multi-platform titles featured at the conference.
The best Xbox ONE exclusive games
- Backwards compatibility – perhaps the biggest exclusive announcement at E3 2015 was that the Xbox ONE will become backwards compatible with the feature available straight away for members of the Xbox preview programmer, and arriving for all gamers later in 2015.
- Halo 5: Guardians – without too much in the way of game engine reveals prior to the conference, this was highly anticipated and doesn’t disappoint. Check out the gameplay footage below to see it in action.
- Rise Of The Tomb Raider – we also got a chance to see how the latest Lara Croft adventure is shaping up with a big slice of gameplay demo action, picking up where the reboot started off with Tomb Raider, however, this time around it will be just for Microsoft Xbox ONE and 360.
- Rare Replay – if backwards compatibility isn’t enough of a backwards glance for the Xbox ONE, there’s also the games history mega pack that is Rare Replay, which features 30 games from the Rare back catalogue to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the exceptional development studio. It includes Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct Gold, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts And Bolts and Jet Force Gemeni to name but a few.
- Gears Of War – for fans of the franchise, E3 2015 delivered a double-header of good news that includes the announcement of both a remaster of the original in Gears Of War Ultimate Edition and Gears Of War 4, both of which look amazing.
- ReCore – while we don’t know a great deal about this game, the trailer below managed to grab our attention enough for us to put it on our best of E3 games list in the Xbox exclusive category. The graphics look cool and the gameworld interesting, so it’s one to add to your watch list.
While that covers our take on the very best Xbox ONE exclusive titles, there are a few others you might be interested in, including Forza 6, following up on the genius of launch title, Forza 5; Fable Legends, Sea Of Thieves and Gigantic.
The best Nintendo exclusive games
- Xenoblade Chronicles X – though Nintendo has come under a little criticism for it’s efforts at this year’s E3, there are still a fair few games to get excited about. The Legend Of Zelda Wii U may well be delayed and AWOL at E3 2015, but Xenoblade Chronicles X got a significant gameplay demo to compensate with its own 3D open world RPG adventure.
- Stafox Zero – we’re not convinced by the graphics by any stretch of the imagination, but there hasn’t been a new Starfox outing in a very long time, which is why it gets into our best games list. Right now it’s got potential from a gameplay point of view, but if Nintendo can build in some graphical finesse into the title before it lands it could be a gem.
- Yoshi’s Wooly World – it’s not a new game to get excited about, but the more we see of Yoshi’s Wooly World the more we like. It’s a clever side scrolling platformer that will be a lot of fun to play through, so it’s one we’re looking forward to a lot.
- Mario Maker – again, not a new one, but it’s an big title for Nintendo, as it lets you build your own Mario courses. The features showcased at E3 look pretty cool, including playing all of the mental courses created by people all over the world.
There were a fair few other games from Nintendo, including Mario Tennis Ultra Smash for the Wii U, The Legend Of Zelda: Triforce Heroes, Hyrule Warriros Legends, Mario And Luigi Paper Jam, Metroid Prime Federation Force and Animal Crossing Happy Home on the Nintendo 3DS, but the five games above were the best of the bunch for us.
The best PlayStation 4 exclusives
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – looking every-bit the cinematic adventure it has been billed to be, Uncharted 4 was a big part of Sony’s exclusive presence at E3 2015. The demo video below has got impressive graphics and a lot of action, but it will all hinge on how well it actually plays.
- The Last Guardian – we still don’t know what to make of this game, but there’s something captivating about it. Maybe it’s the giant pet bird dog, grand sense of scale or the puzzle solving hypnotism of the video, but whatever it is we can’t wait to see more of it to get a better feel for how the rest of the game is going to play.
- Horizon Zero Dawn – this is a post apocalyptic tale of robotic dominion with a difference. It’s feels like it’s set in the ice ages with a tribal warrior lady at the heart of the story, but then the appearance of giant robots and slightly advanced tech hint at something completely different and we’re looking forward to seeing how it all comes together. It also gives the PlayStation 4 its own heroine to rival Lara Croft with the exclusivity of Rise Of The Tomb Raider.
Sony also announced media creator title Dreams, along with Firewatch (PS4, PC and OS X) and VR shooter, Rigs. They also showcasing footage for Street Fighter V, which will be coming to PS4 and PC.
The best multi-platform games
- Star Wars Battlefront – for us this is the best game featured at E3 2015 and our most eagerly awaited title. The latest gameplay demo footage looks amazing, delivering stunning action for you to relive and recreate some of your wildest Star Wars fantasies. Sadly, none of your Princess Leia dreams will feature, but the majority of the rest are included.
- Tom Clancy’s The Division – the latest footage may well have taken a little of the excitement out of this, but we’re still pretty psyched to get a hold of it. The latest efforts to impress from Ubisoft are multiplayer-focused, which doesn’t really fit very well for us in our expectations for the game, so hopefully the campaign won’t be compromised as a result of attempting to build in multiplayer 3rd person action where it’s not necessarily wanted. The snow-covered streets of New York still look epic though.
- Just Cause 3 – we were excited about this before E3 and it’s still looking class.
- Doom – we weren’t as blown away by Doom gameplay as we thought we’d be, but it’s still up there with the best of a massive bunch of games.
- Mad Max game – the latest gameplay action at E3 looks even more impressive than the trailers before it.
- Hitman – the trailer below has got some stunning graphics, so we’re quietly confident about the game.
- Final Fantasy 7 remake – there’s not much to go on except the teaser trailer below, but if it amounts to a suped-up graphics remake of FFVII then that’s enough to get our attention.
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands – looks ridiculously good.
We’re yet to be convinced by Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain so it just misses out on our best of list, and the same can be said for Rainbow Six Siege, Fallout 4, Call Of Duty: Black Ops III, Mass Effect: Andromeda and Kingdom Hearts, however, each were showcased well enough at the conference. It’s way too early to call Dark Souls III, so it didn’t make it in either and we’re not adding Batman Arkham Knight to the list as it’s out next week, so doesn’t really count.
Let us know what your best games from this year’s E3 were in the comments below.
