The 10 best games of E3 2015

Now that the E3 press events are out of the way, we have a firm idea of what the gaming landscape looks like for the next year or two. The major events were brimming with games of all sizes, and the near future is looking extremely bright. So today, we want to highlight the most impressive games we saw at E3, and help you figure out which titles are worth keeping an eye on.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Crystal Dynamics’s follow up to 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot is looking gorgeous. It seems that the dev team took all of the criticisms to heart, and this title will focus much more on — ya know — raiding tombs. Unfortunately, Microsoft locked up timed exclusivity, so only Xbox One and Xbox 360 players will get to enjoy Rise of the Tomb Raider this year. Hopefully, the limited number of platforms will allow for more time spent optimizing for performance.

Super Mario Maker

This incredible game lets you make, share, and play Mario levels using tile sets from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, Nintendo is executing beautifully on a concept that will easily appeal to both the NES generation and the Minecraft generation. More importantly, Nintendo is finally making good on using the tablet controller.

Gears of War 4

We got our first glimpse at the new Gears of War this week, and it’s a real looker. This is the first game being developed in-house at Microsoft, and it’s the first Xbox One installment in the series. This relatively new team has a lot to prove, but the first impression was quite positive. We won’t be playing this game anytime soon, but the potential here is huge. Hell, this might even be enough to close the sales gap.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

It was sad to see Uncharted 4 get pushed back into 2016, but this new footage looks truly outstanding. The folks at Naughty Dog are well known for their technical prowess, so I’m confident that they’ll be able to deliver stunning visuals with a (mostly) solid frame rate. 1080p locked at 60fps is most certainly too much to hope for here, but it’s a safe bet that it will graphically outshine all other PS4 releases to date.

The Last Guardian

When people talk about troubled game development, this title inevitably comes up. Originally planned as a PS3 release, The Last Guardian has been in the works for nearly a decade now. Sony finally showed off the game running on the PS4, and it looks great. However, the heavy lifting here is definitely being done by the second-to-none art direction — not the tech. It probably isn’t going to push the PS4 to its limits, but that’s fine by me. I’ll just be happy when (if?) we actually get to play it.

Halo 5: Guardians

Much like Gears, Microsoft’s other blockbuster first-party franchise has a bit of an uphill battle to fight. The Halo franchise transitioned to 343 Industries after Bungie split from Microsoft, and their first release received mixed reactions from the core fanbase.
On top of that, the Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One was a technical nightmare for weeks after launch — not a great confidence builder. Halo 5 footage has looked really solid so far, and we’re promised that it will run at a rock-solid 60fps. Of course, split-screen co-op is being sacrificed for that, but something has to give, right?

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Made by the developers behind Killzone, this new franchise focuses on a human population that has survived for generations past some sort of technological apocalypse. Robot dinosaurs roam the earth, and humans seem to be living in a relatively primitive state.
Sony gave ample stage time to this game, and effectively showed off exactly how impressive it is. It’s a new IP, it prominently features a woman as the protagonist, and it’s visually stunning from tip to tail. Horizon isn’t coming out in 2015, but it’s definitely something for PS4 owners to get excited about.

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Fallout 4

Bethesda showed off Fallout 4 at its own event on Sunday, and then came out on Microsoft’s stage the next day to announce that PC mods will also run on the Xbox One version. The game itself is coming to the PS4 as well, but that version will probably seem a bit hobbled in comparison.
The scope here is absolutely jaw-dropping, but every time they show facial animations, I feel like I’m looking at gussied up last-gen technology.

Star Wars Battlefront

It’s been ten years since we saw a real Battlefront game, but it looks like the men and women over at DICE have done an excellent job modernizing the concept. By all accounts, this is pretty much Battlefield with a thick layer of Star Wars spread on top.
The inevitable gameplay demo on Hoth was exactly what everyone expected, and it feels the way that macaroni and cheese tastes — this is comfort gaming. Built using DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine, this is hands-down the best looking Star Wars game ever made. Heading back to Hoth won’t be so bad after all

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

This will likely be Hideo Kojima’s swan song at Konami, but he’s going out in style. The Phantom Pain, just like Ground Zeroes before it, is an open-world stealth shooter with real panache. And in terms of tone and gameplay, this is a large departure from older entries in the series. Running on the multi-platform FOX Engine, MGSV looks great on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 while continuing to support the Xbox 360 and PS3. Thankfully, everybody gets to enjoy one last crazy Metal Gear adventure architected by Kojima.

Games for days

Keep in mind, there are far too many games being shown off this week to mention in a single article. I’m personally very excited about Dishonored 2 and Mass Effect: Andromeda, but we barely saw anything about either of those titles. The Final Fantasy VII remake and the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter made huge waves at the Sony event, but those games are years away from being released. If you want to know more, I whole-heartedly recommend heading over to the IGN wiki, and looking over the list of games shown at this year’s E3.
More than anything, I’m just happy to see so many games in development. Considering how sparse the releases were in the first year of this generation, this is a nice change of pace.