The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Awarded

Game of the Year
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Multiplatform

Nominated

Best RPG
Best Voice Acting
Best Sound Design
Best Story
Best Atmosphere
Best Music
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Fallout 4

Awarded

Best RPG
Best Atmosphere

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Music
Best Multiplatform
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Rise of the Tomb Raider

Awarded

Best Xbox One Exclusive
Best Action
Best Sound Design

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Voice Acting
Best Story
Best Atmosphere
Best Music
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Superbeat: Xonic

Awarded

Best PS Vita Exclusive
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The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Awarded

Best Music

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best RPG
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Rare Replay

Awarded

Best Reissue

Nominated

Best Xbox One Exclusive
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Super Mario Maker

Awarded

Best Wii U Exclusive
Best Platformer

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Graphics, Artistic
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Bloodborne

Awarded

Best PlayStation 4 Exclusive

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Action
Best Atmosphere
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Mortal Kombat X

Awarded

Best Fighter

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Multiplayer
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Path to Luma

Awarded

Best Puzzler

Nominated

Best Mobile Exclusive
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Destiny: The Taken King

Awarded

Best Shooter

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Sound Design
Best Multiplatform
Best Multiplayer
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Rocket League

Awarded

Best Driving
Best Multiplayer

Nominated

Game of the Year
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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5

Awarded

Most Disappointing Game
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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Awarded

Best Voice Acting

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Action Game
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Story
Best Multiplatform
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Her Story

Awarded

Best Indie Game

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Story
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Yoshi’s Woolly World

Awarded

Best Graphics, Artistic

Nominated

Best Platformer
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Soma

Awarded

Best Story

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Voice Acting
Best Sound Design
Best Atmosphere
Best Music
Best PC Exclusive
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StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

Awarded

Best PC Exclusive
Best Strategy

Nominated

Game of the Year
————————————————

Lara Croft GO

Awarded

Best Mobile Exclusive

Nominated

Best Graphics, Artistic
————————————————

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

Awarded

Best 3DS Exclusive

Nominated

Best Reissue
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Game of the Year is always the hardest decision to make. What makes the best game of the year? Surely there are more than one, but it’s the one that stands out the most. Usually, it’s revolutionary, groundbreaking in some way, or extremely memorable in every aspect you can think of.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

This was one of the toughest years to decide GotY because of so many great games. It was ultimately a toss up between The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 as both games are amazing and beautiful. What The Witcher 3 outweighed in was more clever storytelling, better side quests, and a less clunky open world. Fallout 4 was great, but it didn’t deviate enough from Fallout 3 to consider it something extraordinary. The Witcher 3 has tight and fun combat (maybe a bit too challenging), the Gwent card game is fun and stands on its own, and it’s the small things that matter here. The overarching story is somewhat forgettable, but the individual characters and run-ins are what you will remember. The game is also one of the best looking this year.

Runner-Ups

Fallout 4

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Bloodborne

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Rocket League

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The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

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Until Dawn

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Super Mario Maker

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Destiny: The Taken King

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.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

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Soma

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StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

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Anyone can slap together a great playlist of the current or past greatest hits, but to create something from scratch to bring the world to life is an incredible feat. There were many great original soundtracks this year. Booming and action-packed scores aren’t always the best. Feeling the game itself in the music is where the best lie.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

My favorite game composer, Jeremy Soule, may have had only a bit part in the one song, but the score is fantastic nonetheless and brings back the feeling of Morrowind through and through. With sweeping scores for both exploration and combat, TESO continues the trend of The Elder Scrolls having some of the best video game soundtracks ever written.

Runner-Ups

Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Fallout 4

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Soma

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It’s hard to award something that you feel rather than see. The atmosphere in a game isn’t exactly the graphics or how well it plays, but the overall feeling you get from the game world and atmosphere can actually make or break a game without you realizing it.

Fallout 4

Bethesda is masters at crafting excellent worlds, but also great atmospheres. Fallout 4 makes you feel like you are in a post-apocalyptic world and that you are all alone and afraid. The world is a character unto itself in the Fallout series. It’s not just the dead trees and rubble everywhere, but the way the game feels in each building and every area you explore. Dread is a terrible feeling and Fallout has always gotten this downright.

Runner-Ups

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Soma

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Bloodborne

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Stories that are smart and memorable are harder to come by these days. Most games are pumped out with only one aspect concentrated on, but 2015 didn’t leave us without any games that have memorable stories. Whether they are indie games or AAA games they were out there.

Soma

Soma is by far one of the most memorable stories in a game I have ever played in my entire life. This game has to be experienced for anyone to understand what I am saying. I was at the edge of my seat and had genuine feelings for all characters in the game. I was frightened for them, happy for them, and hopeful for them. Soma is a rare gem that is hard to come by these days. Sure stories can be good or interesting, but memorable to the point of being burned into your brain forever is such an incredibly hard thing to do. Frictional Games are masters of their craft and it really shows here.

Runner-Ups

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

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Her Story

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Sound design is more than just being loud and obnoxious. Great voice acting, believable sound effects for the game’s era and environment, detailed sounds, varied sounds, and great use of them all in general. It’s very hard to have excellent sound effects and design without feeling canned and repetitive.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is not just an ambitious open-world, it knows it is. A huge open-world requires excellent sound design and Tomb Raider has it in spades. With realistic sounds of wildlife, wind, rocks falling, and even down to varied footsteps, Rise of the Tomb Raider has a rich sound experience that is just as important as the rest of the game.

Runner-Ups

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Forza Motorsport 6

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Soma

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Destiny: The Taken King

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There are fewer and fewer artistically stunning games these days, but the ones that tend to get overlooked. Everyone wants realistic graphics that push systems to their limits; no one appreciates the artist anymore. It was slim pickings, but what’s out there are beautiful.

Yoshi’s Woolly World

Leave it to Nintendo to come up with some of the most artistic games available. Yoshi’s Wooly World follows the same cute looks as Kirby’s Epic Yarn with gorgeous handcrafted visuals. Each piece of the game looks like a cuddly piece of yarn craft and looks so real on the Wii U.

Runner-Ups

Ori and the Blind Forest

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Splatoon

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Lara Croft GO

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Super Mario Maker

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2015 was one of the greatest years for indie games; too many to add here. It was tough picking from a pool of amazing games; a time when AAA games were this way at one point in time. Indie games tend to revolutionize or change a genre in a way that no one else would think of or would think is too risky. Some of the best make us think in new and mysterious ways.

Her Story

While some may say Her Story isn’t much of a game, it does what most makes won’t do; make us think. Believable acting and the use of excellent storytelling give us one of the best indie games ever made. Look past the real acting and into the fact that the game treats gamers like they are smart and can think things out. Her Story is memorable in every way and you will be talking about it for weeks afterward.

Runner-Ups

Axiom Verge

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Westerado: Double Barreled

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Titan Souls

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Ori and the Blind Forest

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2015 had some excellent games with great voice acting, but the good voice acting isn’t always going to cut it. There needs to be variety, believe-ability, and character behind it all. Many AAA games tend to have the best budget for this, but a lot seem to fall short.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

For Metal Gear’s long-winded cut scenes you need great voice actors and great characters. Kiefer Sutherland took Solid Snake’s role home with fantastic voice work and a solidly grounded character. He outperforms David Hayter despite hardcore fans preferring his cheesy forced gravely voice. The other characters are great as well as they act like they are in a movie over a game, and that’s hard to pull off.

Runner-Ups

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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Until Dawn

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Soma

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

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2015 was a great year for fantastic looking games. With the next-generation hardware in full swing and more powerful PC graphics cards available, this was a year to impress friends. There many games that looked fantastic, even indie games, and there were too many to choose from.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

While many games were on par with The Witcher 3 such as MGS V, The Witcher 3 stood out with a beautifully created fantasy world and an extreme amount of detail in such a large open world that most developers overlook. There have been many open-world fantasy games in the best, but a lot is barren, boring, and downright ugly. The new technology used in The Witcher 3 helps such as Nvidia HairWorks, and even on consoles, the game looked impressive. While the PC version shined the most, The Witcher 3 had an overall amazing performance across all platforms after a few patches.

Runner-Ups

Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Until Dawn

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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

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Xenoblade Chronicles X

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