The Game Awards ceremony took place in Los Angeles, California, and featured the year’s blockbuster video games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and also superb indie games like Rocket League. Gamers also got to see previews for hot upcoming games like Ubisoft’s Far Cry Primal, and amongst the attendees were video game and movie personalities like Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who was up for an award for his voice work in Batman: Arkham Knight.
All in all, this year’s Game Awards were a celebration of gaming and everything that makes it great. So without further ado, here follows a list of the winners (and nominees) of the 2015 Game Awards.
Game of the Year
• Bloodborne
• Fallout 4
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Super Mario Maker
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt * WINNER *
Best Shooter
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
• Destiny: The Taken King
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Splatoon * WINNER *
This third person shooter features cute characters that shoot coloured ink and is tremendous fun to play. It proves that despite the fact that the Wii U is lagging behind the PS4 and Xbox One, it still features some of the best games on the market.
• Star Wars Battlefront
Best Action-Adventure Game
• Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain * WINNER *
Hideo Kojima’s swan song proves that an almost 30 year old video game series can still win the top award, and that the Japanese designer is still a master of the action-adventure genre. Also Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was a worthy nominee, because despite the fact that the Assassin’s Creed series has seen yearly releases since 2010, it’s still a gamers and critics favourite.
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
Best Role Playing Game
• Bloodborne
• Fallout 4
• Pillars of Eternity
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt * WINNER *
The Witcher 3 was certainly a worthy winner in the role-playing category, as it even surpasses Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece Fallout 4 when it comes to story and characters. The Bloody Baron questline in particular is unforgettable and provided some of the best moments in gaming this year. Of the other nominees, perhaps Bloodborne’s extreme difficulty played against it, and the likes of Pillars of Eternity lack mainstream appeal, given that it is a traditional isometric perspective RPG.
• Undertale
Best Fighting Game
• Guilty Gear Xrd Sign
• Mortal Kombat X * WINNER *
The Mortal Kombat series has been going strong for 20 years, and this latest instalment proves that Warner Bros.’ game is arguably king of the hill when it comes to fighting games.
• Rise of Incarnates
• Rising Thunder
Best Family Game
• Disney Infinity 3.0
• Lego Dimensions
• Skylanders SuperChargers
• Splatoon
• Super Mario Maker * WINNER *
Nintendo had two games in the best family category (Splatoon won the Best Shooter award), and picked up multiple awards during the ceremony, something that likely delighted Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé, who attended the event. And Super Mario Maker was certainly a worthy winner, as it was a great and fun family game that allowed gamers to get creative and make their own video game levels and even share them online with others.
Best Sports/Racing Game
• FIFA 16
• Forza Motorsport 6
• NBA 2K16
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
• Rocket League * WINNER *
Rocket League was up against some heavyweight competition like FIFA and Forza Motorsport in this category but still managed to come up on top due to its originality. The game combines European football with high-speed driving to create one of the most novel and entertaining games seen in years.
Best Independent Game
• Axiom Verge (Tom Happ)
• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios)
• Rocket League (Psyonix) * WINNER *
Rocket League’s fun and fast-paced gameplay made it the winner here, although other nominees like Her Story, with its original crime investigation story based on a series of superbly acted videos and Ori and the Blind Forest, with its beautiful art and superb Sonic-style platform action were also worthy contenders.
• Undertale (tobyfox)
Best Mobile/Handheld Game
• Downwell (Moppin/Devolver Digital)
• Fallout Shelter (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Lara Croft Go (Square Enix Montreal) * WINNER *
Lara Croft Go is an entertaining puzzle game which had the eponymous heroine dealing with enemies and obstacles in each of the game’s levels. It’s a turn-based video game in the vein of Hitman Go, and certainly just as fun as the earlier game. And it’s surely been a great year for Tomb Raider fans, as the excellent Rise of the Tomb Raider was also released to critical acclaim this November.
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (Capcom)
• Pac-Man 256 (Hipster Whale/Bandai Namco)
Best Narrative
• Her Story * WINNER *
Sam Barlow’s Her Story stars British gymnast Viva Seifert as a woman that’s being interviewed by a detective in a series of video clips. The player must make sense of these video clips to solve the case, and this is one game that truly let the player feel like an investigator in a murder mystery. And the fact that Her Story managed to beat the likes of The Witcher 3 and the superb adventure game Life is Strange is proof of how good Her Story’s narrative is.
• Life is Strange
• Tales From the Borderlands
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Until Dawn
Best Score or Soundtrack
• Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Halo 5: Guardians (343 Industries)
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Kojima Productions) * WINNER *
The atmospheric music in Metal Gear Solid V was relaxing and thrilling in equal measure, and made assaulting enemy bases or just hanging out in the player’s base a more entertaining experience. It was a worthy winner, although it could be argued that Inon Zur’s fantastic music for Fallout 4 could have also snatched the award, as it made players’ time in the post-apocalyptic wasteland a truly unforgettable experience.
• Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red)
Best Performance
• Ashly Burch as Chloe Price (Life is Strange)
• Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)
• Doug Cockle as Geralt (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
• Mark Hamill as The Joker (Batman: Arkham Knight)
• Viva Seifert (Her Story) * WINNER *
British gymnast Viva Seifert plays a woman that’s being interviewed in a series of video clips in Her Story, and players must solve the murder mystery using the information she reveals in these videos. Many consider Her Story one of the best games of 2015, and this is in no small part to Seifert’s fantastic performance, who rightfully won this award. Also Star Wars actor Mark Hamill deserves credit for his voice work in Batman: Arkham Knight, bringing the Joker to life wonderfully for a third time.
Developer of the Year
• Bethesda Game Studios
• CD Projekt Red * WINNER *
CD Projekt Red is certainly a worthy winner here, as the Polish developer is not only behind the Game of the Year, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but they also have a solid reputation with their fans. They’ve released free DLC and patched up The Witcher 3 adding new features and improving the game since its launch, and also plan to release extra content for the game in 2016.
• FromSoftware
• Kojima Productions
• Nintendo
Games for Impact
• Cibele (Star Maid Games)
• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Life is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment) * WINNER *
This tale of two friends is emotionally moving, features time-rewinding, and plenty of choice and consequence like in a Telltale adventure game. It’s not without its flaws, but Life is Strange clearly was one of the most impactful games of the year.
• Sunset (Tale of Tales)
• Undertale (tobyfox)