The annual Game Critics Awards winners are in – and the PlayStation 4 has won big yet again. While it was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that took the coveted E3 2016 Best of Show gong, Horizon: Zero Dawn won Best Original Game, while PlayStation VR took home the Best Hardware/Peripheral trophy.
Other winners in the PlayStation camp included Batman: Arkham VR in the virtual reality tier and God of War in the graphics category. Multiformat titles such as Battlefield 1, Final Fantasy XV, Steep, Titanfall 2, and Skylanders: Imaginators also took home prizes. We've included the full list of winners in the space below.
For those out of the loop, the Game Critics Awards are determined by a slew of seasoned industry outlets, with everyone from GameSpot to Eurogamer.net polled. Sadly we didn't get a vote, but you selected Horizon: Zero Dawn as our winner – and it looks like the rest of the media agreed. What do you think of the list of victors?
E3 2016 Game Critics Awards Winners
Best of Show
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(Nintendo/Nintendo for Wii-U/NX)
Best Original Game
Horizon Zero Dawn
(Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4)
Best Console Game
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(Nintendo/Nintendo for Wii-U/NX)
Best VR Game
Batman: Arkham VR
(Rocksteady/Warner Bros. Interactive Ent for PlayStation 4)
Best PC Game
Civilization VI
(Firaxis/2K)
Best Hardware/Peripheral
PlayStation VR
(Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Action Game
Battlefield 1
(DICE/EA for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Best Action/Adventure Game
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(Nintendo/Nintendo for Wii-U/NX)
Best Role Playing Game
Final Fantasy XV
(Square-Enix for PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Best Racing Game
Forza Horizon 3
(Playground Games/Turn 10/Microsoft Studios for PC, Xbox One)
Best Sports Game
Steep
(Ubisoft Annecy/Ubisoft for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Best Family Game
Skylanders: Imaginators
(Toys for Bob/Activision for PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One, Wii-U)
Best Online Multiplayer
Titanfall 2
(Respawn/EA for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Best Independent Game
Inside
(Playdead for PC, Xbox One)
Special Commendation for Graphics
God of War
(Sony Santa Monica/Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4)
[source gamecriticsawards.com]
Comments 24
Was there hardware other than PSVR? I can see Dad of Warwick getting graphics it did look neato.
But Zelda? Really? Best console game? Is it even on a console people consider...ya know...a console in this day and age?
Zero Dawn looks really good, a game I look forward to playing in 2017. Along with Zelda.
@BLPs These were the hardware nominees:
Best Hardware
@get2sammyb Occlusion Touch? The hell is that? And even I admit that Xbox One Saturday is a sexy looking box.
PSVR is something I still need to try but at the same time can't try because health issues. And I don't have £350 :/ good to hear it sell out though. Let's hope Sony don't drop the peripheral ball again.
From what's been shown, I don't understand how FFXV could win the best RPG award over Horizon. (I was/am a big FF fan, but am still wary of XV.)
Did they mix FFXV and Zelda up in their respective categories?
Zelda would have been my pick to, the trailer was fantastic, the premise alluring, the advancements to core gameplay and elements more then welcome I am truly excited to play it next year.
@Flopsy even as a huge Zelda lover I agree to some extent! At least we don't get the annoying "chat" noises from the characters apparently!
p.s. yay go FFXV vs the haters. I guess Final Fantasy gets the opposite of a free pass lately...it's over-scrutinised, so I feel sympathy for Tabata, who's really doing his best
Breath of the Wild was spectacular. As it should have been, considering Nintendo seems to have jack-all to show off otherwise before the NX launch. Sony overall had a really solid E3.
@Flopsy I promise I'll still love you, even if you say nasty things about Zelda.
Fair play to be honest. Sony had some great stuff. But Zelda was the revolution fans of the franchise were waiting for (arguably since Majorah's Mask).
But I was happy with just about everything Sony had on display this year. Who needs Neo anyway?
@BLPs They're the motion controllers for the Oculus Rift.
Can't wait for Horizon & Zelda but God of War impressed me the most surprisingly...
@Flopsy Sounds like a children's "programme" does it? Someone sounds afraid of being caught with a diaper on. Although there's nothing childish about Zelda imo. Something being cartoony and for all ages doesn't mean it's childish. That said, not every Zelda game was that good. That's WHY we're excited now. Stop ruining people's hype. I bet you don't own a Wii U anyway. And if you do well kinda weird choice of console if you hate "children's stuff".
@Flopsy I do see where you're coming from, but the people who voted in these awards presumably all played the game - I'm assuming you haven't?
Pretty funny that Nintendo doesn't even really care about E3 anymore, and yet they still stole the show with one game.
@BLPs Implying the Wii U isn't a real console? What does that even mean?
@ApostateMage FFXV has been a known entity since 2103, and as such lacked the surprise factor of Zelda. Square-Enix have also been doing a mediocre job of promoting the game, and the lame Microsoft showing didn't help. Stuff like all the multimedia projects and the Uncovered event helped tremendously, but they've been offset by the clunky Duscae demo, the baffling Platinum Demo, and a lack of variety in trailers. Still, I'm really excited to play it
@Flopsy Take your meds, please.
@Kidfried Yeah, zelda is amazing...for nintendo game. There's no way gamer that live outside nintendo bubble that already played uncharted 4 & the witcher 3 and seeing new god of war and horizon can look at new zelda and say, "this game is amazing". The new zelda great, but not amazing.
Horizon was the best for me closely followed by that Spiderman trailer. I'm not sure about Zelda as the trailer looked quite boring and while the demo showed much promise it hid far too much to make it that exciting. Back to Horizon though and the combat looks really cool and I can't wait to explore the world that they've created for us
Horizon was the best for me closely followed by that Spiderman trailer. I'm not sure about Zelda as the trailer looked quite boring and while the demo showed much promise it hid far too much to make it that exciting. Back to Horizon though and the combat looks really cool and I can't wait to explore the world that they've created for us
Horizon zero dawn is still my number 1 most wanted game but as a Wii U & PS4 owner, I am super hyped for Zelda too...i thought Zelda looked average from the trailer...wasn't until i watched all the tree house footage from E3 that I could really appreciate what they had done with it.
Zelda, totally agree with.
Horizon, that too.
But uh, Batman was voted best VR game? Interesting.
@MadAussieBloke Yeah, no. It just looks like an amazingly fun experience. Nintendo can still manage to create something ambitious and beautiful once in a while.
Granted, Horizon is significantly more impressive on a visual level, but BotW's world and systems feel very... natural. I can imagine naturally wanting to do almost everything Link can do in that game. And the dynamic weather system is incredible for an open world game on the Wii U, which is very underwhelming on a power level.
I thought Zelda was nice, but not "that" nice.
My Game of the Show was Horizon: Zero Dawn but it's very possible when both are on the market that Zelda will be the better game. We don't know how Horizon is going to turn out, on the other hand Zelda, at worst, will be a 9/10 game.
To be fair, as a huge PlayStation. I'm a little bit disappointed that God of War didn't won the show (it was a runner-up tho). But you gotta give it to nintendo, they spent their entire conference to focusing solely on zelda. it would be very unfair to take that away from them. And remember, this is just the game of the show. The show overall, i think Sony did the best (IMHO). With games like Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, THE LAST GUARDIAN! DaysGone and Spider-Man are just too good to be true. The runner up would be Microsoft. They did amazing, no doubt. The S and Scorpio announcements are very hyped, reCORE looks better than i thought. Not a fan of racing game but Horizon 3 (another horizon XD!) looks beastly!
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