E3 2014 Awards, As Decided By Our Writers

Best MMO

Winner: Destiny

With $500 million invested in the future of Destiny, Activision has taken a huge bet with the upcoming MMO shooter. So far, some of their efforts have paid off. Providing PS4 users with an early Alpha access earlier last and this week, it was one of the few games to make an appearance during E3 2014 that fans at home could actually play and participate in. The sci-fi group-based title features all the trappings of an RPG-shooter-with-fantastical-magic of a Mass Effect game, but in a much larger scale. Hopefully, Activision can keep the ball rolling closer to its September release, for their sake.

Destiny also won our award for Best Shooter, as voted on by our staff.

Best RPG

Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles X

Monolith Soft’s “X” title was much a mystery for more than a year, with fans wondering when we’d see more of the project. This year’s E3 was the coming out party for the game, as it officially became Xenoblade Chronicles X. With more than 40 minutes of gameplay footage revealed during the Nintendo Treehouse stream, we got to see first hand the action-RPG sensibilities that the game brings in its early stages. The game looks to improve upon earlier Xeno games, while maintaining the familiar trappings of the open-world title, but in a much larger scale and by pushing the limits of the Wii U hardware. Combined with its Day-Night cycle, Xenoblade Chronicles X impressed us a great deal this year.

Best Sports Game

Winner: NHL 15

The votes coming in for the best sports game at E3 2014 were all over the place. Essentially, each game that was announced or shown off during this year’s conference was given a nomination. However, Nick and I broke the “all the games” tie by going with NHL 15, taking its adventurous first step into the 8th generation of consoles. Just look at that picture above. If you were to see it at first glance (with the logo omitted, of course), would you not think it was a real-life photo? As well, firsthand accounts on the E3 floor saw people stop and stare whenever the NHL 15 trailer happened to play, drawing people in within a sea of gaming content. We can’t wait to see what EA Canada brings next to their award-winning sports gaming franchise.

Best Action-Adventure Game

Winner: Batman: Arkham Knight

Next-gen-only games? Yes, please! Batman: Arkham Knight may have been pushed back into the sinkhole of pushed-back games that is 2015, but at the very least we got to see gameplay footage. And boy, did it ever look good to be the Bat once again. The Batmobile made its gameplay footage debut, showing exactly why long-distance traversing around Gotham via flying is so last-gen. Yes, Batman still is bashing bad guys around with his fists with that near-perfect character action style like he did on 7th-gen devices, but with a lot more powerful specs packed into the PS4 and Xbox One boxes, the developers can vastly expand upon what they can do with their newest Arkham title.