By all accounts, 2015 was a damn good year for E3, and the immediate future of video games is looking especially bright. But when we look back on the E3 that was, it's easy to see that - even though these many of these projects are all worked on in strict secrecy - they still share a lot of similarities with one another.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what causes everyone to suddenly jump aboard the same tracks of parallel thought. Maybe a few dozen grappling hook enthusiasts have wriggled their way into the gaming industry; perhaps everybody's got bigger budgets to spend on eye-catching CGI trailers. Call it coincidence, or call it the natural result of humanity's collective subconscious - these are some of the biggest trends that surfaced in the many amazing .

People watch E3 for the surprises, and this year was probably the best in recent memory to deliver on the impossible. Sony's conference was a megaton explosion of revivals, with the return of The Last Guardian, the arrival of Shenmue 3, and a remake for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7. Square's own conference announced a brand new sequel to the cult-hit Nier. Microsoft even got in on the action, announcing the return of Rare to the world of game design and the arrival of backwards compatibility to the Xbox One. All of these things seemed unthinkable just last week. Now, they're more real than ever.

Look, this really shouldn't be considered a 'trend' - it should just 'be'. But this year's E3 was definitely a step in the right direction, as a good portion of the big-budget games we got to see star some admirable, . You can play as either a man or woman in Fallout 4, Emily Kaldwin is as much a main character as Corvo in Dishonored 2, Aloy slays mechanical dinosaurs in Horizon: Zero Dawn, Lara Croft was front and center in two press conferences, and many, many more games either star women, or at the very least allow players to choose their gender. Progress.

There's certainly no shortage of sequels that simply expand on prior ideas - Fallout 4 and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided are basically like the old games but bigger - but several publishers are taking their beloved franchises in totally new directions. Persona 4: Dancing All Night takes the social-focused JRPG and thrusts it into the rhythm game genre. Two of Bethesda's biggest franchises are getting their own mobile titles: Elder Scrolls Legends takes the sprawling RPG and turns it into a collectible card game, while Fallout Shelter is a neat little life-in-a-Vault management game. Even Ghost Recon is transforming in a big way, taking a straightforward squad-based shooter and blowing it out to open-world proportions - much like Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain's own approach to breaking away from constrained level structure.

It's shocking how many CGI trailers we saw at E3 this year, but a lot of that has to do with how many games are slated for 2016 and beyond. We get it: publishers want to sell people on the high concept of their games, and they want to do it with some pizazz. Or maybe whatever game they're hawking isn't ready to be shown just yet. Regardless of the reason, CGI trailers are ultimately an empty promise. They're all style and no substance, filled with impossibly gorgeous visuals and highly-detailed action that will in no way be representative of the final, playable product. When you see a CGI trailer in a conference, it's basically your window of opportunity to grab a soda from the fridge, because other than the name, what you're seeing isn't going to exist.

If the popularity of Batman and Spider-Man tells us anything, it's that people love imagining what it would be like to swing off of anything and everything. And while trying to fashion your own real-life grappling hook will probably land you in the nearest emergency room, games let you zip around on a metal tether with all the freedom in the world. The grappling hook is one of the Just Cause series' biggest claims to fame, so of course it's back for ?

Seriously, Platinum Games went from making one or two projects at a time to making all of the games. They're working on Star Fox Zero for Nintendo, they're going to be working on Square Enix's sequel to the cult-hit RPG Nier, they're making a brand new Transformers game for Activision, and they've still got Scalebound for Microsoft (though we'll most likely see more of that at Gamescom). Three new announcements at E3 from a studio responsible for fantastic over-the-top action games. Everybody wins.

In 2015 and beyond, it's not just enough to play your games as designed. Publishers now want you to build and share your own creations made inside the game. With the popularity - or rather, cult-like devotion of millions - surrounding Minecraft, games have an increasing desire to cater to a generation of I'll-just-build-it-myself creators. Media Molecule's Dreams expands on lessons learned from its work on LittleBigPlanet, but that's expected. The bigger surprises come from companies like Nintendo and Bethesda. Super Mario Maker aims to be the only Mario game you'll ever need, as you can create and download custom stages across a variety of Super Mario styles. Bethesda's rolling out Doom Snapmap, which allows players to create their own arenas and gametypes within the ultra-violent shooter. Even , giving players the opportunity to construct their own settlements, and even do some light programming of their own.

They say that human beings are social animals, and while we all love to kill one another in multiplayer deathmatches, we also have an inherent need to unite and take out some aggression on emotionless computers. Many of the games at E3 2015 tapped into that sense of togetherness with tight squads of cooperative players squaring off against AI hordes. , and Star Wars Battlefront's co-op survival missions pit two Rebel players against an army of Imperial troopers. We would include The Division but... we've all seen how friendships crumble in those Dark Zones when there's loot to be had.

… what else could there possibly be? And yet all the press conference holders managed to surprise everyone in some way, making this particular E3 a genuine thrill no matter what kind of games you’re into.

So, we’ve decided to round up the biggest and best surprises of E3 2015. Why? Well, maybe you missed a few of these. Or perhaps you just want to bathe in the warm glow that comes from an ‘dream game’ being announced. Or you just want to leave a comment grumbling about the continued absence of Half-Life 3. Fill your boots, buddy: here the 15 biggest surprises from this year’s E3.

“If everything’s a dream, don’t wake me.” Cloud had the right of it way back in 1997. A remake of the timeless Final Fantasy 7 has always seemed like a pipe dream for fans the world over, and yet, here we are. It’s actually happening.

While we may not have seen their faces, Cloud, Tifa and co will be returning to Midgar in a full remake that sees a far more modern take on the Mako reactor-run city. The skyscrapers may look a lot more pristine than the boxy ones we remember on PS1, but the dingy streets of the Sector 7 slums and that barren playground filled with memories of Aeris capture the spirit of FF7 in way I only thought possible in feverish fanboy dreams.

There's been speculation about who would star in Dishonored 2 since the day Bethesda dubbed Dishonored a series-starter (which was itself within a week of that game's launch, so it's been a while). There were whispers of "Wouldn't it be cool if Emily..." in the in-between space, but the thought of the little girl under Corvo's care in the original game becoming an assassin in her own right seemed unlikely. But if Dishonored is good at anything, it's making the unlikely work, and Dishonored 2's announcement was headlined by the assassin Empress herself ripping through a target's mechanical forces with brand-new black magic.

While the industry has made progress in recent years (and particularly at this E3) when it comes to showcasing interesting and admirable female characters, many developers are still reluctant to put a lady as the lead in a triple-A series. Not only did we get that out of Dishonored 2's announcement, which focused on Emily tearing her way through her mark's many defenses in cool and collected fashion, but the fact that Corvo will also be playable wasn't mentioned until after the conference was over. In an industry where a male protagonist will get first billing when both are an option, putting Emily forward as the face of the game is a shock - and a good one.

This was the first time that Square Enix has had its own E3 press conference in quite a while, but you wouldn't know it from the show itself: most of the publisher's big announcements were actually at the Sony show the night before. Still, there was at least one pleasant (and not completely undefined) surprise: a new Nier, coming from Platinum Games.

The untitled sequel (or prequel or side-quel or whatever it actually is) to the cult hit JRPG looks to star a white-haired young woman with a nice, sharp sword, but that's pretty much all we know for now - it's still super early in development, and we'll apparently learn fall. Still, the original Nier had some really cool ideas and a surprising story scattered amongst its many stumbling blocks, so hopefully Platinum can go back and do the premise justice.

The chances of this actually happening were always somewhere between England winning the World Cup and The Last Guardian actually being shown off. And Yu Suzuki teasing a picture of a forklift truck by saying he'd 'found this at E3' just seemed to be the trolliest thing he could have done. We've been hurt too many times before. Indeed, evidence suggests there was a story on this very website in 2005 saying that Shenmue 3 was likely to be announced later that year. Bollocks.

And even when Yu Suzuki himself took to the stage and asked for people to back Shenmue 3 on Kickstarter, it still seemed like the game would be thwarted. Surely there aren't enough people that care to be able to fund a $2 million game on Kickstarter? To everyone's immense surprise (probably Suzuki's too), the game hit that target in mere hours. And now it's happening. Shenmue 3 is happening. Time to put in a betting slip on England, just in case…

Some of us never gave up hope of seeing The Last Guardian again. Even as the years ticked by, and Fumito Ueda left the project, some of us still believed that the game was actually fundamentally complete - it just needed finishing and, perhaps, porting to PS4.

Well, it looks like that is exactly what's happened. And Ueda-san himself was even in the audience to take a bow. Granted, the game still looks a little last-gen (another surprise, eh?) and I'd bet anything that you will get unintentionally killed by an overly-affectionate nuzzling giant rat thing pushing you off a precarious walkway more than once. But if it can capture even 50% of Ico or Shadow of the Colossus' magic, then that can all be excused. Some of us (the same ones, admittedly) still believe this could be another classic. But its existence is enough, either way.

This whole VR thing seems to be getting out of hand. Oculus, Sony, Valve, and now Starbreeze are all making their own headsets that attempt to put you inside the action like a Keanu Reeves film (take your pick). But when Microsoft finally showed us what HoloLens can actually do (and with Minecraft, no less!), our jaws were suitably dropped.

Instead of putting you inside the game, Hololens puts the game in the real world. It's like those AR Cards that come with your 3DS, but by strapping the visor on, your entire field of view can display game objects in your living room. Microsoft demonstrated this by giving us a bird's-eye view of a world inside Minecraft. You can interact with the world like some digital god, picking up, moving, and placing new objects, peeking your head inside buildings, raising the world up to look underground, and even summoning lightning strikes. It's an impressive tech demo, and we can't wait to see what comes next for HoloLens.

“This was a hellacious undertaking – much more than when we signed up for it.” So said Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park: The Stick of Truth, back in March 2014. Given the rocky history of the South Park game (which switched publishers, and got multiple delays that meant it released onto old hardware, post-PS4/XO launch) a sequel seemed near-impossible. And yet we got news of a second game, Fractured But Whole (lol etc) at Ubi’s press conference.

In fact, Ubi is clearly both proud and confident of the series, as it decided to open the whole press conference with the reveal. And quite rightly so: Stick of Truth is an impressive RPG that flourished on supposedly ‘old’ tech last year. So, it’s a surprise that a sequel exists - given the history - but a very, very welcome one.

Skylanders toys are incredibly popular. Amiibo figures are incredibly popular. So, like mixing peanut butter and chocolate to make a delicious (if terribly fattening) snack, Nintendo and Vicarious Visions are teaming up to bring Nintendo characters Donkey Kong and Bowser to Skylanders: SuperChargers. The iconic ape and turtle ... thing ... will be equipped with new gear such as a flaming warhammer, and will also be compatible with unique vehicles in which to ride.

What made this partnership even more surprising is that back when Skylanders was little more than an idea, Nintendo rejected the idea of publishing the toys-to-life game. Now that the genre has become deeply ingrained into popular culture, it looks like Nintendo and the Skylanders franchise are ready to kiss and make up. It's heartwarming, really.

Honestly, this thought must have crossed every Xbox One owner's mind as they stare at their collection of Xbox 360 games starting to collect dust on the shelf. We've only got so many HDMI ports on these tellies, you know. But then, totally out of the blue, there it is: an announcement that Xbox One will have full backwards compatibility. And you don't have to pay anything extra for content you already own.

Of course, it's a rather lackluster line-up of games that are supported at present. And the chances of getting OutRun Online Arcade snapped alongside Game of Thrones is unlikely due to the license expiration issue. And you don't really play the games off the discs you own - you put them in and then download the game in question to your hard drive. But even so, it's way better than nothing and put a big smile on a lot of faces.

And before you ask, no, it's not a Conker semi-sequel exclusive to Project Spark (thank God). Sea of Thieves is the pirate MMO you've wanted ever since you mirthfully tittered at Jack Sparrow's antics in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it looks to have that trademark Rare spark of whimsy and adventure that made us fall in love with the developer back in the day. The lush, tropical environments and seafaring exploration shown in the debut trailer will shiver your timbers, even if that sounds like a massive HR violation.

What we saw of Sea of Thieves during infused with even more vibrant color and a hint of the supernatural (i.e. a bunch of swashbuckling skeletons). And if the online collaboration works as advertised, starting up a pirate crew of your very own should be an incredible experience, even if the captain puts you on on poopdeck-swabbing duty between battles.

It has been too long since the last Ghost Recon game. When Ubi announced it was going to close out its conference with a reinvention of a classic franchise, and we first saw a camera pan of that skull (a long time Ghost Recon image)... we just knew. And to be clear, the world is a better place with an open-world, utterly beautiful, wonderfully violent Ghost Recon game in it.

Ubi was a massive tease about it too, only revealing the name of the game right at the end of the footage (when, admittedly, most had guessed it anyway). Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is how well the Ghost Recon brand seems to mesh with the free-form gameplay offered by large, open spaces. It may be ‘just another shooter’ to some, but this has the potential to be rather special.

I’m not really sure what’s going on in Recore’s larger game, but here’s what I do know: you can resurrect your mechanical doggie friend as a larger doggie friend. Or maybe he’s more gorilla-like in his new body. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Mechanical animal pals with what I assume to be a “core” of the title at their center, which can be moved from metal frame to metal frame, allowing your companion to essentially shapeshift. It seems likely that this ability will be core (I’m sorry, I really am) to the gameplay.

One thing I also know is that Recore stars a young woman, who’s picking fights in a desert landscape with large technobeasts as she searches for...what? Not treasure, at least not of the gold and shiny kind, but something precious, almost certainly. There was very much a Lara Croft vibe going on with the small bit of action we saw, though in a most inhospitable landscape. Recore is quite a welcome surprise addition to the roster of Xbox One exclusives.

In a show like , which was full of slick-looking sequels, the wholly original For Honor stood out like a sword in a stone. It plays to the fantasy fun of Deadliest Warrior, where combatants from different time periods somehow find themselves in a Dark Ages Dynasty Warriors feud. And while any brand new game is always exciting, For Honor is most surprising for one simple fact: it looks stellar.

Sure, the idea of multiplayer-focused matches between sword-wielding savages isn't new, per se - PC games like Mount Blade and War of the Vikings have been doing that for years. But the concept comes to life when mixed with Ubisoft's production values: the graphics look stellar, the animations are forceful, and the warriors themselves all look like powerful, armored bruisers. We weren't planning for one of our most anticipated multiplayer games from E3 to involve steel swords instead of lightsabers, but now we've seen For Honor, and here we are.

During its press conference, EA managed to get World Cup winning football legend Pele onto its stage. Pele is arguably the most well-known footballer of all time, so his presence should be a Big DealTM. No-one expected this year’s FIFA to carry so much clout, especially as it’s a (largely) European sport at a (largely) American show. We have to admit, we were quietly impressed when he appeared on stage. And then…

...things took a turn for the worst. When asked to tell a story about how he coined the phrase ‘the beautiful game’, Pele simply said “No” (which rather stunned EA’s host) and started to go on a long-winded monologue about Brazil and Swedish women instead. While what he was saying was vaguely interesting, it totally killed the momentum of EA’s show. So much so, that we decided to make a meme out of the scenario, which blew up on Twitter. And that was quite surprising too…

The Nintendo World Championships were pretty great, filled with thrilling competition and plenty of heart-pounding moments, but the biggest surprise came during the pre-show, when EarthBound creator Shigesato Ioti appeared on screen and delivered a personal, heartfelt speech about what the series means to him, and announced the arrival of EarthBound Beginnings on the Wii U eShop.

Why is this a big deal? Well, for one, it marks the arrival of a game that had already been fully translated and prepped for release on the NES back in 1990, but was cancelled because it was deemed to be a waste of money - a niche game in a niche market. With EarthBound Beginnings' release in the Wii U eShop, Nintendo is continuing to admit that this series does in fact exist outside of Japan. It also makes the future of of the series on North America and Europe much more exciting. Could we see an official release of Mother 3 on our shores? EarthBound Beginnings' existence makes it more likely than ever.