Good games bring out the best of E3 - and a good E3 brings out the best of games. That relationship is always true but not always adhered to, making E3 2015 one of the finest shows in years. Finally, the platform holders and big publishers are rolling up their sleeves for reasons other than showing off the latest military arm-hair rendering technology.

Both PlayStation and Xbox made investments in new, large-scale games, while the showing from independent studios came with a ferocity and appeal not seen in years past. As a result, and after 3 days of playing as much as we could, we’ve assembled this list of this year’s most exciting games. Just over half of them are original, one is available already, and those that return from existing properties really earned it. Good job, E3.

One stray white feather was all it took for all of us to collectively lose our minds during the Sony press conference because it has been so, so, long since we’d heard anything about The Last Guardian. Anyone familiar with Fumito Ueda’s Ico and Shadow of the Colossus may notice that his next game appears to be a mash up of themes from the two. It combines the massive sense of scale from Shadow of the Colossus with the touching, personal relationship portrayed in Ico. We don’t know much about the protagonist (a young boy who has been kidnapped under bizarre circumstances) but what we do know is that his griffin-like catbird friend Trico is there to help him get out.

We didn’t see any other living creatures this time, but danger doesn’t have to lurk in the shadows. The environment itself is treacherous, and from what we’ve seen you’re always surrounded by soaring towers with no hint of where the surface of the world is when you look down. Using Trico’s strength and the boy’s small stature, the two make the perfect puzzle-solving pair. It’s the details that make The Last Guardian something special, from the boy’s exaggerated animations to Trico’s dog-like mannerisms. And that’s what we’re dying to see more of: the budding relationship between the two, which will hopefully culminate in a beautiful happy ending where they both make it out and ride off into the sunset. No one needs to think about the alternative …

In addition to being one of the best games at E3 2015, Fallout 4 should also take home the award for being the most hyped game at E3 2015. After its official announcement during the Bethesda press conference, Fallout 4 has sent the industry into one giant fanboy freakout. You all can't get enough of it, we can't get enough of it, and pretty soon, come November, we're all going to get our chance to play it. And why shouldn't we be excited? The core Fallout series has always maintained that ideal balance of strategic gameplay and dark, apocalyptic humor. Fallout 4 promises all that, and so much more.

For starters, you can play the role of an urban planner. Fallout 4 will let you custom build your own home, which can then grow into a settlement and attract traveling item vendors to supply you with new goods. You can roam the countryside with Dogmeat, your indestructible canine companion who fetches items for you. Then you can use those items to fine-tune your makeshift weapons through numerous add-ons and modifications. Of course, these minor details are really just the tip of the iceberg as there are (probably) tons of surprises waiting to be revealed between now and November. Time to refill that Rad-X prescription, because we're headed back to the wasteland.

Amidst all the explosions and noise from Star Wars Battlefront (we’re not complaining) and fanfare around the latest sports title, it was great to see EA back a whimsical-looking game featuring a walking yarn creature, aptly named Yarny. As Yarny, you use the yarn that you’re made of to cross obstacles and swing yourself from one place to another. You make your way through lush gardens, rainy streets and other dreamy settings that were inspired by real-life locales in northern Sweden, where the developers from Coldwood Interactive are based.

This physics-based puzzle platformer comes with a sentimental story, as hinted in the trailer and described by the creator, Martin Sahlin. It’s hard not to get a bit misty-eyed when you see the struggles Yarny has to face in the harsh, real world. Okay, maybe it had more to do with the melancholy music. Either way, the red thread represents all the bonds that we form with people in our lives. But then, what happens when all that … unravels?

It’s a marvel for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst to even exist in its current form. Its priorities are at odds with many major franchises, more rooted in acts of graceful escape than full-on violence, and its vibrant look somehow finds beauty in a sterile, corporatized city. It’s now impossible to pick up a gun as you bounce between soon-to-be-KO’d enemies like a kung-fu bunny.

But what’s most interesting about Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, beyond the immediate quality of its motion, beyond its clever integration of speed-running challenges in a city of reflective shards, and beyond its intriguing heroine, Faith, is that much of this could have been said about the previous game. It had such an impact that you can’t help but view its return with suspicion, scanning for the catch, waiting for that whiff of a vision compromised in some disappointing way. But with no gunplay (for real), a three-dimensionally expanded world and a demonstrable attempt to rebuild Faith’s story, Catalyst looks like the game DICE really wanted to make all those years ago.

The creators of Killzone are working on a game that remarkably doesn’t look like a game from the creators of Killzone. Nature has reclaimed the world of Horizon: Zero Dawn, a thousand years after humanity has shriveled and settled itself as primitive counterpart to new breeds of cybernetic animals. You’ll hunt them as Aloy, a human warrior with a warm heart and quiver full of specialized arrows.

Horizon’s world seems fresh and imaginative, with thunderous cyber-beasts serving as both mystery (who made them?) and formidable opponents in combat. Guerrilla exudes an exceptional attention to detail in this aspect of Horizon: Zero Dawn, granting Aloy different arrows and ropes to pin beasts down, or tear off individual pieces of armor. And when their nuts-and-bolts spill out, she finds new uses for them in crafted armor and weapons. Aloy proves her mettle not only as hunter and engineer, though, but also as an emphatic, quick-witted personality.

Good ol' Mario. He's kept us entertained for 30 years with his his joyful koopa-stomping, princess-saving adventures, and Super Mario Maker is a celebration of that legacy. Dubious looks may have been shared over the concept from time to time (did Nintendo just design half a game and give the rest to the players?), but in practice Super Mario Maker is a solid experience that truly combines the fun of Mario's 2D adventures with a lot of creative fun.

Letting you change the style of your level between four different 2D Mario games, Super Mario Maker gives you access to almost all the different pieces of the Mushroom Kingdom and sends you out into the wild. It's a ton of fun designing impossible levels (which the game happily lets you do), putting a flying Koopa on top of five springs and watching the resulting mayhem. But once you get over your desire for chaos, Super Mario Maker gives you solid tools to design levels that are every bit as good as those in the original games. You can then share those levels with other players and try out their designs in return. Plus, no need to worry about trolls - a creator has to be able to beat their own level in its current form before releasing it to the world. Super Mario Maker is good, clean, creative fun that makes doing all the work fantastic.

ABZU is the ocean of wisdom. At least, that is what it means when you combine two ancient words “AB” for ocean and “ZU” meaning to know. ABZU stood out as one of the most serene experiences during the week of E3 2015. In this beautiful underwater exploration game, The creator Matt Nava (and former lead artist on Journey) wants to create a fluid world for a player to explore and discover.

Where Journey made your destination fairly obvious, ABZU is more open, and designed in a way where you’ll naturally end up where you need to go next. The world beneath the waves is vast, and there’s so much to see. As a diver with no health gauge to worry about, you can swim around and explore, do flips, ride on the back of a manta ray or swim with a school of fish. It’s peaceful, refreshing, and easy to get lost in.

It isn't just Battlefield with Stormtroopers. Star Wars Battlefront takes an arcadey approach to large-scale online battles, one that's clearly in love with its source material even as it reshapes cinematic moments into thrilling multiplayer flashpoints. The hands-on E3 demo had 20 Rebels and 20 Imperials fighting in the Battle of Hoth, with Imperial forces escorting a pair of AT-ATs toward Echo Base's shield generators and the Rebels trying to destroy said walkers. Oh, and unlike in The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebels can win.

Trading blaster fire feels like a pretty standard first/third-person shooter, but movement is surprisingly bouncy, especially with a jetpack in your loadout. Picking up a TIE Fighter or Snow Speeder token lying around the map allows you to call in air support, sending the camera sweeping up and away to follow your new ride. It's immediately ready for action, letting you transition straight to aerial battles without interrupting your frontline momentum. Battlefront's full of smart, unexpected choices that all get you doing cool Star Wars stuff faster, making it far teresting (and fun) than just a force-flavored Battlefield clone.

In Norse mythology, Eitr is a poisonous substance and yet the source of all life. At E3 2015, it was a surprisingly excellent action RPG, inspired in equal parts by Diablo and Dark Souls. As in Dark Souls, you may be able to take down a few monsters by mashing buttons, but all your little wounds will add up quickly. It's better to focus on an individual target, feinting, counter-attacking, and dodging in a deliberate tango which will vary by your creepy monstrous dance partner. It feels great, partly because managing all those little parries and thrusts as you keep track of foes is actually quite a bit easier with a Diablo-style isometric camera than in third-person 3D.

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper Diablo-like without scads of randomly generated loot. But equipping a shiny new weapon in Eitr feels much more substantial, since you're not just clicking on enemies until they're dead - different weapon combinations offer different combos and timing to keep in mind. Not to mention Eitr's heroine makes an impressive show of sweeping around the dark, crumbling, and beautiful world, and the minimalist, groaning soundtrack adds a freaky edge to intimidating boss battles. Eitr clearly hybridizes some familiar ideas, but each individual element feels even better for the transformation.

Dark Souls is a series obsessed with finding beauty in destruction; a death poem set in motion. Your hero - stoic and resolute - expresses himself from the tip of a sword, or a handful of gestures. Words are not needed in this shrouded land of death. Your weapons fill the silence, and in Dark Souls 3 they have more to say than ever before. Each armament - from longswords to bows to magic - has some unique action tied to it. The shortbow, for instance, lets you channel your inner Legolas by firing off quick shots after a dodge roll. The longsword can circumvent an enemy's shield with a rising slash that punches through it. The goal here is to create a more active Dark Souls, one that lets you personalize your fighting style let never before.

The backdrop for all this is a ruined world on the brink of oblivion. "Withered beauty," was how game director Hidetaka Miyazaki described it. An unspecified apocalypse looms heavy over this land, its withered denizens turning to the corpse of dragon and other fallen gods for some last-ditch hope of salvation. Not even direct sunlight reaches this place; the rays intercepted by perpetual cloud cover swirling the skies above. But while the end may be inevitable, how you choose to face it - right down to using a longsword over a shortbow - is entirely up to you.

“Not everything is going to make sense,” the narrator of What Remains of Edith Finch warns at the beginning of the game, and goodness, she is not kidding. What begins as a fairly straightforward visit to a childhood landmark very quickly turns into a bizarre tale involving the death of a little girl, an owl, a sea monster, and a family with a dark and mysterious history. There’s a lot to discover (not least of which is the question posed by the title), and none of it is ordinary.

Developer Giant Sparrow prides itself on “creating surreal experiences people have never had before,” and it certainly hits that mark with Edith Finch. Whatever may be going on in that house, it’s not your typical gaming experience. In much the same way that Giant Sparrow’s previous game, The Unfinished Swan, tapped into new areas of creativity to tell its story of a boy in search of closure, Edith Finch avoids the ordinary in favor of the intriguing. You think you know what’s coming, but you don’t; what’s coming is, at least from what we’ve seen so far, far more unsettling than anything you might imagine. How wonderful.

Mobile games often get snubbed at E3 because they’re not big or flashy and, if we’re being honest, not often thought of as "real" games. Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter, meant to tide us over until Fallout 4’s release in November isn’t big or flashy, but it is most certainly a real game, one with depth and personality. Perfectly tuned for its mobile format, Fallout Shelter is gorgeous to look at, has a surprising amount of detail, and its simple Vault-building concept is shockingly addictive. It is, dare I say, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist.)

Plenty of mobile games are free to play and supported by microtransactions, but so many of them fail by letting those in-game purchases get in the way of the fun. Fallout Shelter doesn’t make that mistake; you can purchase bonus-containing lunchboxes if you like, but it’s entirely optional. You don’t have to shell out a single cent to enjoy Fallout Shelter’s irreverent and surprisingly challenging approach to rebuilding society. Keeping people happy and alive in a radiated wasteland is, as it turns out, really hard. You think they’d be content to just have a roof over their head, but nooooooo. They want food and water and power and music, too. Ungrateful jerks.

Wattam is what you would get if Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy had a baby - and then gave that baby crayons and cake. It's colorful, silly, and joyous. It's a celebration of everything that links us together; of our common bonds and togetherness. It’s about blowing things up in order to bring people together, which makes absolutely no sense, but that’s ok, it doesn’t really have to.

The Earth was fighting with a Bad Guy and in order to save everyone on the planet, she blew herself up and scattered her inhabitants to the four winds. (Yeah, it’s a weird choice, but run with it.) The Mayor is the sole survivor, and he wants to bring everyone back, which he does by forming increasingly large chains of friends, which he then explodes by setting off the bomb under his bowler hat. (Mm hmm, I know, just stick with me.) Wattam is simple to play, but there’s a lot to discover, like what happens when a coffee bean befriends a pillow or when The Mayor meets his long-lost siblings. The art style is utterly endearing; even the poop is cute. (Yes. There’s poop. Golden poop, even.) To make things even more charming, the characters you encounter take their names from your PSN and Facebook friends. Whether or not you tell your mom that she’s now a chibi lawn mower is up to you.

The little Kickstarter game that could, Flame in the Flood takes you with one simple objective: survive. Well, two objectives, since you're floating down a mammoth river toward something that I'll just call Hope. It's waiting for you at the river's end, but first you have to survive the miles of treacherous post-apocalyptic terrain that lies ahead. To do that, you'll have to keep yourself hydrated, well-fed, warm, and rested, all of which are difficult to do when everything from the wolves to the bacteria in the water is out to get you.

Flame in the Flood doesn't pull any punches, and you will die very quickly the first time you play. You'll have to master necessary survival skills by trial and error, and slowly build up a bank of knowledge to see you through. Dying of septic teaches you not to drink suspicious water. Collapsing from blood loss proves that you can't fight off wolves with just a stick. Starving after eating every plant you find highlight that meat is the key to survival. And you'll learn what objects are important when you realize they could have saved you. It's a slow build to success, but every time you get a little smarter, and feel an ever-stronger urge to push further.

Though didn’t impress us by venturing into new thematic waters, it did show Naughty Dog’s peerless approach to the blockbuster action game. The over-the-top destruction on display in the game’s wild car chase somehow reflected an elegant, economical approach to storytelling. When Nathan peers over a railing to take in a huge city crawling down a hillside, it’s not just for looks - we’re seeing the road to the next story beat, and by the time the chase concludes, we’ve traversed the entirety of what seemed like just a pretty picture before.

This willingness to devote resources – be it time, money or the hard work of artists – into a wide shot like that, only to have it become a “real” constructed environment and unfurl as part of the gameplay, is what put Uncharted on the map. The framing of the chase sequence borrows well from Hollywood, and the witty repartee brings the script up to a matching level. What’s even better, though, is the brewing mystery in the story’s title. Between our trio of thieves, Nathan Drake, brother Sam and companion Sully, we’re already wondering whose epitaph Uncharted 4 will be.

Star Wars Battlefront has always been exciting. But you know what’s better than exciting? Giga-exciting. And fortunately, that’s exactly what DICE’s game now very much is, after its Hoth-based E3 gameplay demo.

It looks insane. It plays like someone just threw a first-person camera into a Star Wars movie battle. It has all the exciting, flash-bang bombast you want, and all the chaotic, intimate, human focus Star Wars needs. It is, quite frankly, a relentless, giddy, air-punch generator, and if you haven’t watched that demo yet, you must do so immediately, below, before you click on to learn all the new Battlefront details from . Also, some guy called Skywalker turned up. We hear he’s quite a big deal.

Also, why not check out everything we know about while you're here? Seriously, why the hell not? It's going to be great!

You know that really smarmy trick devs and publishers play when they know they have a really good looking game? The one where they run what looks like a cut-scene, then reveal it to be in-game just as you’re waiting for the cut? For once, we don’t actually begrudge EA or DICE that smugness. Seeing the gun and HUD come up over that Hoth corridor was, visually at least, the holymotherfuckingshitballs moment at E3. And it continued.

Although transparently choreographed to show the game at its most cinematic, Battlefront’s E3 2015 gameplay demo has us sold. In terms of fidelity, it’s stunning, DICE’s take-photos-of-ever-Star-Wars-prop-ever-and-use-them-for-textures strategy turning in genuinely unbelievable results. Seeing the game running for the first time is – at last – a real next-gen moment. But beyond that it’s the feel of the damn thing. TIE fighters move in just the right way as they scream and bank through the sky. AT-ATs shuffle and judder exactly as they should. Explosions and blaster fire have that same presence and texture you instinctively know is right. Even the radio chatter, right down to the acting style, is 100% Star Wars.

There might not be a strict class system in Battlefront, but that doesn’t mean that this is all-shooting, all the time. Although not formally discussed during the game’s on-stage E3 demo, we saw plenty of very cool, very Star Wars points of difference between the characters in play.

Some have small booster packs allowing quick, extended jumps, ideal for dodging out of the way of incoming fire or beating an opponent in the race to an objective. AT-AT drivers look to be able to pepper the ground with airstrikes. Orbital bombardments are in as well. And to defend against those, some players can also pop up impromptu bubble shields to protect anyone who can hop under them in time. Combined with Battlefront’s breakneck pace and constant pockets of aggression around multiple objectives, the resulting sense of giddy, dynamic, organised chaos feels… well it just feels very, very Star Wars.

It may seem an innocuous point to make, but it’s not. Obviously, this is something that should just happen, but if it didn’t, then the whole deal would be off. It would be catastrophic. Star Wars Battlefront would be over. But fear not. Taking down AT-ATs with Snowspeeder tow-cables is totally a thing. We’re not currently entirely sure how complex a process it is (as in, whether you need to actually aim and fire the cable, before carefully, manually snaring the legs, or whether it’s automated after doing a certain amount of damage), but it happens, it looks brilliant, and those big laser-dogs crump down just as they should. That’s what matters.

Don’t pretend you won’t 100% lose your mind when you first do it. Because you will. It will be lost.

Battlefront purists, fear not. While you may have – understandably – worried that some of the essence of the series would be lost via DICE’s transition from thirdto first-person shooting, that is not the case. This is an equal opportunities Star Wars shooter. Whether you want the immersion of FPS, or the wider viewing angle of TPS, Battlefront has you covered.

As the E3 demo switched between multiple viewpoints, both rebel and imperial, so too did the camera mode. It seems that either perspective will be freely available at the touch of a button. Old fan or new, this Battlefront should let you liberate the galaxy or blast rebel scum in exactly the fashion you wish. Huzzah!

Gameplay aside, this is the other big E3 reveal. Well, insofar as something that was obviously going to happen can be deemed a reveal. Joining the already announced Darth Vader and Boba Fett, Skywalker The Younger is a playable hero character in Star Wars: Battlefront. Sporting an insta-kill lightsaber and a very meaty Force push, Luke is Godzilla to normal ground troops, and a fearsome match for enemy hero units.

Though don’t judge us if we push our nerd glasses up our faces for a moment and question the canonical validity of Return of the Jedi Luke appearing in the battle of Hoth. We’re going to judge ourselves harder than you ever could, believe us.

Star Wars: Battlefront has arrived. At this year's Star Wars Celebration convention, we got the chance to see Battlefront in action and speak with the developers about what to expect from this new game. There's a lot to comb through, but at the top of the pile is the release date, which is currently set for November 17 in North America and November 20 in the UK. It's coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC through Origin.

Not long after that, the first DLC pack will be released, but we'll get to that in just a moment. Did you know that you can play in either first or third-person? We've got those details and so much more straight from the show floor, so read on and prepare yourself for the intergalactic battle of a lifetime.

Meanwhile, here's the latest trailer for December's movie, and our breakdown of its secrets.

If your favorite skirmish from the Star Wars franchise is the Gungan battle on Naboo, well, I've got some bad news for you. Star Wars: Battlefront will focus primarily on the original trilogy, with warzones across four planets: Endor, Hoth, Tatooine, and Sullust. Those first three should come as no surprise to Star Wars fans, as we've seen 'em all before. But that last one, Sullust, is largely unknown outside of the now-defunct expanded universe.

According to Wookieepedia, "All of Sullust was composed of multicolored rock, veined by lava channels; the planet went through atmospheric blackouts caused by gouts of smoke and ash." It's basically a hellish volcano planet, neat. The developers also revealed their first free DLC update for the game, which will be the Battle of Jakku. Naturally, this will take place on Jakku, and will help explain why the planet looks the way it does when you see in it Episode VII.

This DLC will be released to all SWB players on December 8, though if you pre-order the game you'll get the DLC a week early on December 1.

If you were hoping to hop in an X-Wing and fly from the jungles of Endor to the Death Star's core, well, maybe next time. Similar to the developer's own Battlefield franchise, Battlefront will feature three primary ways to wreak havoc on the other teams: troops, vehicles, and aircraft. In the demo we saw, X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Snowspeeders, AT-ATs, AT-STs, Speeder Bikes, and the Millennium Falcon were shown - all of which will be fully playable. They'll also be confined to the planet they're currently stationed on, so don't think you can just bail on a fight by flying into the stratosphere.

Star Wars games, especially the multiplayer ones, have all faced the same problem: everyone wants to be a Jedi (or Sith). Who has time for a lowly Stormtrooper when you could be a lightsaber-wielding, lightning-shooting badass? All the footage we saw featured Stormtrooper and Rebel Alliance soldiers fighting with various blasters and other ranged weapons - that is, until freaking Darth Vader popped in at the end a ripped a few Rebels a new one.

No, there's no Darth Vader character class or anything like that. By fulfilling certain conditions (that are still unknown), players will be able to spawn in as an iconic Star Wars character, such as Darth Vader or Boba Fett. Each of these legendary warriors will be packing their own special weapons and abilities (yes, Vader can force choke people). As for those certain conditions, DICE couldn't confirm if these transformations will be earned as Killstreak rewards or via some other means.

If you and a friend want a more relaxed Star Wars: Battlefront experience - meaning you're not dying over and over in multiplayer - then the co-op missions might be more your speed. These are specific challenges that recreate iconic moments from the original trilogy, such as the battle for Hoth. They're designed to be highly replayable with various customization settings, and can be tackled online with a buddy, or offline via split-screen (also with a buddy).

Partnerships are a sacred contract between you and another player, and once you've entered one you're entitled to certain benefits. For starters, you and your partner can always see each other on the minimap, and you can always spawn on that person so that you're never apart. Presumably, this only applies if both players are on the same team; otherwise, this could lead to some real unfortunate respawns.

Partners can also share unlocks with each other. While the developers weren't ready to talk about all the character progression options in the game, they did note that if one player had unlocked a special, high-powered weapon, they could share that weapon with their partner, even if they're at a much lower level. In this way, players can use partnerships to boost others up who are perhaps new to Battlefront.

Not much more to say about this one. Unlike developer DICE's Battlefield 4, which capped out at 64 players, Battlefront will feature games that hold up to 40 players total. If you're looking for something more manageable, the game will support multiplayer with as few as eight players (or those two-person missions mentioned earlier).

During our demo of the game, we noticed the person playing earned more points for scoring headshots, grenade kills, or other extravagant executions. And then there was the ominous 'Nemesis bonus'. DICE wouldn't comment on what the Nemesis bonus entailed, or if it's attached to a larger Nemesis system, but all those secrets will surely be revealed in the coming months leading up to Battlefront's release.

And for more on all things Star Wars, check out our .