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      Editors' Choice: The Best Games of E3

      Editors from across the Gamereactor network have weighed in with personal picks for their favourite of the show. Warning: may cause arguments.

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      We should probably start things off by mentioning that Horizon: Zero Dawn was overwhelmingly popular across Gamereactor's editorial team, and if there's one game that could be considered our "best of E3" it would probably be Guerrilla's new science fiction IP - simply put, it blew us away when it was revealed during Sony's press conference earlier this week, and we had to turn more than one editor to their second choice game in order to maintain a nice mix of titles in the list below.

      That said, there's plenty of great games that have caught the eye during E3 week, and now that the conferences are over and all the major surprises have been unveiled - and what surprises they were - we've collected together our favourite games, in the process explaining a little bit about why we liked them so much, as well as adding in the trailers that wowed us in the first place. So, without further ado, let's get talking about the titles that we loved from this year's show, and what better place to start...

      Horizon: Zero Dawn - Jonas Mäki (Gamereactor Sweden): Both from a design and technical standpoint, Horizon looks literally amazing, and the world seems to be right up my alley. Guerrilla has hired staff from both Bioware and CD Projekt Red to make sure everything reaches it full potential, and from the looks of it, they've made the right choices. To make things even better, it seems to offer fast-paced action, enormous boss fights, compelling lore, and a charismatic main character. Also, it has robot dinosaurs.

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      Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Tor Erik Dahl (Gamereactor Norway): After watching the 15 minute gameplay walkthrough - a couple of times more than I'd like to admit - my expectations for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End are now somewhere between high and through the roof. This game series has always kept me entertained, and whenever I'm in need of some well-composed action I tend to turn to the friendly banter between Nathan and Sully. That's probably partly the reason why Uncharted 4 had me on the edge of my seat during Sony's press conference. Seeing the two together again, talking crap and taking cover, both fired me up and calmed me down. The final chapter (as it seems to be) is apparently shaping up to be just as awesome as the earlier games, all thanks to Naughty Dog's keen eye for detail, action and dialogue. Springtime 2016 just got a whole lot more interesting.

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      The Last Guardian - Leevi Rantala (Gamereactor Finland): The Last Guardian has been on my radar since the day I saw its announcement during E3 2009. Team Ico seemed to be on the verge of once again creating something unique, as they had done with Ico and Shadow of Colossus before. Unfortunately the project seemed to fade away during the coming years, and at times it seemed like it was never going to be published. But, this year's E3 rekindled my excitement for this title. It seems to offer quite memorable set pieces and light puzzle solving, and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it's finally published next year.

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      Doom - Fabrizia Malgieri (Gamereactor Italy): It was a glorious back to basics. Opening Bethesda's E3 conference in grand style, the new Doom literally exploded in front of my eyes, filling me with nostalgia that took me back to the glorious ‘90s and let me enjoy one of the most radical experiences of this E3. The new game by id Software regains its incredible identity and it felt authentic; characterised as it is by huge and powerful weapons (starting with the chainsaw, an unexpected gem that offered a lot of fun in the past), well-combined with wonderfully bloody melee combat with monsters. In a setting somewhere between Dead Space and Metroid, Doomguy faces hordes of enemies, and all the while the game tries to preserve the essence of what made the Doom series so great in the first place: devastating weapons, blood, and frantic pacing. The funniest aspect of this new Doom experience is the incredible finishing moves, something that reminded me of the bloody fatalities from Mortal Kombat - full of smashed skulls and cruel dismemberments.

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      South Park: The Fractured but Whole - Magnus Groth-Andersen (Gamereactor Denmark): Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the legendary creators of South Park, blatantly stated following the release of 2014's South Park: The Stick of Truth, that they would never create another video game on that scale. It was too demanding, too difficult, and was filled with too many hoops to jump through. The Stick of Truth, developed by Obsidian Games, was however a triumph on almost every front, and as such their stance saddened the players who enjoyed the game. Ubisoft opened their E3 press conference with a boom by announcing a sequel, fittingly called The Fractured but Whole, and having Matt and Trey take to the stage to announce that The Stick of Truth did, despite all the difficulties involved with creating it, spark an interest in game development. The trailer shown had the same show-inspired visuals, clever humour, and it seems that the Lord of the Rings-style setup is being replaced by a superhero-theme. We can't wait to hear more about the game that kicked off Ubisoft's press conference in style.

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      Halo 5: Guardians - Gillen McAllister (Gamereactor UK): While 343i's Xbox presentation buried actual gameplay underneath heavily-scripted cinematic tosh, what Halo 5 promised for multiplayer tantalised. A 4-player co-op story campaign with its switch between two different squads as story device recalls the best beats of Reach and ODST, so long as the gameplay factors in the extra bodies and keeps us in sandbox arenas and not tight corridors as exampled in the demo. Some may baulk at the loss of the lone hero that's defined the tone and perspective of the series thus far, but my Halo career has always favoured co-op, campaign runs through the first three games and Big Team Battle in Halo 4 meant team tactics and support was always part of my Master Chief landscape. Warzone's the natural escalation of BTB, and while Halo 4 meet-ups fizzled out dramatically mere weeks after the game's release, I'm hoping Guardians rediscovers that secret sauce that means my friends and I will be engaged in intense firefights long into 2016.

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      Ghost Recon: Wildlands - Ingo Delinger (Gamereactor Germany): Wildlands really caught me by surprise. Ghost Recon II was one of my first multiplayer experiences on the old Xbox and I still have a lot of people in my friends list from those days, but the series went - at least to my taste - in the wrong direction with all that tech-heavy mumbo jumbo and with those quick urban battles from Future Soldier. Gone where the days of tense night walks with my coop-buddies, or hiding for minutes in tall grass or on snowy mountaintops so as to snipe the enemy team out of their base. Wildlands seems to bring back that big outdoor playground, with plenty of choices on how to approach each situation. Vehicular combat and the open-world approach could be a nice addition to the series and its formula, even if the latter isn't a surprise nowadays in an Ubisoft game.

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      Star Wars Battlefront - Petter Hegevall (Gamereactor Sweden): I wasn't hoping for anything close to as good as the Hoth-demo looked, frankly. A stressed development cycle, Battlefield 4-DNA and loads of functions from previous instalments being stripped away. I was... sceptical going into E3. The gameplay demo blew my socks off, though. The atmosphere, tone, pacing, animations, graphics, design and sound blew meee aaaa-waaaaaaaay!

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      Just Cause 3 - Morten Bækkelund (Gamereactor Norway): The phrase "best E3 ever" seems appropriate this year, in spite of Nintendo's embarrassing lineup. Across the rest of the conferences huge reveals such as Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Dishonored 2 (and many more) brought an ever growing smile to my face, but one game still stands tall above the rest for me. I'm usually the guy screaming for new IPs but there's just something magical about the Just Cause series. It embodies fun and creativity in a way few other games dare to even think about. Once I saw the trailer with Rico racing just meters above the ground in the brand new wing suit, using his trusted grappling hook to maintain momentum, I knew nothing else would pique my interest more. The gorgeous explosions could have been enough on their own, but with this added superhero feel to the action, Rico comes out on top. Once the smoke clears I mean...

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      Gears of War 4 - Arttu Rajala (Gamereactor Finland): It has been almost two years since Microsoft took control of the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games and tasked Black Tusk Studios, now renamed The Coalition, to continue the explosive action series. As a huge fan of Gears I was looking forward seeing the first proper glimpse of gameplay at E3. Graphically the game looked absolutely stunning and is a clear contender for one of the best looking games at E3. Although the gameplay itself didn't blow my mind, the video was accompanied with an awesome promise that Gears is going back to its roots. This was great to hear after having to deal with somewhat lacklustre prequel, Gears of War: Judgment, in 2013. Even cooler was being able to get hands-on with those bloody roots in the Gears of War Ultimate Edition beta that was almost immediately available after the announcement. That Anniversary edition will carry me nicely to holiday 2016 when Gears 4 finally hits. As the Cole train would put it: "Woo, bring it on!"

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      Dishonored 2 - Mike Holmes (Gamereactor UK): This year I wanted to see the new Dishonored, the next Hitman, and maybe a return for Splinter Cell. As they say, two out of three ain't bad. While Hitman has me intrigued, and potentially could be great, I'm still not fully convinced and for me the jury's still out on that one. With Splinter Cell and Sam Fisher a no show at this year's E3, that leaves me with Dishonored 2, the announcement for which I woke up to on Monday morning. I can't wait to get back into the fictional world built by Arkane: in my opinion it's one of the most interesting game worlds ever created, and the art style is incredible. On top of that, I really enjoyed the immersive mechanics and stealth-focused gameplay offered by the original, and I'm looking forward to experimenting my way through the various levels, once more using the supernatural tools given to me by the developers. This is one game I can't wait to see more of in the coming months.

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      For Honor - Ricardo Esteves (Gamereactor Portugal): I was expecting a lot of things out of the Ubisoft E3 Press Conference, but none of them involved samurais, vikings and knights fighting in a weird Call of Duty-with-swords-type-game. Yet, that's what we got with For Honor, and I for one was very intrigued by it. The key to the full experience seems to be the combat system, and it looks a lot more visceral, heavy and complex than anything we're used to in a sword game - at least a mainstream one. I haven't tried it myself, but the info coming from E3 suggests that the right analog stick is used for sword positioning - up, down, left, right. This, combined with very low health for all the characters, means players need to be extra-careful on the battlefield. It's also interesting that Ubisoft is using minor NPC characters to fill up the arenas. There's also a single-player campaign (more on that on the months ahead), but the multiplayer - including local split-screen - is the obvious pull in For Honor. There also seems to be multiple characters, each with different paths to evolve, gaining more weapons and customisation options. Consider my interest piqued, Ubisoft.

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      Recore - David Caballero (Gamereactor Spain): While I do think saying that it's "from the creators of Metroid Prime" is stretching it a bit too much (and a weird statement to hear during a Microsoft conference), as a huge Metroid fan myself there was no better announcement at E3 than that of Recore. Way more so when you consider that there was no sign of Retro Studios - nor the highly requested proper Metroid return - during Nintendo's event (expecting that and getting a cartoony team shooter for 3DS just hurts). This new Xbox One exclusive is being developed by Armature Studio and, of course, Mark Pacini, who directed the three entries from the brilliant Prime Trilogy and is one of the masterminds behind the project. So, in that regard, and judging by the assets released thus far, I have my fingers crossed and expect a true ambient action-adventure full of secrets, mysticism, sci-fi, and exploration through beautiful environments. And a much, much better work than Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. But there's another plus to reinforce this project's promise: the hand and expertise of Keiji Inafune. Just imagining Mega Man and Lost Planet ideas being added to the Prime concept and the AAA production values backed by Microsoft gives me the goosebumps. Please deliver!

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      Super Mario Maker - Martin Eiser (Gamereactor Germany): When Nintendo announced Mario Maker last year, it felt like a nice addition to the Wii U library, but not like something I would be really keen on. This opinion hadn't changed until this year's show. Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka talked about game design and how they created Mario games in the past. In the beginning they had to draw the levels, give it to programmers and then wait for the result. With tracing paper they made small changes without touching the hand drawn original levels. And they talked about design decisions. In the first level of Super Mario Bros. nothing is placed randomly. Everything has a function to help, teaching us the skills needed. Throughout the whole presentation they kept returning to Super Mario Maker and showed small examples of what the levels could look like. You can mix all styles of Mario games and use them even in a way they weren't made for. You can integrate characters from other games like Yoshi, Luigi, Link, Marth, Isabelle or even Wii Fit Trainer. This game is so much more than just a simple level designer. And having Koji Kondo handling the music underlines the importance of this project. I cannot wait to get my hands on this and thus view the back-catalogue of Mario platformers in an entirely different light.

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      Fallout 4 - Bengt Lemne (Gamereactor UK): Bethesda may have spoiled the impact of the Fallout 4 reveal somewhat with the trailer out a week or so ago, but regardless of that I'm confident this is the game out of all the games shown at the conferences that I'll enjoy playing the most. The mystery at the core of the game, why you're the sole survivor and why you've awoken 200 years after the apocalypse may interest some, but the open world adventure that lies ahead, the characters we'll run into and the remnants of Boston we'll experience are what really excites me.

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