E3’s come and gone. For many, it was a more muted experience than years previous – but that’s for people who weren’t actually there to get hands-on time with some of the most interesting games coming up in the next few years. We’ve already doled out our own awards for the best games that were on offer, but now it’s time for the closest thing there is to official E3 awards. Though not associated with E3 in any real way, the Game Critics awards are judged by a panel of 38 US and international media.

Games are only eligible for awards if they were playable by judges for at least 5 minutes – which means many of the big games you saw revealed didn’t make the cut. That’s why the likes of Anthem, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Spider-Man and God of War didn’t make the cut.

Here are the nominations:

Best of Show

• – Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• – Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)
• – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft)
• – Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros Interactive Ent.)
• – Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best Original Game

• – Detroit: Become Human (Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• – Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft)
• – Sea of Thieves (Rare/Microsoft)
• – Skull & Bones (Ubisoft Singapore/Ubisoft)

Best Console Game

• – Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• – Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)
• – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft)
• – Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros Interactive Ent.)
• – Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best PC Game

• – Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)
• – Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros. Interactive Ent)
• – Mount & Blade II: Bannerlords (TaleWorlds Entertainment)
• – Total War: Warhammer II (Creative Assembly/Sega)
• – Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best VR Game

• – Doom VFR (id Software/Bethesda)
• – Fallout 4 VR (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
• – Lone Echo (Ready at Dawn/Oculus Studio)
• – Moss (Polyarc)
• – Transference (SpectreVision/Ubisoft)

Best Mobile/Handheld

• – Durango (What Studio/Nexon)
• – Metroid: Samus Returns (MercurySteam/Nintendo)
• – Hidden Agenda (Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• – King’s Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon (Square Enix)
• – Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (Atlus)

Best Hardware

• – Astro A10 Gaming Headset (Astro)
• – DisplayLink XR (DisplayLink)
• – Razer Thresher Ultimate (Razer)
• – Logitech PowerPlay Mat (Logitech)
• – Xbox One X (Microsoft)

Best Action Game

• – Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games/Activision)
• – Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)
• – Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• – Star Wars Battlefront II (EA DICE/Motive/Criterion/Electronic Arts)
• – Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best Action/Adventure Game

• – Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
• – Detroit: Become Human (Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• – Days Gone (SIE Bend Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• – Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros. Interactive Ent).
• – Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)

Best RPG

• – Battle Chasers: Nightwar (Airship Syndicate/THQ Nordic)
• – Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver)
• – Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlords (TaleWorlds Entertainment)
• – Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (Level 5/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• – South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Ubisoft SF/South Park Digital Studios/Ubisoft)
• – Vampyr (Dotnod Entertainment/Focus Home Interactive)

Best Fighting Game

• – ARMS (Nintendo)
• – Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• – Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite (Capcom)
• – Pokken Tournament DX (Bandai Namco Studios/The Pokemon Co.)

Best Racing Game

• – Forza Motorsport 7 (Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft Studios)
• – Gran Turismo Sport (Polyphony Digital/Sony Interactive Ent)
• – Need for Speed Payback (Ghost Games/Electronic Arts)
• – Project CARS 2 (Slighty Mad Studios/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• – The Crew 2 (Ivory Tower/Ubisoft Reflections/Ubisoft)

Best Sports Game

• – FIFA 18 (EA Canada/Electronic Arts)
• – Madden NFL 18 (EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts)
• – Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 (PES Productions/Konami)

Best Strategy Game

• – Battletech (Harebrained Schemes/Paradox Interactive)
• – Frostpunk (11 bit Studios)
• – Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft)
• – Total War: Arena (Creative Assembly/Sega/Wargaming)
• – Total War: Warhammer II (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Best Family/Social Game

• – DropMix (Harmonix/Hasbro)
• – Just Dance 2018 (Ubisoft)
• – LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (TT Games/Warner Bros Interactive Ent.)
• – Hidden Agenda (Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Ent.)
• – That’s You (Wish Studios/Sony Interactive Ent.)

Best Online Multiplayer

• – Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games/Activision)
• – Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)
• – Star Wars Battlefront II (EA DICE/Motive/Criterion/Electronic Arts)
• – Sea of Thieves (Rare/Microsoft)
• – Skull & Bones (Ubisoft Singapore/Ubisoft)

Best Independent Game

• – Ashen (Aurora 44/Annapurna Interactive)
• – Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Inti Creates/505 Games)
• – Donut County (Ben Esposito/Annapurna Interactive)
• – Laser League (Roll7/505 Games)
• – The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti (Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna Interactive)

Winners will be announced tomorrow, 28 June. Heading up the nominations are Mario + Rabbids Battle Kingdom, Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus with four nods each. Super Mario Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Destiny 2 got three hat-tips as well.

Ubisoft is also the most nominated publisher, with 14 nominations, while Sony comes in with 7. Nintendo scooped 5, while Microsoft got just 4.

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Last Updated: June 27, 2017