There's no disputing it; E3 was weird this year. Not because Sony didn't want to party, or Microsoft didn't take the chance to steal the spotlight. Not because there weren’t great games on show, or a small number of them. It just felt all too predictable, without a concrete look at the horizon of games that is expected to dawn with new console hardware. But E3 was still home to some notably strong titles that are set to make the next 12 months incredibly interesting, especially when you consider most of the games on show this year should be out by then. From futuristic role-playing games to haunted houses and plumbers, here are the best games we saw at the show this year.

You can’t blame most people for not having played The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The original Gameboy adventure launched all the way back in 1993, garnering a cult following since thanks to its weird character inclusions from across the Nintendo spectrum and quirky tone. It’s a game that would be tough to play in its original form today, which …

With an April 2020 release date on the horizon, it's great to have a better idea of what type of game Cyberpunk 2077 is shaping up to be. It's easy to be reductive and call it a prettier immersive sim in the vein on Deus Ex, but it's looking to introduce a far more fleshed out paths for you to play the way you want, when you want.

It's difficult not to feel excited by Watch Dogs Legion's ambition. Removing a central protagonist from the game, Legion sets you loose on the streets of London and lets you build your own revolution of Dedsec agents and puts you in control of any one you want. Every character you see walking the streets, patrolling restricted areas and even shooting at you can be recruited with varying degrees of difficulty. Legion promises an experience that will give each of these characters a story to tell, but just how high does the ceiling of this simulation go?

There's no disputing it – The Outer Worlds looks like a Fallout game in all but name. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, given that Obsidian Games is behind it. As the creators of arguably the best Fallout game out there (even with New Vegas' misgivings) it's still somewhat surprising how much of that DNA is retained in Outer Wilds. That isn't to say this looks like a decade old RPG either. Outer Wilds instead looks to build on ideas that haven't worked out as well in past Obsidian ventures, giving you even more ways to approach its more open-ended quests.

Wolfenstein and the Nazi-killing escapades of B.J Blazkowicz have never been better thanks to MachineGames. Both The New Order and The New Colossus have been tight shooter romps with a delicate mix of old and new; Blending stealth gameplay with punchy first-person shooting, wrapped up by strong writing and captivating characters. But Youngblood isn’t about the past. Instead, it’s forging …

With the Switch, Nintendo can reintroduce many of their great but unappreciated franchises to a new audience. It's perhaps why re-releases of games like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker have found new life on the console, after being relegated to hardware that hardly captivated mass audiences. It's part of the reason why sequels to established franchises can feel so fresh, and Luigi's Mansion 3 is no exception. There are small refinements here and there, but so far this sequel looks and feels like more of what made the previous two titles so great, and a perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with it.

Crystal Dynamic's Avengers has a tough challenge to overcome. How do you gather some of Marvel's most iconic modern heroes into one game and balance their unique abilities with a cohesive and realistic combat system? How do you have characters like Thor and Black Widow fighting the same enemies without one feeling out of place? Sitting down to watch a 30-minute gameplay demo, these questions raced through my head. And I left with an answer that wasn't exactly satisfying.