The Best Game of 2015? That’ll Be Fallout 4
In true Bethesda style, Fallout 4 didn’t get off to the best of starts thanks to a plethora of bugs, glitches, and frame rate drops. But as our own uber-chief Ken Fisher pointed out in his fanboy’s review: “It’s a Fallout game—and if that’s enough to excite you, you’re going to like it.” The judges at the 19th annual DICE Awards—essentially the Oscars of video games—agreed. Fallout 4 won the coveted DICE game of the year award.
Given the pedigree of the awards—they’re backed by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and judged by its members—that’s quite the accomplishment. Fans have been snapping up the game in droves, too: Bethesda shipped a record-breaking 12 million copies of the game at launch to meet demand, racking up sales of over £525 million. It was also the most pre-ordered game of 2015, no doubt in part thanks to the lust-worthy Pip-Boy Edition, which itself became the fastest-selling collector’s edition for any game in history at several retailers.
But it wasn’t all about Fallout 4 at the DICE awards, with the likes of Star Wars Battlefront picking up action game of the year, Metal Gear Solid V picking up adventure game of the year, and The Witcher 3 winning outstanding achievement in game design. Ars’ game of the year, Rocket League, won sports game of the year. Bethesda did pick up another pair of awards in the form of RPG of the year for Fallout 4, and mobile game of the year for Fallout Shelter, which, if you’ll remember, is the mobile game everyone was raving about for a month after E3 before they got bored and went back to crushing candies. A full list of the winners is available online.