E3 2015: top 10 moments from gaming's biggest show

Top 10 E3 2015 moments

Another year, another Electronic Entertainment Expo. Before E3 2016 takes over the news channels over the next four days, let's take one last look at the highs of last year's show.

Could it be? Did E3 2015 actually make everyone a happy gamer?

We here at TechRadar sure felt that way - instead of five best moments, we had to round up to 10 best moments of E3 because there were so many great parts of the show this year.

Heck, it was even hard to decide who had the best press conference. Between the big name veterans like Microsoft and Sony to the newbies - Bethesda and the PC Gaming Show, all eight conferences had amazing and weird highlights that were both memorable and fun to watch.

Then there was the showcase of fantastic hardware. Despite no new consoles, we still got to play with the brand new Oculus Rift and observe the world of Halo 5 in augmented reality with HoloLens. Both are convincing us more and more that the future of gaming - along with countless other applications - will be changed forever.

Oh and the games. Can we take a moment and say wow because E3 has us excited to turn on our PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PCs again? Our love for games never died, but seeing new titles like Recore and Horizon Zero Dawn to old classics from Rare and Starfox were enough to make our jaws drop.

The new trailers and info on Fallout 4, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Doom, Uncharted 4, Star Wars Battlefront and so many more games also only increased our impatience for this fall and next year to arrive faster.

Here's hoping E3 2016 will blow our minds again, but in the meantime, read on to see our top 10 moments from E3 2015.

10. Nintendo's adorably weird puppets

Nintendo didn't give us much this year (as usual) but at least provided extremely amusing and weird puppets during its press conference.

Starfox was announced which is great - but was a little underwhelming when we played it on the show floor.

Maybe next year we'll see more new games from Nintendo? We're starting to sound like a broken record though ...

• Here's 10 new must-see games from Nintendo

9. New Xbox One Elite gamepad is cool but pricey

A new Xbox One Elite controller is set to come out later this year but it'll be pretty dang expensive. We're not sure who's going to drop $149 (likely £99, AU$199) but someone definitely will.

The Elite is a well-made gamepad that feels and looks premium thanks to the new trigger buttons and magnetic, swappable parts. It's essentially the console gadget equivalent of a PC keyboard/mouse/rig.

We liked it well enough during our hands on time and wished we could play a few hours of an RPG to see it holds up.

8. HoloLens + Halo = HaloLens?

The Microsoft HoloLens was on the show floor giving people tutorials of Halo 5: Guardians - but we didn't actually get to play the game with the augmented reality device on.

A lucky few were able to test out Minecraft with the headset, however be warned, it looks nothing like the demos from the stream - at least in terms of your field of view. Instead of seeing a whole screen of Minecraft, you're all privy to a small screen.

Aside from that, the actual experience is pretty incredible and the best AR device we've seen yet.

7. No Man's Sky zooms onto another platform

Fans of the unreleased, massive sandbox game No Man's Sky were treated to a nice surprise during the first PC Gaming conference. The game will come out on the PS4 AND the PC at the same time.

This delightful bit of news was met with cheers and much applause because it's the perfect game for PC gamers to spend countless hours exploring space.

Now, if only it will come out with Project Morpheus support ...

6. Bethesda gives world real life Pip-Boy

Bethesda broke the internet by announcing the release of a real life Pip-Boy at its inaugural E3 conference.

Selling for $120 (£99, about AU$155), the wearable is already (sadly) sold out everywhere.

We're crossing our fingers that it gets restocked so every TechRadar staff member can communicate via Pip-Boy forever.

5. Oculus Touch will be worth the wait

The Oculus Touch and the accompanying experience was something we didn't expect to be so well-made, since it's only a prototype. We were delighted to find out that the new Oculus Rift controllers open up even greater possibilities for virtual reality than before.

The Rift headset itself it is a thing of beauty. Lightweight, comfortable with a nice little roster of games, the consumer version is sure to sell out within minutes.

The Touch controllers are shipping after the headset's Q1 2016 release, and while we were peeved about the later date, after trying out the controllers we're now content to wait.

4. Microsoft unleashes backwards compatibility

This was definitely something we didn't see coming.

Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will soon be compatible with both your old Xbox 360 game discs and Xbox 360 digital downloads.

It will however, take up some space and require a 100MB emulator for every game. Still, the team told us that it will be as simple as plopping the disc into the next-gen console.

This was something even Sony was shocked to hear about, and the company doesn't have any plans to copy Microsoft's backward compatibility plans for the PS4.

• Here's every must-see Xbox One game from E3

3. Visibility of women in games

With women in gaming such a controversial topic - especially when it shouldn't be at all - this year's E3 was a certainly a breath of fresh air.

From Horizon Zero Dawn to Dishonored 2, there were so many female protagonists and characters in practically every single conference, for almost half the games including triple-A's, that we were excited to include this as a top three moment.

There's still a ways to go because we shouldn't even be surprised anymore at the inclusion of women in games - it should just be a thing that happens without a fuss - but we're happy that the industry is moving in such a positive direction.

2. Bethesda reveals Fallout 4 release date

Bethesda released a trailer for Fallout 4 before the Expo even started to build hype for the game - and it worked.

Then the press conference exploded everyone's minds even more with the aforementioned Pip-Boy and of course, the November 10 launch date for the game.

We can now officially look forward to more adventures in the lovely wasteland this fall.

1. Sony's announcements made the crowd go crazy

Yes, we said earlier it would be hard to decide between press conferences, and it was indeed difficult. But being in the crowd as they were going bonkers during Sony's press conference made it pretty clear that the games announced would be hot topics the rest of the show.

Shenmue broke Kickstarter records, the Final Fantasy VII remake was a huge surprise and of course, The Last Guardian is a myth no longer.

Oh yeah, that incredible Uncharted 4 demo at the end - complete with hilarious snafu - should be the icing on the E3 cake.

Need we say more?

• Here's all the must-see PS4 game from E3