1UP Names Best of E3 2006 Award Winners

Ziff Davis-owned consumer website 1UP has released the titles named for its Best of E3 2006 awards, identifying the 1UP editors' picks for what were the best games by platform and genre that were shown at the annual E3 event in Los Angeles. On next-generation platforms, the site picked Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed as the best PlayStation 3 title at the show. The game, which is being billed as the first game in a series, has players taking on the role of an assassin named Altair in 1191 AD during the Third Crusade. The site identified Bioware's Mass Effect, a sci-fi themed action RPG set in the far future with players coming to terms with and combating a race bent on destroying civilization from the far reaches of space, as the best offering for the Xbox 360. For the Wii, 1UP editors picked Wii Sports, a collection of games such as tennis, golf, and baseball that make use of the console's unique Wii remote controller. For current-generation platforms, Electronic Arts' Will Wright-developed strategy simulation Spore was identified as the best PC game at the show. Capcom's highly stylized Okami was chosen as the best PlayStation 2 offering, while Activision and Raven Software's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, an action RPG that lets players create, customize and control a team of four characters taken from the pages of Marvel comics, was picked as the best Xbox game at E3. With regards to portable console and mobile phones, 1UP found Konami's Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin to be the best Nintendo DS game at the show, while Sony Computer Entertainment's Loco Roco was identified as the most remarkable PSP title at E3. The award for best mobile game was unsurprisingly given to Square Enix for Final Fantasy. By genre, the site found the best action game to be Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for the Xbox 360, the best adventure game to be The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the GameCube, the best shooting game to be Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for the PC, the best best fighting game to be Virtua Fighter 5 for the PlayStation 3, and the best racing game to be Excite Truck for the Wii. Other genre specific winners include Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London for the PC, which won best role-playing game, Electronic Arts' Spore, which won best simulation game, EA Sports' NCAA Football 2007, which won best sports game, and Gas Powered Game's Supreme Commander, which won best strategy game. Other special awards given out by the website include the award for the most original game, which was given to Nintendo for Wii Sports, and the award for best visuals at E3, which went to Electronic Arts and Crytek's Crysis for the PC. The best trailer award was given to Konami for Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3, and the dubious distinction of having the best booth babes at E3 was given to Tecmo.