E3 2006 People's Choice Awards
Which were the hottest, most popular games of the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo? Find out in this top-20 list.
ou probably helped decide the winners of the GameSpot E3 2006 People's Choice Awards without even knowing it. By voting with your clicks, you and millions of other GameSpot users determined the award-winners below, which were the hottest games of E3. This list was made possible by GameSpot's proprietary, patent-pending technology, GameSpot Trax, which tracked the real-time demand across thousands of games on day one of the show. We're here to tell you the hottest games of E3--check out our coverage and see for yourself why these games quickly garnered so much attention. Please note that the winners are listed in alphabetical order, rather than in order of popularity.
Square Enix's wildly popular and long-running role-playing series is coming to the Wii, Nintendo's unusual next console. The company offered a teaser trailer for the game, and it was enough to generate much excitement.
The sequel to the highly anticipated and somewhat controversial action role-playing game from legendary designer Peter Molyneux naturally drew a lot of attention at E3. The game promises to take the series to a different time, perhaps in a different direction.
Featuring brand-new 3D graphics, this never-before-released Final Fantasy game is coming to the Nintendo DS, much to the delight of legions of Final Fantasy faithful and many others looking for a role-playing game to sink their teeth into.
What's better than one Final Fantasy XIII game? How about two (or even three)? Final Fantasy Versus XIII is being developed by the team that made Kingdom Hearts II and the artists behind the visually stunning Advent Children.
The announcement may not have come as a huge surprise, but the apparently action-oriented gameplay of the next game in the blockbuster role-playing series caused tremendous excitement and discussion among E3 observers.
Intense and visceral shooting action made Gears of War one of the stand-out games of the Microsoft press conference. It looked great when it was revealed last year, but the game has clearly come a long way.
Shown in the form of a dramatic yet surprisingly low-key cinematic trailer, Halo 3 has been officially announced at last. Will it satisfy Halo fans expecting a tidy conclusion to Halo 2's cliffhanger? Who knows, but it generated huge excitement at E3.
Spectacular Hong Kong-style martial arts action mixed with God of War-style context-sensitive game mechanics makes for one of the most remarkable-looking games of E3 2006. This one wowed audiences at the Sony press conference.
Like a superpowered version of X-Men Legends, this action role-playing game will combine some of the greatest names from among all the Marvel super heroes--more than 20 different player characters will be on offer.
The dramatic new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4 did not disappoint audiences eager to see more of this game at E3 2006. Developer Kojima Productions seems to be bringing it all back home in this ambitious and amazing-looking sequel.
The highly acclaimed Metroid Prime series moves platforms to the Wii, which will enable a slew of new tactile moves and abilities for its heroine, interstellar bounty hunter Samus Aran.
Evidence that Nintendo's next console isn't just for kids and ladies, Red Steel lets you slash at your enemies using the Wii's unique controller. Or you can just shoot them. No wonder this game's popular.
The lightning-fast hedgehog might well be returning to form in his first PlayStation 3 game. It's fast, colorful, and exciting-looking, just like Sonic fans have always hoped from games in the series.
Wildly ambitious in concept, Spore comes from the creator of such games as The Sims and SimCity. You start off as a single-cell organism but eventually grow to become a space-faring race in this unique game.
It has been years since the last major Mario game, but Super Mario Galaxy just might have been worth waiting for. Featuring the signature whimsical creativity of the Mario series, this next game also sports some surprising new features.
Quietly unveiled amid a glut of other Nintendo announcements, this spin-off to Nintendo's excellent Mario role-playing series seems like a throwback to Mario's platformer roots, but it looks very charming all the same.
Though barely shown at E3 this year, the next game in Namco's hugely popular fighting game series nevertheless generated a lot of excitement. Fighting game fans are anxiously awaiting more details on Tekken 6.
Zelda drew a great deal of attention at last year's E3 but carried that momentum into this year's show as well, thanks to revelations about its unique features exclusive to the Nintendo Wii console.
One of the games that ushered in the original PlayStation's success is back, this time to show off the PlayStation 3's graphical muscle as well as its tilt-sensitive controller. Plus, swirly missiles!
The first official expansion pack to Blizzard's wildly successful online role-playing game naturally drew a big crowd at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and the newly announced Alliance race caused much clamor.
About These Awards: Previous E3s have shown that the most popular E3 games at the end of day one turn out to be among the most popular E3 games overall. On Wednesday, May 10, from 12:01 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., GameSpot Trax monitored the information requests from more than 2 million unique users who scoured GameSpot for details on the games of E3. All of these games had a significant content update at E3, which we covered and made available online. The E3 2006 People's Choice Awards are based solely on real-time demand, so be sure to also check out our E3 2006 Editors' Choice Awards for our editors' take on the most impressive games at the show.
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