Honestly, looking back at the 2015 game of the year nominees feels like staring at a time capsule from the exact moment gaming grew up. It was a weird, transitional year. We were finally moving away from the "cross-gen" era where games were held back by the Xbox 360 and PS3. Developers were finally letting loose.
If you were there, you remember the tension. The Game Awards were still finding their footing as the "Oscars of gaming," and the competition was just brutal. You had a sprawling Polish RPG, a stealth masterpiece that was basically a middle finger to a corporate breakup, and a post-apocalyptic sequel that had people calling out of work for a week straight.
It wasn’t just about better graphics. It was about scale.
The Big Five: Who Actually Made the Cut?
The official shortlist for the 2015 Game of the Year at The Game Awards included The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and Super Mario Maker.
Wait, Super Mario Maker? Yeah. It seems like a wild card now, but in 2015, the idea of Nintendo handing over the keys to the kingdom was revolutionary. People weren't just playing levels; they were becoming sadistic architects of digital pain. It was brilliant.
But let’s be real. The heavy hitters were the open-world titans. The Witcher 3 eventually took the crown, and rightfully so. CD Projekt Red did something that Bethesda had been trying to do for years: they made side quests feel like prestige television. You weren't just fetching five herbs for a villager; you were getting embroiled in a tragic, three-hour domestic dispute involving a "Botchling" and a cursed baron. It was messy. It was human.
Bloodborne was the soul of the year, though. FromSoftware took the Dark Souls formula, stripped away the shields, and told players to get aggressive. It was fast. It was terrifying. If The Witcher was a sprawling novel, Bloodborne was a Lovecraftian fever dream that you couldn't wake up from. Some people still argue it should have won. Honestly? They might be right.
✨ Don't miss: Does Shedletsky Have Kids? What Most People Get Wrong
The Metal Gear Elephant in the Room
We have to talk about Hideo Kojima. The 2015 game of the year nominees discussion is incomplete without mentioning the drama at Konami. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is, mechanically, the best stealth game ever made. Full stop. The way the systems interact—dropping a supply crate on a boss's head or using a cardboard box to slide down a mountain—is pure genius.
But it was unfinished.
The game just... ends. Act 2 is a mess of repeated missions, and the final "twist" left a lot of long-time fans feeling cold. Then there was the whole "Kojima isn't allowed to attend the awards" debacle. It cast a shadow over the entire year. You had this masterpiece of gameplay that felt like it had its heart ripped out by corporate lawyers. It was a tragedy played out on a global stage.
Fallout 4 and the Burden of Hype
Fallout 4 is the one people love to debate. It sold millions. People obsessed over the base-building. But it also started the trend of "voiced protagonists" and simplified dialogue wheels that many RPG purists hated.
"Hate" is a strong word. Let's say "intense disappointment."
Compared to the narrative depth of The Witcher 3, Fallout 4 felt a bit thin. You had the Commonwealth, which was beautiful in a radiation-scarred way, but the choices felt binary. Save the Synths or kill the Synths. It lacked the gray areas that defined the other 2015 game of the year nominees. Yet, the loop was addictive. Exploring a ruined Boston never got old, even if the writing did.
🔗 Read more: Stalker Survival: How to Handle the Vampire Survivors Green Reaper Without Losing Your Mind
What Everyone Forgets About 2015
Beyond the big five, 2015 was the year of the "quiet" masterpiece. Games like Life is Strange and Undertale changed how we think about choice and consequence. Undertale specifically was a cultural earthquake. It didn't get the "Big GOTY" nomination at the main show (it was nominated for Best Independent Game), but if you look at the internet in 2015, Toby Fox's creation was everywhere.
It subverted every RPG trope. It asked you: "Why are you killing these monsters?" It made you feel like a jerk for playing the game like a standard hero. That kind of meta-narrative was exactly what the industry needed.
Then there was Rocket League. It sounds silly now—cars playing soccer—but it was a literal phenomenon. It proved that you didn't need a $100 million budget to dominate the conversation. You just needed a physics engine that felt right and a "one more game" hook that kept people up until 3 AM.
The Legacy of the 2015 Class
Looking back, 2015 was the peak of the "Map Game" era before it started to feel like a chore. The Witcher 3 set a bar for writing that, frankly, most studios still haven't hit in 2026. It proved that players want maturity. They want stories that don't have easy answers.
Metal Gear Solid V showed us that player agency is king. If I want to finish a mission by kidnapping a goat with a balloon, the game should let me do it. That philosophy of "emergent gameplay" is baked into everything from Breath of the Wild to Elden Ring.
How to Revisit These Classics Today
If you're looking to dive back into the 2015 game of the year nominees, you're actually in luck. Most of these titles have aged remarkably well, thanks to the sheer power of the hardware they were built for.
💡 You might also like: Blue Protocol Star Resonance Shield Knight Skill Tree: What Most People Get Wrong
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Don't play the original 2015 version. Grab the "Next-Gen" update. It adds ray tracing, faster loading times, and integrates some of the best fan-made mods directly into the engine. It makes a ten-year-old game look like it came out yesterday.
Bloodborne
This is the tough one. It’s still locked at 30 frames per second on the PS4/PS5. It’s a crime, honestly. But even with the choppy frame rate, the art direction carries it. If you haven't played the Old Hunters DLC, you haven't actually finished the game. It features some of the best boss fights in history.
Metal Gear Solid V
This runs like a dream on almost anything now. The PC version is the way to go if you want to mod in the "Definitive Experience" content. Just be prepared for the narrative cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 1.
Super Mario Maker
Since the Wii U servers are essentially a ghost town, your best bet is Super Mario Maker 2 on the Switch. It keeps the spirit of the 2015 nominee alive while adding way more tools.
Actionable Steps for the Modern Gamer
- Check for "Next-Gen" Patches: Before booting up any 2015 title on a console, ensure you've downloaded the specific 4K or 60fps patches. Many were released years after the games launched.
- Prioritize the DLC: For The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne, the expansions (Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine, and The Old Hunters) are arguably better than the base games. Don't skip them.
- Ignore the Metacritic Scores: In 2015, "8/10" was seen as a failure by some fans. Ignore that noise. Games like Mad Max or Until Dawn didn't make the nominee list but are absolute gems worth your time today.
- Use Community Mods: If you're on PC, the Fallout 4 modding community has basically rebuilt the game from the ground up. You can fix the dialogue interface and add thousands of hours of content with a simple install.
The 2015 game of the year nominees didn't just entertain us for a few months; they redefined what we expect from the medium. We're still living in the world they built.