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The company that brought us Black & White , as well as the long-running Fable series , ceased to be , and a chapter of gaming history was closed .

It was the end of an era in more than one way , as Microsoft also discontinued production of the Xbox 360 after over a decade on sale and more than 85 million units shifted .

That the 360 sold 85 million and still came third behind the PS3 and Wii during its generation is a testament

to how much gaming attained mainstream status during those years , in no small part due to the massive appeal of the Halo , Call of Duty and Gears of War games which made their mark most heavily on Microsoft ' s faulty , but widely loved rectangle .

In keeping with the morbid theme , Everybody ' s Gone to the Rapture divided opinion over its depiction of a post-ascension rural English village , with the intrigue of the story contrasted with some admittedly slow gameplay .

For boring gameplay without a good story , and with extra frustration from the controls , players could instead have looked to Star Fox Zero .

Mighty No . 9 failed to live up to the hype after a number of major gaffes and problems during production , coming out not awful , but a mediocrer letdown .

Meanwhile , Mirror ' s Edge : Catalyst took all the things that made the original game great - the puzzle elements in pushing through trickily laid out levels - and got rid of them , leaving us with another sandbox game that failed to hold attention past the second loading screen .

But it was of course the annual E3 conference held in LA that took everyone ' s focus for the month . The unveiling

of more details on the radically different Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild , and the mysterious trailing of Microsoft ' s Project Scorpio meant there was much to speculate over - though this included wondering why in the streaming age the major event on the gaming calendar is an exclusive and very expensive physical showcase .

The Future Publishing monolith grew taller still , after stapling on Imagine Publishing , owners of Play , GamesTM and Retro- Gamer . The monopoly marches on . Except for us . And we do this from our bedrooms .

Oh , and just go watch the Sonic 25th anniversary show . Words can ' t do it justice .

gaming sensation

A multiplayer first-person shooter , with unique and wacky characters who had to work as teams to defeat opponents with crazy loadouts and recognisable catchphrases .

Unfortunately , Battleborn was blown out of the water at the end of the month by Overwatch , a game which did all the same things

but was much better marketed , and caught the audience ' s imagination in a way Battleborn couldn ' t manage .

Kathy Rain made it to PC and Mac , and despite being a fairly basic looking point and click adventure game , used a strong soundtrack and well thought through characters to produce a polished and immersive adventure .

Uncharted 4 was the big console release , but failed to make a big

splash after so many installments of Nathan Drake trying to recapture the Indiana Jones magic .

Instead , it was Doom that gathered all the attention , and indeed the # 3 spot in our Game of the Year vote , after players realised how fun it is to tear demons limb from limb .

Total War : Warhammer provided the mystery of 2016 with its incredible frustrating name , presumably the product of neither franchise

wanting to dilute their brand . But pride is worth less than the pun sales from Total Warhammer .