Bethesda has rolled up to the gates of E3 this year with their fans already salivating for every little detail of Fallout 76. But that’s not all they’ve brought to the table so lets check out what was announced this E3 from Bethesda.
RAGE 2
This year Bethesda’s E3 conference started out with RAGE 2 and a cheeky reference to the recent Walmart Canada leaks. After a live performance from Andrew W.K. and an awkward teleprompter mishap, we got a new trailer. A little bit of tonal dissonance with the voiceover and the silliness of the gameplay, but other than that its a solid trailer. The vehicular combat looks amazing, as do the various weapons and abilities.
RAGE 2 will be out in Autumn 2019.
The Elder Scrolls Legends
The Elder Scrolls: Legends is being re-released with revamped visuals and hopes to recapture the collectible card game genre.
Coming to Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The Elders Scrolls Online
It looks like we have another game with another nervous presenter. Two new updates for The Elder Scrolls Online have been announced. The first will be called Wolfhunter which will be about werewolves and later this year: Murkmire set in the Blackmarsh region of Tamriel.
DOOM Eternal
A quick teaser for the follow-up to DOOM 2016. More demons and more delicious heavy metal music. Everything appears to be turned up to 11 here. Doomguy will be even more powerful than before. Twice as many demons and it will take place on Earth (at least partially).
Doom Eternal will be properly debuted at Quake Con in August 2018.
Quake Champions
Not much to say here, a few new characters were announced and there will be a beta coming.
This week is a trial for the free to play version of the game.
Prey: Moon Crash and Typhon Hunter
Prey got a surprising number of announcements today. Firstly up there’s a free update today featuring three new modes: Story Mode, New Game + and Survival Mode. Moon Crash is a paid expansion ($19.99 USD) featuring an infinitely replayable simulation which will be different every time you play.
Also, it’s out now!
Typhon Hunter is another DLC coming later in Winter, in which one player faces off against five other players who are mimics. These five players can disguise themselves as furniture or a spray bottle and the other player has to hunt them down. Typhon Hunter will also be coming to VR platforms.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a standalone sequel to Wolfenstein II. You play as BJ’s twin daughters in the 1980s. It will be co-op but you can play solo. A standalone VR game called Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot VR was also announced. You play as a hacker taking control of Nazi war machines and wreaking havoc.
Both titles are coming in 2019.
Skyrim: Very Special Edition
I’ll let this one speak for itself but it’s definitely worth a watch.
Fallout 76
Fallout 76 is set in the hills of West Virginia, you play as one of the first settlers to emerge into the untamed wasteland.
Todd Howard boasts that Fallout 76 will have 16 times the detail of (presumably) Fallout 4.
Fallout 76 is entirely online but you can play on your own. Explore the world, do quests, follow a story and level up. Todd coined the phrase ‘softcore survival’. Death will never mean the loss of progression or your character. There will be dozens of other players per server. If you join your friends and complete quests, your progression will go with you. Dotted across the map will be multiple nuclear missile sites, players will have to combine separate parts of a code to fire the missiles. When you nuke other players, you go into the contaminated area and collect rare resources. There also appears to be some sort of endgame mechanic. Fallout 76 will have dedicated servers and a Beta (Break-it Early Test Application) some time later this year.
Fallout 76 will release on November 14th, 2018.
Fallout Shelter
Coming to the PS4 and Switch and it’s still free.
Out tonight.
The Elder Scrolls Blades
One of the bigger surprises was the announcement of a mobile Elder Scrolls game. Elder Scrolls: Blades will feature handcrafted and procedurally-generated dungeons. You will be able to create your own character and level them up. There will be several modes: Abyss (endless dungeon) Arena (1v1 against real players) Town (hub for story and quests). You play as a member of the blades who have been forced into exile. Upgrade or decorate your own town and visit your friend’s towns to check out what they have been up to. Bringing it to every device and system they can. Phones (in landscape OR Portait mode), PC, consoles and VR.
Pre-order now, coming this Spring (Autumn in Australia). For free.
Starfield
Bethesda’s next-gen, single-player, new IP Starfield was confirmed to be a real thing. This will be their first new IP in 25 years. Not much to say other than it will be sci-fi themed.
Elder Scrolls VI
Presumably next-gen, no subtitle. Again not much to say. Way to tease us Bethesda.
Final Thoughts
The basic take away I got from this conference is that Bethesda is compensating for something. So much time was spent patting themselves on the back and indulging in personal memories. I don’t think there was a single presenter who didn’t awkwardly wait for applause at least five times. Also, a significant number of the presenters didn’t have much to say, then tacked on an announcement at the end, suggesting that perhaps they didn’t need to be part of the main show at all.
DOOM Eternal and Wolfenstein: Youngblood are welcome surprises, but again not a lot of substance was shown. Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI are obviously huge, but they’re so far off it’s hard to get excited about. Other than that, the deep dive on Fallout 76 and multiple updates for Prey were probably the highlights.
Bethesda had some good stuff to show off today, they just needed to halve the amount of presenters, shorten the overall presentation and stop pausing for applause.