Bethesda kicked off the conference with some odd antics. Taking shots at Wal-Mart for the leak of Rage 2 and then transitioning into what was an awkward performance by Andrew WK. When have these ever worked at E3? But Bethesda had a bit of a theme through the first half of their conference and that was adding content to their current lineup of great single player and multiplayer games. Bethesda seemed more confident in what they had to show this year than any of their previous E3’s and with good reason. Detailed Deep dives, big announcements, and incredible reveals were in full force here and had me picking my jaw up off the floor after it was all said and done.
RAGE 2
So like I said before things kicked off with Rage 2. I am going to skip the Andrew WK performance because honestly, I wish Bethesda had done the same. Rage 2 is the new FPS being developed by id Software and Avalanche Studios. It’s a sequel to a game that came out a long time ago, but it looks like they’re breathing new light into it this time around. They went into gameplay and the moment to moment combat looks reminiscent of Doom. The colors are far more vibrant than the original game and while the setting is dark and dreary the game has this lightheartedness to it. I’m interested to see more for sure.
Elder Scrolls Legends and Elder Scrolls Online
Bethesda digs into the success of these two games. They talk about new features and updates and what to expect from the service based games going forward. This should carry some interest from the hardcore community but to a broad audience watching their show, I think they spent the perfect amount of time on these titles.
DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal was announced as a sequel to the critically acclaimed reboot that id Software developed. They didn’t show much but announced that the full debut would be at Quake con in August. This was an announcement of an announcement of sorts and I typically hate those but they confirmed that this game is bigger, better, and the feedback from the fans has been taken into consideration. I loved DOOM so this is a much welcomed announcement and I’m really looking forward to seeing a more in-depth gameplay revel for this later this year.
Quake Champions
We got a brief overview of Quake Champions and its progress. A Free Trial was announced and a new trailer was shown off. Not much else to say here, but most of the new information surrounding this title comes during Quake con so look out for that in August.
Prey Moon Crash and Typhon Hunter
Prey got some DLC and it looks really great. Moon Crash is a rogue-like mode that puts you in an escape scenario. You have to escape from the moon and what I saw in the trailer looked really interesting. Taking the spectacular Prey mechanics and putting you in a new setting with new enemies and combat scenarios is quite interesting and I think that it will bring me back to the game to play through it.
Typhon Hunter is a multiplayer mode/DLC being added to Prey where 4 players can play as mimics while one player plays as the hunter and it seems like the last one standing wins. This reminds me of the days of the 4v1 multiplayer games that were popular for a bit but never really took off. This actually sounds like a blast though and in theory could be a ton of fun for Prey fans.
Wolfenstein Young Blood
Does this sound familiar? It probably does if you played the first Wolfenstein game and its follow-up DLC New Blood. This is a new story based standalone DLC that has players taking on a new storyline with new playable characters. The DLC is fully co-op and sounds like it will be a lot of fun.
Skyrim on Everything Trailer
I really enjoyed this. Bethesda taking shots at themselves and dishing them out to others was a common theme at this showcase and I thought it was really great. This short video was one of my highlights for this years E3 so far. At such a serious showcase and E3 being so focused on marketing, I found these aspects of Bethesda’s showcase to be a real breath of fresh air.
Fallout 76
There is a ton to unpack here. Todd Howard came out on stage ad gave us a very detailed look at the new Fallout game. I want to get a few things out of the way real quick. Yea, it’s multiplayer, it’s PVP, there are town building mechanics, and it releases November 14th of this year. These are all questions that so many of us had leading into this reveal due to all of the rumors so now that those are out of the way we can get into the nitty-gritty.
Fallout 76 is a prequel to all of the Fallout games. Stepping out of the vault for the first time, the goal here seems to be centered around creating this big shared world with other players and this is so far off from the typical story focused Fallout games that I’m truly enamored by what was shown off. This year at E3 we have seen studios stepping out of their comfort zones and it has me truly excited for the next few years of games. Gears of War Tactics, Anthem, and Fallout 76 are perfect examples of game developers creating new experiences that they have never created before. I am all for this and if you want to take a deep look at all of the awesomeness that is Fallout 76 and it’s multiplayer features, take a look at the amazing informational videos below in the full Fallout 76 reveal.
Mobile Games – Elder Scrolls: Blades & Fallout Shelter
Fallout Shelter was a huge success for Bethesda and personally, I really enjoyed it. Bethesda announced that it will be coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 today. They then moved on to a much more ambitious project titled The Elder Scrolls: Blades. This is a full-on Elder Scrolls game on mobile.
The game features 3 different modes including, Abyss which is an endless dungeon mode that has you surviving for as long as possible. The next is Arena, a PVP mode of sorts that has you battling others. Last but not least is the main mode called The Town. This has you building your town and taking on quests in what looks to be a huge open world. You can visit the towns of other players and it looks to be a very good online based multiplayer game.
Starfield
Starfield was revealed to be Bethesdas new IP and was touted as a “next-gen” project. I don’t expect to see much from this anytime soon but here’s a sneak peak.
Elder Scrolls VI
Elder Scrolls VI was announced. We can all chill out now, and just wait several more years because this one is very far out. I imagine neither this nor Starfield are coming anytime soon but I appreciate knowing that they exist.
Altogether, Bethesda put together what was in my opinion very good showcase at E3. Todd Howard came out and absolutely gave fans a reason to be excited about Bethesda’s future projects. I think that these announcements will be talked about for several years now that we have confirmation for The Elder Scrolls VI. This is what E3 is all about, excitement, surprises, and just all around appreciation for the art form and I can say that I walked away thoroughly satisfied with Bethesda’s showing this year.
