After the disappointing EA conference earlier in the day, the time came for Bethesda to show us what they had. Last year their first every showing was hailed as one of, if not the best conference of the E3 show. Could they possibly live up to the expectations? Especially with the leaks about their conference coming in the days before E3 started. Personally I don’t think it was quite as impressive as last year, that being said, Bethesda came again with a very strong display, and are quickly becoming very good at this whole press conference business. This round up will take a look at everything that was presented, although some of which will not be coming to the Xbox console.
Quake Champions
This has been near the top of old school shooter fan’s wish-list since the success of Doom’s recent release. While it’s noted that Doom’s multiplayer isn’t its strongest asset, fans of Quake have been hoping id software would be working on rebooting another of their beloved franchises. Not many were expecting a reveal this early though. So to reveal this as their big start to the show was very clever. This was purely a tease, with more to be revealed at Quakecon in August. It is a PC only game, with no hint that it will be coming to consoles. But the same was said of XCOM 2, and that’s now coming, so you never know.
Elder Scrolls Legends
Another game that is currently not slated for console release is the Elder Scrolls strategy card game. It comes with a campaign mode, along with multiplayer, giving a new way to discover the world of The Elder Scrolls. How this will far against the mighty Hearthstone and the rumoured Witcher Gwent game is to be seen, but these card games are proving popular at the moment, and Bethesda could be on to a winner basing a game set in such a beloved gaming universe.
Fallout 4/Fallout Shelter/Skyrim Special Edition
The next section shoved together 3 different games to look at. To start with we looked at the next 3 DLC’s for Fallout 4. The Contraptions Workshop launches next week, and looks to add to the successful creations tools the game already has, letting you build all sort of mechanical wonders. It has ‘YouTube videos’ written all over it, with gamers no doubt looking to create the craziest things they can. Next month we have the Vault Tec workshop allowing you to create your own vault! Then in August there is a new story DLC in Nuka World. Not much was revealed of this, just a tease of what appears to be an amusement park. Fallout Shelter is also getting an update with new characters, locations, enemies and combat system.
The latter part of this video segment showed off the rumoured Skyrim remaster. Skyrim Special Edition will be coming to Xbox One and PS4 and bringing with it a beautiful graphical overhaul, and mod support. I would also assume that it’ll come with all DLC. I spent a whole lot of time with Skyrim, whether this will make me dive back in to the world though is yet to be seen
Prey
Arkane Studios took to the stage to show their new project – Prey. Rumoured to be Prey 2, this looks like a straight reboot to the franchise. The protagonist is a key subject of an experiment and finds himself on an a space station overrun by an alien threat, needing to use wits, weapons and mind bending powers to survive. Again more of this will be shown at Quakecon next month, but it was said the release will be next year. Got a really good vibe from this trailer, and I’ll be keeping a keen eye on how this develops. If Arkane are able to reach the standards set by Dishonored I’m sure this will be a great new first person title.
Doom
This was a fairly quick segment on Doom. Going through the success it’s had, and upcoming tweaks and changes coming to multiplayer. The first DLC pack was also announced – Unto the Evil, which has new multiplayer maps, armour, weapons, playable demon etc.
Elder Scrolls Online
I’m surprised by how well this game is doing for itself. We were given a bit of a look back video of ESO, told that it currently has over 7 million players across platforms and won best MMORPG of the year last year. This is the 1st anniversary of the console release, and have since seen 3 DLC packs released with continued support. ESO will also be launching in Japan on June 24th. This video has actually made me want to go back to it and give it another chance
Afterwards we were given a glimpse of the Dark Brotherhood DLC which is being released on consoles on Tuesday. A brutal assassin campaign which are always popular within the Elder Scrolls games. Fans of the game are sure to be relishing getting to grips with story.
We were also told about another new update coming in the fall called ‘One Tamriel’. This will allow all players to play with each other regardless of character level by scaling players to be of an even level to each other. This also allows everyone to play every quest and explore every area without needing to level up prior to doing so. This was received quite well by the crowd in attendance, I’m not sure how this will actually encourage people to play through the game though, with RPG’s usually encouraging players to improve and get stronger.
Bethesda VR
Quite surprising to hear about this, but it leads to an exciting future for investors in VR. It was mentioned that Bethesda will be releasing two games on the HTC Vive, whether they will come to other VR solution further down the line is to be seen, but they are BIG. Doom and Fallout 4 will have VR versions, with Fallout due out in 2017. I can’t imagine how immersive walking around an open world RPG game will be, but I can’t wait to be able to see how it translates from standard monitors.
Dishonored 2
The big hitter of the conference was always going to get the most time, and with a release date confirmed to be November 11th there isn’t that much longer to wait for this. With a choice of two separate character in Corvo and Emily with two different power sets the replayability in the game will be fantastic. I was saying yesterday that EA didn’t show gameplay, well Bethesda has definitely scratched that itch with a great gameplay section showing off Emily’s powers. There was a collector’s edition revealed, which included Corvo’s mask and Emily’s ring, and it was also revealed that anyone pre ordering (up until a certain time) will receive a free copy of Dishonored: Definitive Edition. Anyway, no more talking, take a look at the fantastic gameplay below. I’m super excited for this release.