Bethesda wasted no time jumping into their press conference with some exciting games coming to consoles and PC later on in the year. Although their show received some critical acclaim for starting at 9pm, or 05:00am for us Brits, and the fact that there wasn’t much on the anticipated Starfield game, what was announced caused some real excitement.
Having constructed their showcase around what I would call a small theme park, Bethesdaland is a “playground” where users can engage with the latest Bethesda titles. Their press conference was basically a tour of this land, rather than announcing any new titles.
Pete Hines, Bethesda’s Global VP of PR and Marketing introduced Bethesda’s entry into VR. They’ve implemented VR compatibility into their most popular games. They showed some examples of the VR experience you could expect from the likes of Doom, Prey and even Fallout 4.
The Elder Scrolls Online played a large part of their conference, with the announcement of being able to return to Morrowind in the new installment of the game. They used various gaming YouTubers and filmed their reactions playing the title for themselves.
Bethesda also included the modding community for their Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, boasting at some of the download figures for those titles. Bethesda now are supporting the community more than they ever have before. They introduced Creation Club. which involve new armour, weapons, gameplay enhancements and housing items. Creation Club content is made by Bethesda gaming developers and outside creators. It’s due this summer on all platforms, and better yet, will be free to all users to download how they like.
A new Elder Scrolls themed card game was announced for Android and iOS. This will probably follow in the format of something like Hearthstone or even the table-top game Magicka.
Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch was a big deal, as it enables players to use the Joy Cons to do things like swing swords or shoot arrows in real time, adding another layer of immersion into the title. The Creation Club, from the announcement will not be available on the Nintendo Switch.
A new edition of Dishonoured is coming. The popular game will be promising new ways to play. No gameplay was revealed, but the trailer we saw was very pretty, so we’ve got some high hopes for the title.
Quake was a big announcement. It first emerged in 1996, and with this new addition coming, it hopes to bring the title back to professional e-sports. The fast action packed gameplay, featuring a ton of new content for the modern gamer, showcased some of the new duel wielded weapon setups and a shield type powerups. There’s going to be a Quake World championship at Quakecon in Dallas, Texas with a prize pot of $1,000,000. The beta is available to play at Quake.com.
Some parts of Bethesdaland were saved for an exclusive launch at the press conference. The first of those titles was The Evil Within 2, with an incredibly surreal and creepy trailer. “Going back into Stem” was mentioned, and from what we saw, could mean some kind of alternative world or universe that your character can switch between. We’re expecting some jump scares, some terrifying characters and a deep story line.The game is due for release on Friday 13th October, so be sure to check back with us for a review.
The second title was Wolfenstein The New Colossus. Their interesting intro the game opened with a girl who was in control of a giant dog which spat fire. The channel changes to a game show called German or not. When the camera pans out we see that a monkey with a cat’s head is changing the channel, indicating that some kind of strange Nazi experiments have gone on. We know that Wolfenstein games are set in an alternative universe where the Nazis won WWII, and this is the next chapter into the popular series. It’s going to have over the top action, some destructive weapons, and from the trailer, possibly some kind of open-ish world that can be explored.
Hines came back to the stage to finish off the conference, letting us know that all the games we’ve seen here will be due at some point this year. So what are you looking forward to most from Bethesda? I’m definitely looking into Wolfenstein. Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check back here for even more news coming from E3.
