The Bethesda E3 Showcase has been a bit of a roller coaster every year with a lot of mystery around what will be announced. Sure there are always a few expected things that could show up like more footage on Doom Eternal, hopefully some new properties and no doubt something new for The Elder Scrolls Online (because they always have something about The Elder Scrolls) and not another attempt to sell you more copies of Skyrim.
With a start of a show that confirms a lot of our expectations, the central focus of the Bethesda Showcase centered around community and its thanks for how they have stuck together, especially through their tough Fallout 76 launch, which saw them mauled by both critics and gamers alike – something you can’t help but notice was hinted at by their staff in the opening package.
Finally, we also got our first look at their new streaming technology Orion that in a nutshell will help stream games faster and better which will no doubt be key in a world which is quickly focusing on providing players with a Netflix gaming experience. Of course if this wasn’t exciting enough we also got an announcement for their inaugural Doomcon this year. Let’s check out their announcements.
The Elder Scrolls Blades
If you are a mobile gamer or enjoy The Elder Scrolls World, Blades you no doubt will already know about this, which has been in Early Access for a little while now. Blades offers both a dungeon crawling experience and quests to rebuild the town. The new updates for Blades includes solo arena battles, skill-boosting jewelry and a new dragon quest-line which is all currently free to download. On an ending note, Blades will also introduce their arena PvP mode in Fall as well as the game landing on Nintendo Switch which has crossplay and is still free.
Fallout 76: Wastelanders
Fallout 76 had a tough launch in that it hadn’t so much launched but exploded on the launch pad … but never one to shy away from bad press the presenters thankfully had the sense to poke fun at themselves about the whole issue while touching on how the updates that followed has shaped the community there. Still heading into Year 2 it would seem that Bethesda are far from done with this ambitious experiment starting with Wasterlanders who are the characters coming back to reclaim it. This update brings in many much needed features such as full dialogue trees with choices and consequences as well as the much anticipated human NPCs who will have their own stories and goals and a new quest line. While the initial concept of Fallout 76 was supposed to be a 100% player inhabited world, it definitely feels like a step in the right direction. All this is coming in Fall 2019 and for those who have avoided the game there will be a free trial for Fallout 76 from June 10-17.
Fallout 76: Nuclear Winter
While finally giving players what they wanted for Fallout 76, for some reason they are also going to be introducing everyone’s favorite game mode in recent years: battle royale. Nuclear Winter is their new game mode which will feature a 52 player battle royale to be the seer of Vault 51. Who exactly wanted this for Fallout is unclear but as long as they keep it away from the main game then all the better.
GhostWire Tokyo
Tango Gameworks, the developers of The Evil Within games gave us a first look at their upcoming action adventure game GhostWire Tokyo introduced by Ikumi Nakamura who might have got as much attention for her enthusiastic introduction as the game itself. Set in Tokyo where you fight paranormal enemies to rid the city of a supernatural evil which is causing people to disappear suddenly across the city. The game will focus on the player meeting spirits who have their own stories and deciding between who is trying to help or hinder their quest what is . While this game only has a teaser story trailer the visuals and story certainly caught our attention and we will be looking forward to seeing how it develops in the coming months.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr
The Elder Scrolls Online has, like so many Bethesda games, built a strong community so of course there was a lot of excitement for this follow-up trailer The Season of the Dragon which ended on a cliffhanger which this trailer picked up. This DLC not only adds onto its current story as well as offering new weapons and abilities but in August fans can also look forward to the upcoming Dragonhold chapter and dungeon DLC Scalebreaker. However this was once again a cinematic trailer which doesn’t show us anything of the actual game but it was certainly fun to watch regardless.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends – Moons of Elswyer
Paired up with The Elder Scrolls Online: Elswyer update, this free card game which has been made available on Android and iOS will now have Moons of Elswyer update on June 27th.
Commander Keen
This upcoming mobile game takes a modern take on the classic game where you play as a new generation of heroes: Billy and Billie who follows in their father Commander Keen’s footsteps. Designed like a Saturday morning cartoon, this revival of the early 90’s property from ID will feature both an adventurous story mode comprised of both classic and new stories alongside a battle mode which they hope will introduce the game to a new generation of gamers. The game will soft launch in summer on Android and iOS and currently can pre-register on gokeen.com
Rage 2: Rise of the Ghosts
Rage 2 saw a rather mixed relief with some gamers feeling that the game delivered wasn’t quite the same one promised. Still with its next expansion, Rise of the Ghosts will have an array of new features to be released in the coming weeks including pilotable mech, new enemies, new vehicles, gameplay modes, new areas as well as a new story.
Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot & Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Being one of the main franchises with Bethesda, Wolfenstein teased these two games previously which now both has release dates attached to it. The first being their VR title, Cyberpilot where you’ll play a hacker working for the French Resistance and will be released in July 2019.
The second game is Wolfenstein: Youngblood which not only promises to be the biggest game to date but also features both a single or co-op gaming where the main lead this time are the daughters of Blazkowicz with the game picking up the story two decades after The New Colossus as they embark on a mission to find their father. Youngblood will be released on July 26, 2019.
Deathloop
Arkane Studios has bought us some incredible games and for this next project announced it will take place on the frozen island of Black Reef in a time of madness with two rivals both with opposing views of their current situation. While the trailer is more of a teaser, there is a lot of style and appeal to it overall and remains one to keep an eye out.
Doom Eternal
After an extended talk on the streaming technology of Orion, they jump straight into proving their point of game streaming fluidity by using Doom as their best example. With that, giving them a reason to share both cinematic and gameplay footage for Doom Eternal, possibly one of the most anticipated titles of the evening which made for a great wraps up their showcase. Doom Eternal is set for release on November 22, 2019 while the Collector’s Edition will feature an actual wearable helmet as one of the items, which lets hope is not as disappointing as the power armour helmet which came with Fallout 76
Doom Eternal Multiplayer – Battlemode
On an ending note for Doom Eternal, it will also include a multiplayer mode called Battlemode which features two player-controlled demons versus one fully armed Slayer in a 2v1 battle.