E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is an event held in Los Angeles where hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry present new and upcoming products. Our own GameWarp has the coverage. Next up: Bethesda
Opening to a pretty adorable montage of video game developers and their kids showcasing their passion for the work they do making video games, this year’s Bethesda E3 showcase conference took us on a guided tour of Bethesdaland, “a place of adventure, innovation, wonderment and fun” tieing in with the promotional poster we saw in the lead up to this year’s conference. Before we got into the new games though, they opened with a recap of last year’s great successes from Fallout Shelter to the recently released Prey. After that, here’s what we saw.
Bethesda VR – Doom VFR & Fallout 4 VR
https://youtu.be/jspdtha3t1k
So far, we’ve gone through the E3 conferences without any mention of VR, making us wonder if developers were choosing to move away from the platform. Bethesda however is the first to start their show promoting their Bethesda VR which will feature Doom VFR and Fallout 4 VR, which is completely playable in VR.
While both games look great, the player-represented hand and weapons held by the player look fragile and flimsy compared to their regular counterparts so whether this looks better to the player remains to be seen and with the high price tag still on VR Tech it doesn’t help the pitch. The main issue is whether the first reports of Doom VR demo from months ago about motion sickness during gameplay has been fixed. As the E3 conference goes on and more people try it on the showfloor, the answer will be revealed.
Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind
Elder Scrolls Online’s latest addition is Morrowind, which is currently available. This trailer served to capture the excitement of the community which currently, if we are to believe the trailer, numbers around 10 million players while we also saw highlighted the numerous aspects to the game such as the thieves guild and the forthcoming additions Horns of the Reach and Clockwork City but let’s face it, we’re all still super excited about that bear, right?
Creation Club – Summer 2017
A new platform to add onto the mods they have already made available for Skyrim and Fallout 4 where players will be able to purchase new mods, costumes and additions for both games with content being supplied by both Bethesda and outside creators. Considering how popular bringing Mods to the console market has been for these games, it came as little surprise to see the company trying to build on this, though what the ratio of real money to credit is remains to be seen.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends
Card games have been one of the surprise favourites of the conferences and Bethesda are certainly no exception with this game as they built around the Dark Brotherhood, the game will be available via Bethesda.net a swell as for Steam, iPad and Android devices. The game will also be supported by both a Chaos Arena and In-Game tournament. The Elder Scrolls: Legends will be released on June 29, 2017.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim coming to Nintendo Switch
https://youtu.be/_7980ZPK8Dg
Third party developers for the Nintendo Switch have certainly been one of the most requested things for Nintendo’s latest console which now looks set to follow its impressive launch by having Bethesda port across their massively popular Skyrim and yes, as you can see in the trailer, you will be able to play as Link (Legend of Zelda). With these “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” items being made available after scanning the Archer Link amiibo, it’s still unclear if additional amiibo’s will also alternative items and costumes.
Showcasing VR style controls, it remains to be see how this adaptation plays, especially considering the history Nintendo has with games using these types of controls never been as responsive as promised as no doubt those who played “Red Steel” will remember.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Dishonored 2 formed one of the pillars of last year’s Bethesda conference in a demonstration that many agreed went on far too long, but one year later they are back with their next story for the Dishonored universe which won’t require you to own Dishonored 2 and is currently set to be released with a $30 price tag and despite the company isn’t saying its a DLC we can probably expect it to be in scope.
Fans of the series though will get to play through the reunion of Daud and his second in command Billie Lurk from the original game’s DLC “The Knife of Dunwall” as they seek to take down the Outsider. This latest addition going someway to making up for Billie being largely sidelined in Dishonored 2. Dishonored: Death of the Outside will be released on September 15, 2017
Quake Champions
And the award for most pretentious promotion goes to … Esports was touched upon in the EA Conference but here Bethesda officially announced the return of the grand daddy of the genre with the Quake World Championships due to happen at QuakeCon. Honestly this didn’t give us anything new and depending on how competitive you are with Quake it will have either hit or missed. If you haven’t already, Quake Champions Closed Beta is available on Bethesda.net.
The Evil Within 2
The original game landed with so much buzz and excitement when it was released in 2014, as the first project from veteran designer Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil) after he left Platinum Games and while the game certainly had its fan,s it ended up slipping below the radar of most gamers. Hopefully with the release of this atmospheric trailer complete with haunting over of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” will make gamers want to go back and discover the original. Fittingly the game is set for release on Friday the 13th /October 13th, 2017 and if the footage we saw is anything to go off will be giving us all a whole new set of nightmares.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
One of the titles which had been rumoured going into E3 and despite making us think that someone had screwed up the tapes as it opened with what appeared to be footage taken from Lassie only for a giant fire breathing robotic dog named Liesel to bounce over the hilltop, it made a fantastic introduction to this latest addition to the series which will be taking place in an alternative future where Nazi Germany has invaded the United States.
Once more, you will be stepping into the boots of BJ Blazkowicz, who we also saw earlier and is also making an appearance in Quake Champions. Details are limited but there is plenty to look forward to looking at the full length trailer they wrapped up the conference with. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is coming on October 27, 2017.
Perhaps a more low-key conference than we saw from either EA or Microsoft, but this year Bethesda was clearly keen to focus on the year ahead, emphasizing that all games shown will be released in 2017, which certainly makes for at least a few titles to be excited for.
What are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments section below.