Pete Hines. Todd Howard. And open world games? This could only be a Bethesda E3 press conference. Let’s do the lowdown from beginning to end.
Rock & Rage
Andrew WK opens the show with a theme fitting for Rage 2. Followed by the gameplay snippet of the same game. The crowd was dead but he tried his best. Guess that’s a sign of NOT to bring rock stars to any E3 presser in the future.
Rage 2 is essentially Doom x Mad Max x BioShock. We dig it. The DNA of these two developers are well fleshed out in the slick yet violent gameplay video.
In The Cards
After a high-octane opening in Rage 2, Bethesda mellowed down a bit by bringing up the card game we struggle to find those who still play, Elder Scrolls Legends.
Elder Scrolls Legends is hitting PS4, Xbox, and Switch later this year. You can carry forward your progress on mobile to these platforms as long as you pair them with your Bethesda account. Nice.
From Hell
The next Doom was up and will be called Doom Eternal. “Taking hell to Earth”so to speak but apart from that, nothing was shown. We have a feeling that this will be the tone of this E3. If there isn’t a gameplay of the game shown, best bet that it is being saved for next-gen.
Tied For The Lead
Quake Champions will be free for all for a limited time. Judging by the online reception as well as the crowd in the room, it is safe to say that Bethesda isn’t hitting the mark when it comes to competitive gaming. Esports? Wooooo. But #BE3 is probably not the best place to generate hype for a competitive game title
The Next Skyrim
We then get a fun, self-aware moment from Bethesda as Todd Howard pokes fun at where Skyrim is gonna be on next, featuring Keegan-Michael Peele:
To be honest, we won’t mind having it on Alexa or any personal assistant device. Google, FUSRODAHHHHHH!
War Never Changes
Which leads to the meat of the Bethesda presentation, the much-hyped Fallout 76. So here’s what we know about it:
- It’s going to be fully online.
- The game is set in West Virginia and will be about four times the size of Fallout 4, and sixteen times more detailed.
- Six distinct regions available in-game at launch.
- You can play in a limited party size – possibly 4 per team.
- If we heard it correctly, there will be 12 players on each server and how you interact with everyone else is up to you.
- The building mode and construction bits from Fallout 4 makes a return.
They also unveiled the Collectors Edition comes with a fully wearable Power Suit helmet. Sweet.
A Mobile Favourite Returns
Not much of an announcement due to the leak a few days back but here it is officially: Fallout Shelter is now available on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch for free. So get downloading folks!
Sadly, we don’t think we are allowed to port any of our progress on mobile phones to these new platforms. Bummer.
Anyone Missed Arena?
Speaking of mobile, a pure Elder Scrolls game – FPS RPG with console quality graphics is set to hit mobile devices; Elder Scross Blade. It will feature hand-made as well as procedurally designed maps and will come with portrait mode.
Cross-play with other platforms; PC, Xbox One and PS4 available but the game will be on mobile first, coming this fall. Pre-order now open on iTunes & Android. Head over to playblades.com to sign for early access.
Our only worries:
- How will it play on older devices?
- What’s the file size?
Into The Future
Bethesda closed their presser with two, huge announcements relate to next-gen console gaming, as Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI were teased.
No gameplay, just cinematics. We feel Starfield is going to be their Elder Scrolls in space or even take on Mass Effect while Elder Scrolls VI is gonna be…well, guess it’s all up for speculation.
Final Verdict?
8/10. Great
Easily the best presser of E3 2018 to date (well, there were only two prior), Bethesda hit the right notes with good reveals, engaging content with little or insignificant downtime throughout.
For quick rundowns of earlier E32018 pressers, check out our thoughts on EA’s and Microsoft’s as well.
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