E3 Conference roundup - Bethesda

Still deftly avoiding the Microsoft conference, I'm going to move onto the Bethesda conference. I found this one to have quite a few surprises actually, and I guess i'm a little concerned that some of their shooters are going to bleed into each other mechanics-wise, but hey, they're all crazy good fun, so maybe it's all good.

Let's kick things off with...

Rage 2

As they said themselves in the conference, this game was graciously revealed to the world by their good friends at Wal-Mart. Rage 2 never really got the E3 hype it deserved due to a spill from Wal-Mart letting us know that Rage 2 was being released sometime soon. It's a shame really because this would have been a sweet surprise.

I wasn't a massive fan of the original game, I felt it had a few issues in terms of pacing, being a bit generic and brown and not really much to it. I don't really think there was much to the game overall that made it memorable except maybe the Wingblade. So after a musical introduction by Andrew WK we saw the following:

Yeah. I like the look of that, I reckon I'll give it a shot.

Quake Champion

Released to much excitement from me when it was announced a couple years back, I was really looking forward to this game. I managed to get it in the Humble Monthly bundle, installed it, and it wouldn't launch. Go figure. They showed us a fancy trailer for the game now that it has officially launched with some of the characters, and announced a free trial from June 10th to the 17th. Sorry about that, I didn't write quickly enough!

It's Quake isn't it.It's a classic re-imagined for a new generation. Get stuck in. There's a dude in there that has shoulder mounted rockets like the Revenant from the Doom series, what more could you want!? Go!

Prey 2

Next up was an update on Prey 2. A game I've come very close to buying several times since it launched, but I haven't pulled the trigger on the purchase yet. Turns out Prey 2 is getting a bunch of updates whilst we wait for a pieceof DLC named "Mooncrash", which is an infinitely replayable story mode.Sounds great. Whilst we wait for Mooncrash we can look forward to three new game modes, which include Story mode, New Game+ mode and Survival mode. 

These were made available now, whilst later on in the year a game mode name "Typhon Hunter" will drop, which lets one player go up against 5 other player-controlled mimics. Word on the grapevine has it that Typhon Hunter will also be playable in VR. Sounds awesome. Maybe I'll grab the game afterall. Catch the trailer for Mooncrash and a few of the game mode updates below.

Wolfenstein 2: Youngblood & Cyberpilot

New reveal in the Wolfenstein universe as we get 2 new games. Youngblood which is set in Paris in the 1980's and involves B.J Blazkowicz's twin daughters kicking some nazi ass. This will allow two players to join together in glorious co-op play. Although I haven't played Wolfenstein 2 yet, I absolutely loved the reboot to the franchise and I look forward to playing them. You can catch the trailer for Youngblood below:

Alongside Youngblood, the guys are also working on a virtual reality Wolfenstein game known as Cyberpilot. This game will put players in charge of a hacker who can take over Nazi robots and turn them against their creators. From what I've seen of the gameplay for this game, it honestly doesn't look too impressive, but who knows.There's time yet, and it could work quite well within VR.

Fallout 76

Another one that was teased before E3 itself, and something that has gotten the internet all confused. On the one hand it's a new Fallout game, but on the other hand there's some things about it that have rubbed people the wrong way. First of all it is always online and is taking part in the buzzword mechanic of E3; a "shared world". where players can link up and explore the world, do quests and all that jazz. In other words it's going to look more like a Rust or Conan: Exiles game. There's a few trailers out there for Fallout 76 including the initial launch, but the gameplay is what we're after, so here it is courtesy of IGN. Please don't hurt me.

It's certainly an interesting way to take the franchise, and one that shouldn't be entirely unexpected with the extensive base building aspects of Fallout 4. It's worth nothing this isn't an entry into the main franchise though. Fallout 76 will be launching November 14th.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades

Now this is one that came out of nowhere. After the roaring success of the rebooted Command and Conquer game as a mobile title, this one could have gone either way, and one of the biggest bragging points of this is that the game can be played entirely in portrait mode, leaving your other hand free for other hand-based activites. I'll let you fill in the blanks. You can see the E3 trailer for The Elder Scrolls Blades here, once again courtesy of IGN because Bethesda didn't feel it right to put their own game reveal on their own Youtube channel. Please don't hurt me IGN.

Skyrim: Very Special Edition

I think this was intended more as a gag than anything else (how many more platforms can they release Skyrim on, right?!), but they also announced the debut of Skyrim: Very special Edition. It's basically Skyrim that you can play on your Alexa. I don't have one, so I honestly don't know how legitimate this is, but you can see the trailer here, featuring Michael Key.

Doom Eternal

Hold on now. Hold my beer. They're making another freaking Doom game. If you haven't played the reboot yet, then why the heck not? That game is fantastic and is worth every penny you can give it. It's a great reboot of a classic and everything feels so very badass. I might even go and play it again. They're going to be revealing more news about Doom Eternal at QuakeCon in August, but until then, we have this great teaser trailer:

Oh baby. I can not wait to get back into it. I am very much looking forward to this.

Starfield

This game didn't come with much of anything. It's a brand new IP and we don't really know a lot about it. All we were told was that it's a game that they have been working for quite some time, and that they're very excited to get it out there. We can also gather from the trailer that there is some sort of space setting to the game. I don't think we'll see this game for a while, but who knows what will come of it. You can catch the trailer below:

The Elder Scrolls 6

Bit of a cheap one this if you ask me. Not much meat to it at all, and I don't think there's even much to the actual teaser itself. It's just a mountain range and some trees. I guess it's not going to be Skyrim part two at least?

It's definitely in production and they're definitely working on it, so...well, there's really nothing else to say...hooray? 

That's your lot. This was a fairly long one, but that's every announcement made at the Bethesda E3 conference the other week. What title are you looking forward to? If any that is. I'll be looking to do another one soon, sorry this one has taken so long.

See you soon!