Not expecting any big news from Bethesda here, as Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI have already been announced as not attending. So what’s on show for Bethesda E3 2019?
Bethesda E3 2019 starting with a statement that Bethesda game players are a key part of the development process, challenging these developers. “you keep is in check” “your feedback sometimes challenges us”
This is partly not acknowledging some of those fans were really shitty, and partly not acknowledging that management hung those developers and community managers out to dry with their plans for Blades and Fallout 76.
Todd Howard up front to talk Bethesda Games Studios.
Jokes that he’s impressed everyone is still here considering their games over the last year.
Calls the criticism of Fallout 76 “well deserved”, and talks about how the online community is astonishingly nice and looks after each other.
No talk of numbers mind, but this does track with what I’ve heard about the people sticking with 76. They’re committed in the same way fans of No Man’s Sky were. Interested in what the game could be.
Elder Scrolls Blades
Second #1 mobile game after Fallout Shelter.
Dragon questline coming, custom jewellery, solo battling arenas. Coming out tonight.
Blades coming to Switch, using motion controls.
Cross play and cross progression on switch and mobile.
Coming in fall of 2019. Still free to play. (I will give them that SwitchBlades is a good joke)
Fallout 76
Talk about what people have liked, which is the updates.
Wastelanders is the new update
“Fundamentally changes the game” NPC’s being added to the game, with quests and storylines. New main quest, new choices and consequences. Full dialogue trees as a big pitch.
Long term storyline being told, year 2 is people coming back to reclaim Appalachia. Comes this fall and will be free. Free trial for Fallout 76 starting tomorrow. New game mode coming too.
Nuclear Winter.
Battle Royale mode for Fallout 76. With monsters still in game. Determines the overseer of vault 51. 52 player battle Royale, with exclusive perks to be won. Sneak peek during the free trial.
Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI mentioned but not on show. Thanking everyone for their belief in the studio.
Ghostwire Tokyo
Tango Gameworks founder Shinji Mikami now on stage at Bethesda E3 2019.
Ghostwire Tokyo announced. Action Adventure game where you fight opponents and defeat a paranormal foe.
(Very much like other games Shinji Mikami makes)
Normal vs Paranormal
Cinematic of Japanese locations, where people just suddenly start disappearing entirely.
A whole bunch of Japanese ghosts and monsters start appearing, with a magic using Bowman ninja advising us to ” don’t fear the unknown, attack it” No gameplay or release date, but this could be fun. Evil Within 2 was apparently excellent and it refined the original game significantly.
Now we’re getting a run down of why Bethesda Fans are real people and what they love about Bethesda games. One man has suggested adding Dragons to everything. He’s probably not wrong?
The Elder Scrolls Online
Season of the Dragon happening right now in the game as the latest expansion has just been released.
Millions of players have recently been joining so they’re adding more servers.
Now, world Premiere story cinematic showing a dragon attack on a Khajit town. It’s very stirring fantasy stuff.
Commander Keen
Zenimax online studios second game, Classic saturday morning cartoon style game
Mobile game in free to play on Ios and Android –
Modern take on the classic game
Billy and Billie – children of original Commander Keen
Drag and drop gameplay to build gadgets and summon allies. Story mode retells some of the original stories, battle mode is a race through the level against another player. Coming this summer
Elder Scrolls Legends
Then a short ad for Elder Scrolls Legends, seemingly a real life version of the Hearthstone tavern ads. With a new logo. New Expansion Moons of Elsweyr launches June 21st. (the new logo was rumoured to be for a MOBA. Thank god it’s not)
Rage 2
New cheat codes being added, a pair of bikes and pilotable mech.
Weekly updates coming for the game.
Wolfenstein
Cyberpilot
VR. Hacker working for the french resistance, taking control of machines. Releasing July
Youngblood
More customisability, more weapons, more skills. Plus co-op. Set in the 1980s, as BJ is missing, it’s up to his daughters to find him.
Fully playable in single player, or team up with a friend.
All the same Wolfenstein gameplay, seemingly with asynchronous multiplayer co-op
Releasing on all platforms on July 26th
Arkane Lyon worked on both Wolfenstein games
Deathloop
New First Person Action Game from Arkane Lyon
Set on the prison island of Black Reef, two ipposing characters repeating days when they day.
Dishonoured style magic and movement, with gunplay. Single player game where two assassins are trying to stop the loop/maintain the loop.
This looks very built off Prey: Mooncrash, meets Hitman. With Dishonoured combat.
Orion
Optimising game engine tech to boost streaming performance, 20% faster per frame, and can stream with 40% less bandwidth. Apparently.
Tech test on stage, streaming Doom 2016 to a phone with no “perceptible” latency.
Register on their site now and you can stream Doom 2016 to your phone as part of the tests.
This is middleware for developers and publishers looking to get to grips with Stadia and Xcloud.
Doom Eternal
Gameplay looks fast paced, bloody and specifically Doom like.
Building a universe for Doom, where Earth is being consumed by demons. Doomslayer must travel to heaven, hell and the sentinel home world and beyond.
Whole bunch of platforming and airdashing getting shown. Movement abilities look fast, though a little stiff. No sense of momentum like titanfall, for example.
Gameplay Trailer sees doomslayer return to Mars. This is a combat arena filled with pickups, a huge variety of enemies and traversal options. Effectively, it’s more doom.
Launches November 22nd.
Collectors edition features a wearable Doom Slayer helmet. (Remember the Fallout 76 bags before purchasing)
Doom Multiplayer
Battlemode is the name. 2 player demons take on 1 demonslayer. Slayer skill v demon strategy. Spawn ai demons to help take down the Slayer as well.
Quakecon deep dive for this one, but initial tease seems to a round based arena fighter.
25 years of Doom, more to be seen at Quakecon/Doomcon.
Final Roundup
There’s not a lot going on with Bethesda E3 2019. Commander Keen and Orion were probably duds for announcing here. I’m super excited about the idea of Deathloop as it seems to be building on the incredibly well received Prey: Mooncrash. I’m sure the people who like 76 ( and there are some) are excited about the main updates, less the battle royale mode.
I want to see more of Ghostwire Tokyo, and Youngblood. The rest of the Elder Scrolls news I can basically leave. And I don’t really feel Doom? The movement looks so stiff and lifeless compared to something like Titanfall.
Overall, not much exciting going on, but this was very much a continuation of the experiments they’ve been running since last year.