E3 Bethesda Conference 2018

E3 Bethesda Conference 2018: Experimental Games and Thinking Forward

Bethesda were pretty open about what they had planned for E3 Bethesda Conference 2018. They told us about a lot of stuff we either knew about or could guess. But what we ended up with is weird and cool.

Rage 2

We started this conference with a live Andrew WK concert. Because manic raging.

Avalanche Studios know how to make a good open world driving game. I have no doubts the vehicle sections of this game will be excellent. Seamless transition between driving and shooting in a huge open world.

The rest of the game is definitely taking cues from Doom (2016) with fast, mobile gunplay and close range combat actions.

They showed off a bunch of weird gravity based weapons and a very nasty krull like glaive too.

Launching in Spring 2019. 

Elder Scrolls Legends

Coming to Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PS4, Elder Scrolls Legends is getting a full graphical overhaul.

Elder Scrolls Online

Next expansion is Werewolf hunting in dungeons.

Heading to Murkmire afterwards to learn more about the lore and lands of the Argonians.

Doom Eternal

The sequel to the 2016 Doom, this will feature Hell on Earth, double the demons and more aggressive abilities.

Want to learn more? Too Bad. You have to wait to Gamescom.

 

Quake Champions

Quake Champions still exists! They’re making the Hero Shooter game free to download this week, seemingly with a promise that you’ll be able to play it onwards from there.

 

Prey

We knew we were getting Prey DLC. And we did! Prey Mooncrash is out right now!

A game in the Prey universe where someone who’s crashed on the Moon desperately trying to escape the monsters. This will feature a roguelike element where the player repeatedly runs a simulation to escape. Your death makes sense in universe.

Coming 2019, a new multiplayer game mode called Typhon Hunter. It’s going to feature one human vs five mimics disguised as objects in a level. Hunt the mimics and survive. This will also be getting a VR version.

Speaking of VR, do you want to solve puzzles on a space station? Then you will get a VR Game built out of Prey to do exactly that.

Wolfenstein Youngblood

Wolfenstein is already returning. Now moving to the 1980s, it’s time for something slightly different.
Featuring the twin daughters of BJ Blascowicz, this game will feature optional co-op, taking the series in a new direction as you get a friend to join in on murdering some Nazis.

Coming in 2019.

Fallout 76

First things first, Bethesda have revamped their texture and lighting rendering. The landscape seems verdant and lush with greenery. Basically the Fallout 4 engine but with a bunch of popular mods.

The game is entirely online. All the time. But you don’t have to play with other people. Todd Howard confirms you can play solo.

As they describe it,This is a game designed around softcore survival. Death isn’t loss of progression or characters. Dozens of other players in the gameworld , not hundreds. Join friends whenever, all progress goes with you.

This all sounds very reasonable.

This is legitimately fallout 4 with four players, emotes and a bigger world to explore. And there’s solo options and questing. Settlement building and moving wherever you want now rather than fixed towns. This is potentially really quite cool.

Then we’ve got the weirdest point by my mind, which is that players can go raid a dungeon to find nuclear missile codes. Then use those codes to launch a Nuclear Missile to wipe a location off the map. This feels a little tonally inconsistent, but nothing says trolling like using a nuke to ruin your friends garden.

There’s a beta coming to test the online features, with the full game launching 14/11/2018.

Elder Scrolls Blades

A full, original Elder Scrolls title on mobile. (And eventually every other platform and device. This isn’t a meme, they confirmed that)

Character creation, swiping based combat, a main game built around questing, though with options for procedurally generated dungeon crawling and one on one PVP.

A free mobile game, they’ve confirmed that it will also feature the standard mobile trope of managing a town and customising it.

Launching this year, with the game starting on High End Phones (It was demoing on an Iphone X) and eventually moving to other devices/consoles etc

Finally, Todd Howard wants to talk the future at the E3 Bethesda Conference 2018.

We’ve got one game they’ve been working on for years. A completely original property.

Starfield

 

And then there’s something that everyone’s been asking for for a while.

Elder Scrolls VI

Both of these games are cinematic teasers only. I wouldn’t expect anything better than 2020 at best for releases for these. The implications in fact are that these games are in development for the next generation. So don’t wait around for them.

So what’s the take away from the E3 Bethesda Conference 2018? Bethesda is in need of money to fuel Starfield and Elder Scrolls. So the fact that they’re bankrolling them with experimental spin offs for their other series is noble enough.