Bethesda held their annual E3 conference this evening and showed off a whole lot of games, as well as a few awkward jokes. Between announcements, we got an Andrew W.K. performance and a few skits,  one courtesy of Keegan-Michael Key, but most of the time I found myself wishing for longer demos on these games rather than these scripted pieces. It wasn’t all that bad though considering what we got. And we did get a whole lot from this conference:

Rage 2

We got a longer look at some shootin’ from Bethesda’s OTHER Post-Apocalypse game, Rage 2. The game seems to play a lot like DOOM but with a glaive and some powers ranging from floating guys in the air and sticking guys up to the ceiling to group them up for easy pickings. The game seems like a whole lot of fun and will feature car combat gameplay that the first RAGE also had, which kinda sounds like a bummer since these sections kinda sucked. Luckily with Avalanche Studios on the team for this game, developers of the 2015 Mad Max game, the car combat might feel tighter and more satisfying this time around. I wasn’t too hot on the first RAGE, but hey if this is a marriage of the best parts DOOM and Mad Max, what can go wrong?

DOOM Eternal

The 2016 DOOM reboot was one of the best FPS games I’ve ever played, full stop. The fast-paced action and moment-to-moment gameplay never failed to make me feel like an absolute badass. Each encounter felt balanced with power-ups and pickups being fairly dispersed through the level, and the ability to pick up health on melee and ammo on chainsaw kills, you never really feel like your back is against the wall if you keep an eye on your meters.  Combat felt like a puzzle to be solved on higher difficulties, and the Arcade Mode addition had me replaying levels way after I thought I’d be done with the single-player Campaign.  With the tease of a new sequel, and it perhaps adapting Hell on Earth on new hardware, I can’t help but get stoked to dive back into Hell.

Elder Scrolls Online

I’d given up on ESO in a long time. But the if there’s one thing this game does well, it’s build beautiful fantasy landscapes and add to the Elder Scrolls lore. We haven’t seen Summerset since 1994’s Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and this expansion pack looks to realize the lush island environment that one prisoner in Oblivion said he was gonna take your wife to. Well LOOK who gets to go to the Island now Mr. Jailbird. How ’bout I take your wife to Summerset huh!? Sorry that guy just really got to me.

Quake: Champions

Before today, I had almost forgotten about Quake: Champions’ existence. The game wasn’t really well received upon its initial release by the Quake community but man I gotta admit it seems like a good time. And now that the game is offering a free trial I am quite interested in dipping my toes into some rocket strafing. The trial runs from June 10th-17th and the game normally retails at $24.99.

Prey: Mooncrash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySVBHI2OeAg

We were given a look at a new run-based mode in Prey based on THE MOON. This reveal did seem a bit odd since the gameplay in the trailer looked very combat heavy and didn’t seem to accommodate a stealthier playstyle, but perhaps that wasn’t the only playstyle you could approach the objectives from. The DLC is available right now for $20. We were also told that a new multiplayer mode called “Typhon Hunt” where one team of players will play the aliens and one will hunt them down as a human player.  We will be getting our hands on that mode this summer.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Last October we were treated to the best Nazi killing simulator in video game history. Wolfenstein II told a cinematic, heartfelt story with fleshed-out characters and aggressive retro FPS gameplay. We finally have a follow-up starring BJ’s twin daughters in 1980’s Paris. Other than that we heard that this would be a Co-op adventure, but not much else in terms of story details. Check out the trailer right here!

Fallout 76

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aXUAaG0LIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aXUAaG0LI

We got a whole lot of info about Fallout 76 from this presser, detailed info of which can be found here. But in summary: It is online multiplayer only with dozens of players in each instance, and you will be able to build settlements by putting down a crafting beacon of some kind.  You can team up or raid other people’s camps to gain more resources, and even launch nukes on other players.  The game will also explore the folklore and mysteries of West Virginia and feature a map four times larger than that of Fallout 4. This looks like a brave new direction for Fallout, though many in the community seem upset with the refocus in design here. Anecdotally though, one of the main criticisms I hear is how small the differences in Bethesda RPGs are and how fans do want to see something different.  Bethesda looks like they’re trying to create multiplayer that is in-line with a post-apocalyptic setting, and providing rich story content to satisfy the single player-focused crowd.  We’ll see if they pull it off when the game launches November 14th, 2018.

Starfield

One of the surprise announcements of the show came at the tail end when Todd Howard announced the next game that Bethesda Game Studios would be releasing after Fallout 76, Starfield.  The long rumored single-player Sci-Fi RPG has been a lightning rod for speculation, and now it looks like Bethesda is at least ready to talk about its development progress.  Howard did state that this was a “next-generation” game so we might not see this for a LONG time. Hopefully we will see something more concrete at next year’s conference.

Elder Scrolls VI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex79Rh0m_Zc

Editor’s Note: Preceding the Elder Scrolls VI announcement was the Elder Scrolls Blades reveal, featuring iconic Elder Scrolls gameplay coming soon to mobile devices. Our breakdown of the upcoming free-to-play game can be found here.

And lastly, Bethesda capped their night off with a very short tease of Elder Scrolls VI.  This was announced as being next in line after Starfield, so if that game is far off, I bet we won’t see gameplay of this for at least another 3 years.  Elder Scrolls Online has been given a wide berth to be successful so maybe the time is right for a new single player Elder Scrolls in Bethesda’s mind.  Plus, another couple of years for ESO to be the only Elder Scrolls game in town should be enough to keep making money off the IP so this announcement seems more like a “Don’t worry it’s coming, we swear!” rather than a game that’s ready to be shown soon.

Bethesda really did well showcasing nearly all their highest profile IP and promising the fans of these titles that they are listening.  Single player Elder Scrolls fans are most likely relieved at the studio acknowledging that a new game is coming, but this conference felt like it had a little something for everyone.  There is plenty to keep FPS fans happy with new DOOM, Wolfenstein, and Rage; and their RPG base is going to be chomping at the bit for new info on Starfield and ESVI.  Bethesda looks to be in a really good place right now and I personally cannot wait to get my hands on most of what we saw here.  Be sure to follow us on twitter for any updates on these games!