As the E3 2018 press conferences continue to try to steal the headlines, Bethesda came out with definitively the most middle of the road conference. Many of the announcements featured during Bethesda’s conference were expected, mostly because a lot of things were leaked by Walmart Canada (oddly enough). But despite that, Bethesda still managed to have some pretty good surprises.
HIGH – New DLC for Wolfenstein II and Prey
I know, I know. A high point of talking about DLC for two games that are already out is kind of cheating, but oh well. Out in 2019, Wolfenstein II: Youngblood puts you in control of series protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz’ twin daughters as they fight their way through Nazi controlled Paris in the 80s. Despite Wolfenstein historically being a single-player shooter, Youngblood can be played cooperatively. So you and a friend can fight Nazis together! Over on the Prey side, the new DLC, Mooncrash, puts you on the Moon as you try to survive as long as you can. However, every time you die the world resets and the terrain becomes altered in some way. Essentially the environments you encounter are different every time you play. As an added bonus, Prey is also getting a new mode called Typhon Hunter which is essentially a Prop Hunt mode. Four players disguise themselves as random objects in a room and it’s up to the fifth player to find them. Think hide and seek, but you’re playing against shape-shifters. Mooncrash is available right now for $20, while Typhon Hunter is slated for the summer. Oh yeah, both Wolfenstein and Prey are getting VR modes as well.
LOW – Weak Line-up
So the main reason why DLC was a high point was because most of the conference was just bad and went on for way too long. Rage 2 starting the show was great, but since the game got leaked early it lost a lot of its punch when it was on stage. So what we got was around fifteen minutes of Rage 2, six of those minutes was a concert and a build up for a game we already knew about, albeit the game looks awesome though. We then proceeded to spend way too long talking about Elder Scrolls Legends, a collectable card game, and Elder Scrolls Online, a MMO. Both of those games have their audiences, but revealing new cards and showing everyone a montage of previous ESO expansions is not my idea of an exciting press conference. Then, to add insult to injury, we got a one minute trailer for Doom: Eternal but we will have to wait for Quakecon to see what the game actually is. I loved Doom, if this is Doom 2 I’ll probably love it as well, but why even announce it here if you aren’t going to show it? Speaking of disappointment, Quake Champions was talked about and we got a very bad look at the early access title. Man, oh man, did that game look terrible for how long it’s been in development.
HIGH – Fallout 76
I will be the first person to tell you that I absolutely hated Fallout 4; it scaled back the RPG aspects like I loved in Fallout 3 and New Vegas and replaced it all with better shooting mechanics. Which is great, because instead of talking your way out of conflicts, you had to always shoot your way out of conflicts. Don’t even get me started on how I had to choose a faction I hated because an invisible wall prevented me from siding with a faction I could kind of get behind, but I digress. Fallout 76 is the next foray into the Fallout universe, and this time it’s multiplayer. You alone, or you and your friends, get to explore the wasteland of West Virginia. Reports are saying that there’s a full fledged story in Fallout 76, I’m not really convinced about that. But all-in-all it looks like it’s going to an awesome and huge game with base building mechanics from Fallout 4 in a persistent and shared world. We’ll see how it all plays out November 16th; yeah, it’s that soon.
MIDDLE – Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield
What can I say about Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield? Well, nothing really. All we know is that they are being developed in some fashion, and are very far away from completion or from being in a presentable state. I could really sit around here and speculate what Starfield can be – a space opera that has you play as a character that was born and raised on a space station before a catastrophic failure has you jettisoned to a nearby planet where you meet aliens and try to return to Earth or another space station where your family is and then you realize the aliens and creatures you met along the way are your new family and the titular “starfield” is a barrier of debris that surrounds the entire planet – but I would just be making stuff up as I went along. Anyway, I’m looking forward to both of these things, but I think it was just way too early to say anything about them.
What did you think of Bethesda’s conference? Was there something more you wanted to see? Let us know in the comments below!