Bethesda's conference began with a video talking about developer diversity. I saw a clip of two of them playing ping pong wearing VR headsets. I'd love to do that! I wonder if that's actually a thing. Unfortunately, the GameSpot stream froze so I had to switch to YouTube. Not sure if I missed anything.
Pete Hines came on stage to talk, but it was basically fluff. "You love to play our games and we love to make them for you!" Etc., etc. He did make a joke about Wal-Mart Canada and how they were really good at not keeping secretes. That got a good laugh.
Rage 2 was now officially being shown, but before that, some singer named Andrew W. K., a headbanger, came out on stage trying to pump up the audience. He kept asking "Are you ready to rage?" Then, the God of Unholy Cringe rose from the sulfur and brimstone laden crust and this horrible music began playing by Andrew and his band. I don't think I could ever get my five minutes of my life back after that...
Tim Willits and Magnus Nedfors of Avalanche had the displeasure of following that bad. I already hated them for being so close to that band's performance, and their bad jokes and awkwardness failed to dissipate my ... RAAAAAAGE! One such joke was, "We delivered.... big time." and kept pointing to Magnus, who is really tall, and kept pointing waiting on the big laugh that would never come. God awful cringe. They said they collaborated with id to make the game. Finally they shut up and rolled a trailer. It showed an asteroid killing 80 percent of Earth's population. Mutants spawned and took over. Then gameplay was being shown. It promised that everything that is seen can be driven, and it showed off some really beautiful scenery. There's some car combat, and then FPS combat. There looked to be a lot of fun toys to use in combat, and the game seems to have a great sense of humor. The world looks massive. The player boarded this giant space ship and got a new power that sent enemies flying back. It ended with the player fighting a giant enemy. I think I want this game. It'll come out in Spring 2019.
Christian Van Hoose, community manager for Elder Scrolls Legends, took the stage. It's a card game that I care nothing about. He announces the game will come to Switch, PS4 and Xbox. Cool.
Matt Firor of Zenamax Studios came out next to talk about Elder Scrolls Online and rattled off some numbers. 11 million players. 1 million came from last year alone. He said the new DLC will be called Wolf Hunter and it will revolve around Werewolves. There will be another one coming out later that I didn't catch the name of, and that one will see the return to Black Marsh. Van Hoose's segment ends with footage showing the Summerset expansion for Elder Scrolls Online.
The next trailer shows a hellish world, and it's almost instantly identifiable as the next Doom game. It is, and it's called Doom Eternal. Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin came out to talk about the game, then announced that its official debut will be at Quakecon in August.
The Quake icon was shown and Joshua Boyle, community manager for Quake Champions came on stage. Never had any interest in the game.
Next, the Prey logo was shown. Arkane people came out to talk about the game and announced a free update tonight. There will be three new modes: New Game+, Story Mode and Survival. A Prey DLC called Mooncrash is announced and it will be randomly generated. They continue to talk more about the game and unfortunately make some bad jokes. They announce another new mode called Typhon Hunter, which is a competitive mode that allows players to disguise themselves as every day objects.
The Wolfenstein logo soon follows. Jerk Gustafsoon and Jens Matthies come out to talk about Wolfenstein II. The announce June 29th is when the game will come to the Nintendo Switch, but that's not new information. There's a new Wolfenstein game, not sure if DLC or standalone, called Youngblood that takes place in 1980s Paris and focuses on BJ's (the main character?) twin daughters. Since there are twins, there will also be co-op experience, but you can play solo. A trailer is shown but no gameplay, though. Just cinematic.
Pete Hines comes out again to talk about more VR games. They will include Prey in the forms of Typhen Hunter and a new single player experience. Wolfenstein will also be inVR in the form of Cyberpilot. He then introduced Todd Howard out on stage.
First thing I noticed about Howard is thatt f you close your eyes, he sounds just like David Spade. He's also a pretty good speaker, so when he cracks jokes, I don't mind. He talks about how he visited E3 since the very first one, then making a joke about how everyone wants to know which platform Skryim is headed toward next. A skit then plays showing Keegan-Michael Key playing Skyrim on Alexa in the form of a text-based adventure. They then announced Skyrim on Etch a Sketch, pagers, and Samsung smart refrigerators. Oh, that was awesome! I loved how they embraced that joke and ran with it!
Finally, Howard gets serious and begins to talk about Fallout 4. The trailer that was shown at the MS conference plays. We learn that Fallout 76 was named 76 because the year is 2076 and America is celebrating is tercentennial. The game looks very beautiful. There'll be actual WV folklore to find and read. Each character you come across is a real person because it's all online. You can still play solo, but there will be multiplayer. A series of informational videos play begin to play. They're a mixture of the animated propaganda shorts Fallout is known for and gameplay footage. The second one shows of the building mechanic similar to the one in Fallout 4, but it's now mobile so you can move your house wherever you want. Another video shows a new feature: nuke sites. You have to find bits and pieces of launch codes and once you have the entire code, you can nuke an entire site completely changing its landscape and then go loot it.
Sounds like Bethesda has really invested in the game's longevity. Servers were built specifically for the game. There's a beta coming called B.E.T.A.: Break-it Early Test Application. There's that Fallout sense of humor again! The collector's edition has been announced and comes with a glow in the dark map, figures you can put on the map, and a T-51 Power Armor Helmet, which is wearable and has voice modulator functionality. 11/14/18 is the release date. The three year anniversary of Fallout Shelter is coming. Since I began playing the game again, I was hoping for new content, but instead they announced that it's coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch. I don't think this is the right kind of game to be playing on a console.
A new mobile game called Elder Scrolls Blades was announced, and I almost was ready to expect it to be Skyrim, but it's something completely new. It's built from the ground up for the new generation of phones and has what looks like a clunky touchscreen gameplay interface. It doesn't look all that exciting quite honestly. There will be three modes: Abyss, Arena and Town. Abyss will be roguelike, Arena will be multiplayer combat and Town is where the story content is. Plus, there will be town building. You can also visit your friends' towns. They say they'll bring it to every device and system, even virtual reality. All versions will have cross-platform play. It will release this fall for free, starting on Apple and Android.
Todd Howard closes out the show with a few more announcements. There will be a new next generation single player game, a completely new franchise. The teaser plays to reveal the name: Starfield. One last teaser plays, this one officially announcing Elder Scrolls VI.
I don't really know how I want to score this one. The god awful Andrew W.K. introduction for Rage 2 was a horrible way to start the show and I think that really hurt the mood. The developers trying to tell jokes didn't really make things much better. There was also too much time spent on things that didn't interest me like Elder Scrolls Legends and Quake Champions and all the Prey DLC. I did really enjoy what I saw from Rage 2 and Fallout 4, though.
Overall rating: C-
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