E3 2018: Bethesda Summary

News PC Playstation 4 Switch XBOX One June 15, 2018

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Since the massive success of the Elder Scrolls series, among other critically acclaimed titles they’ve developed and published, Bethesda has become a household name in the game industry. Their conference at E3 was full of surprises, and we’ve collected the full list of announcements from this legendary company below.

Doom Eternal gets announced with a teaser trailer. It will be the sequel to 2016’s Doom, a reboot of the violent and beloved franchise. While not much is known about the title, Bethesda has promised a glimpse at some gameplay at this year’s Quakecon, so stay tuned for that on August 10.
Apparently following in the footsteps of EA’s Command & Conquer series, Bethesda has announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades, a free-to-play mobile installment in the Elder Scrolls series. Boasting such features as a first-person perspective and procedurally generated dungeons, expect The Elder Scrolls: Blades to arrive on Android and iOS devices later this year.
The free-to-play digital card game The Elder Scrolls Legends, available now on PC and mobile devices, is getting a revamped version for current generation consoles later this year. If you’re a fan of the genre (Hearthstone, anyone?), having the option to play on consoles is a big boon.
Finally, finally, we’ve got an announcement that Elder Scrolls VI is coming. While it’s little more than a teaser trailer, knowing that it’s definitely coming has many an Elder Scrolls fan breathing a sigh of relief. Who knows, this might mean an end to the constant re-releases of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, something that Bethesda themselves poked fun at in a spoof trailer featuring Keegan-Michael Key and Amazon’s Alexa. At least they have a sense of humor about the whole situation. Here’s to hoping they’ll release more information soon, preferably after I finish beating Skyrim for the fifth time.
For fans of Bethesda’s other huge RPG franchise, there is great news. Fallout 76 has been officially announced, though there were rumors swirling in the months leading up to this year’s conference. In addition to gameplay footage and in-depth details on what to expect from the game, we are also given a release date. So what’s new? Well, pretty much everything. Fallout 76 is an always-online multiplayer experience that takes place in the post-apocalyptic Fallout universe, a la Elder Scrolls Online. While some purists are decrying the move from a haunting single-player quest to online multiplayer, many are excited to get a chance to explore the world of Fallout from a different perspective, myself included. Prepare to leave the vault on November 14, when Fallout 76 launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
While Switch owners may be disappointed that there has yet to be any news on a proper Fallout release on Nintendo’s hybrid console, particularly with news that Fallout 76 is only coming to its beefier brethren, there is a small glimmer of hope. Fallout Shelter, the mobile Vault management simulation that released on mobile devices in 2015, is out now for PS4 and Switch (it released for Xbox One early last year). While not a true Fallout game in the purest sense of the word, it still offers a unique experience in the Fallout universe, and fans of the series are bound to get a kick out of running their own Vault as an Overseer. It’s free to play, and available now, so don’t wait for a nuclear winter to dive into a Vault.
In non-Fallout or Elder Scrolls news, last year’s stellar Prey is getting new DLC. Ever wanted to go the moon? Now you can, with the new Mooncrash DLC, which sends a hacker named Peter up to the moon in order to investigate a stopped transmitter at TransStar’s secret base. Along with this, a new update was released for Prey that includes two new modes: Survival and New Game+. The last bit of new information we are given is the announcement of a new multiplayer mode, dubbed Typhoon Hunt, to be released at a later date. If it’s been a while since you’ve visited Talos 1, now is as good a time as ever to jump back in. Both the update with the two new modes and the Mooncrash DLC are available now.
Quake Champions gets some interesting news. The class-based first-person shooter, currently in early access on Steam, is free until June 17. While the final release of the game will be free-to-play, the early access has been listed at $30, which makes that free download a lot more tantalizing. If you’re a PC gamer interested in throwback FPS goodness, get the early access while it’s free.
One of the biggest surprises of Bethesda’s conference is the announcement of Rage 2, a sequel to 2011’s post-apocalyptic first-person shooter. Like the first game, the player will be able to explore the open world freely and engage in vehicular combat as they survive in the wasteland. A gameplay trailer is shown, which looks like the lovechild of 2016’s Doom, also by id Software, and the Mad Max franchise, and a release window is given, though no specific date as of yet. Get ready to rage in the first half of 2019.
Starfield is announced! No need to wade through the rumors, Starfield is coming, and was shown off with a trailer, though no gameplay footage as of yet. For those disappointed in the direction that Fallout 76 has pulled that beloved franchise, rest assured that Starfield is a single-player RPG experience, much like their Fallout and Elder Scrolls games have traditionally been. Perhaps the biggest change is the locale. While Fallout is set in a bleak post-apocalyptic future, and the Elder Scrolls series is high fantasy, Starfield is the first Bethesda RPG to take us to the stars and beyond. Hopefully more information is coming soon about this highly anticipated title, including a release date and some gameplay footage.
While not much VR love was shown at E3 in general, for their part Bethesda has announced a new standalone VR game set in the Wolfenstein universe. Dubbed Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, players will assume the role of a hacker tasked with defending Paris from Nazis by, you guessed it, hacking. More specifically, hacking into enemy machines and using them to fight for the resistance. While no platforms have been announced, be ready to don your dark hacker glasses and gloves in 2019.
In other 4th Reich news, Wolfenstein is going co-op with Wolfenstein: Youngblood. While previous games in the rebooted series have focused on BJ Blazkowicz, Nazi-fighting extraordinaire, this entry focuses on his twin daughters Jessica and Sophia as they search for their missing father in 1980’s Paris, which is overrun with those pesky Nazis. Grab a friend and twin up when Wolfenstein: Youngblood is released in 2019.