Last year at E3, Todd Howard stole the week by announcing Fallout 4. The game was not only announced, but the launch date was given and it was only months away. How did Bethesda follow up such a shocker last year with last night’s press conference? Quite well actually. Many of the announcements were already rumored and so surprises were minimum, but the east coast company continues to produce a solid group of games for fans and players of their brands.
Elder Scrolls is the largest horse in the race right now. The company showed off a new Skyrim HD remastered version which will go live on the new consoles this October 28th. It'll also be a free upgrade for folks who own it on the PC. The game is being upgraded and word is that it will also host console mods for people. If you did not play Skyrim back in 2011, the game remains one of the top fantasy RPG titles of all time and this new rebirth should garner Bethesda a pretty penny while people wait anxiously for the next true installment in the revered RPG series.
If that was not enough Elder Scrolls Legends was shown. So, you have the RPG but you will also have the card game as well. We got the chance to play the card game at PAX East and it was surprisingly fun. The game hosts more depth than Hearthstone and will give players a lot of options with deck building, design, and different modes of battle. Having a story mode will bring something special for players who don’t want to battle it out all the time against other opponents and spend some time learning on their own.
Elder Scrolls Online is also available for fans and has been really crushing it since 2015. The game launched on console and has grown a huge player base which continues to adventure together. The game will be launching in Japan and the team also announced the One Tamriel initiative. This system essentially matches the player’s level to the zone. A similar concept for the single player game, this is now set up for everyone in the online world. Removing these types of MMO boundries should bring in loads of new people to join and adventure all around the world. It's a lot like Guild Wars 2's level scaling system and should be welcomed with open arms for people who want to play the content they prefer while leveling, rather than being forced to work through a path.
Quake got a boost with Quake Champions which looks to be another tossed hat into the arena shooter ring for players. Having a classic franchise like Quake to build upon does give Bethesda some credit with this title. We’ll just have to wait and see how it holds up against a large menu of titles which already dominate this genre. QuakeCon in August should prove eventful.
A reboot of Prey from Arkane studios was briefly teased with a new trailer showcasing some serious horror and sci-fi elements to boot. The story is being worked on by Chris Avellone, so we know the narrative will be a hit. The question is: will this Prey reboot fare better than the cancelled and awesome sounding Prey 2 where you were to play as an alien bounty hunter? We'll heve to wait and see.
Fallout fans will finally have to buck up the cash for an HTC Vive to be able to roam the wasteland in VR. Bethesda is dipping their toe into the Virtual Reality market with a surefire way to get Bethesda fans on board. Fallout 4 was announced as playable in Vive's VR coming soon, as was the incredibly popular DOOM reboot. It seems like a lot of folks will be buying the new hardware now coming this holiday season. The three new DLCs also bring the game to its full potential with Nuka World closing out the announcements: the next big story-based DLC.
Dishonored 2 rounded out the list of games shown at E3 last night. It has some really great mechanics to give fans a lot of options on how they play through the world. I'll admit I'm not the world's best stealth game player, but it's clear that Dishonored 2 improves upon a lot of what made the original such a hit.
Overall, it seems like Bethesda did fairly well this year with Elder Scrolls really ruling the host of games they have to offer. Lots of titles continue to spring forth from the fantasy world and hopefully we will see a lot more to come.
