Bethesda took the early morning (well, UK time) showcase on Monday with a couple of cool announcements, although some would say that the biggest announcements are quite a way off… Still, here’s what they announced!
RAGE 2
Pete Hines took to the stage, and thanked “Our good friends at Wal-Mart Canada” for the premature announcement of Rage 2, before welcoming Andrew WK to perform in front of an increasingly bemused audience. Shortly after the white linen’d one left, a double act that reminded me somewhat of an Ewok and a Wookiee took to telling us all about Rage 2 before showing off an extended gameplay trailer. It looks a bit like Mad Max, but with colours. No bad thing, in my mind!
Elder Scrolls Legends/Elder Scrolls Online.
There was some stuff about the Elder Scrolls Legends CCG, and also some updates to the Elder Scrolls Online. I’ll be honest, I woke up at 5am to catch up on this and I lost track of this a little bit. I’m not really into The Elder Scrolls all that much, but they look like cool updates if you’re into that sort of thing.
DOOM ETERNAL
I am itching to make a joke about 90s girl bands right now, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll just say this. There’s going to be more Doom. And we’ll find out more in August. But it’s set on Earth. YES PLEASE MORE DOOM PLEASE THANKS.
QUAKE CHAMPIONS
The Early Access Quake multiplayer is plodding on nicely, and they announced that you can sign up for the Free to Play version this week, and keep a hold of it even after the trial closes! So… They’re giving it away, basically. Honestly, I was still thinking about Doom.
PREY DLC
Prey is getting some DLC – Some big updates for free, and a cool new mode called Prey: Mooncrash, an “Infinitely replayable” mode, which sounds like it’s a bit like a Roguelike set on… Er… The Moon! Unveiled with Dead Or Alive on the soundtrack as well, which always goes down well with folks in the UK!
WOLFENSTEIN NEWS!
Wolfenstein gets another standalone title called Wolfenstein Youngblood. It focuses on BJ Blaskowicz’s twin daughters, and will be a co-op experience! Ready to shoot some more Nazis? Because these gals certainly are.
VR GAMES!
Pete Hines came back on stage and announced a couple of VR experiences, for Prey and Wolfenstein. The thought of Prey in Virtual Reality, quite frankly, terrifies me, and I’m not going to be doing that. Sorry, but nope. Cyberpilot is the subtitle to the Wolfenstein title, and they should be out later in the year.
SKYRIM: VERY SPECIAL EDITION
Pete then introduced Todd Howard, who proceeded to put everyone in the palm of his hand and drip feed info at a perfect pace. Of course, he wondered where they could put Skyrim next, and… Well… Er… This is apparently an actual, real life thing now.
FALLOUT 76
He then talked more about Fallout 76, saying that yes, it’s an online game, but it’s huge. It’s 4 times the size of Fallout 4, which is crazy! The same trailer played as at the Xbox conference, but if you’re a Fallout fan, you’re going to love Fallout 76.
THE ELDER SCROLLS: BLADES
Todd then came back out and announced… A NEW ELDER SCROLLS! For… Er… For mobiles. And other platforms. This seemed like a pretty good announcement, and one that will definitely push the franchise forward a little bit. I mean, it’s not like they announced TES6, is it?
Is it?
STARFIELD
It’s a new IP from Bethesda Game Studios! Todd called this a “Next Generation” title, but we’re not sure whether that’s a next generation console cycle, or a next generation engine. This is the first “Wholly Original Franchise in 25 Years”, and it looks like it’s set in space! That’s… Er… That’s it. So far.
THE ELDER SCROLLS VI
He did it. The crazy sonofabitch did it. Todd announced that they’re working on “The game after Starfield. And it’s the one you’ve all been asking about”. That makes it sound to us like it’s quite a way off, but even so, we know it’s all in the pipeline now. So I guess you can stop asking?
And that was Bethesda! Some cool announcements for sure, with a bit of a departure from last year’s “Everything you see, you can play this year” stance, but on the whole a good slate of games to cater to a bunch of different tastes. Me? All I need is more Doom. And another soundtrack like the last one please.
