Bethesda E3 Press Conference Summary

Bethesda kicked off their Live E3 2018 press conference in Los Angeles with an electrifying musical performance from Andrew WK to get the crowd pumped for Rage 2, followed by a detailed action trailer for the “most insane open world shooter” from id Software – the creators of the First Person Shooter genre with Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake – and Avalanche Studios – whose explosive open-world mayhem experience speaks for itself with Just Cause and Mad Max.

In Rage 2, the player takes on the role of Walker, the last ranger, as he fights the armies of The Authority across the wasteland where an asteroid collision on Earth has wiped out most of the population and ended civilisation as we know it. The explosive trailer features explosive car chases, deadly boomerangs, and anti-gravity grenades that cause the victims to be thrown into the air or held onto the ceiling where they are easily picked off with a shotgun blast. Rage 2 looks like a lot of fun and a huge step up from the previous instalment. Rage 2 has a release window of Spring 2019.

Following on from that explosive opener, Bethesda announced that popular free-to-play card game, The Elder Scrolls: Legends is coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch later this year. All your current progress will transfer over to these new platform editions.

With the Summerset expansion just released to hugely positive reviews, Bethesda are keeping the moment going by announcing the next story DLC for The Elder Scrolls: Online that will be released later this year. The new content will expand on the lore of the Argonian race, as it focuses primarily on the region of Murkmire in Black Marsh.

Following on the from the hugely successful reboot of one of the most recognised franchises in video gaming history, Doom is getting a sequel entitled Doom: Eternal. The short teaser announcement trailer shows Hell on Earth, with the demon horde ravaging the crumbling ruins of a cityscape. Doom: Eternal is said to feature increased power for our favourite UAC Demon-slayer, along with many new Demon types. We can expect more detail to be revealed in August during QuakeCon.

Prey has been a huge success for Bethesda and Arkane Studios, and a way of saying thank you to the fans, the development have just released a free update that features three new game modes; Story Mode, New Game+ and Survival Mode. Mooncrash is another game mode that is coming that sounds like a lot of fun and really enhances the replayability factor of this highly acclaimed game. Mooncrash puts the player into a simulation where no two experiences are ever the same. To get an idea of a small sample of what to expect, check out the trailer below. Prey is also getting a 1v5 Player-vs-Player mode called Typhon Hunter, where 1 human character is set against 5 mimic Typhons, complete will all their disguise abilities. This new game mode sounds like a blast and it will also be available as a VR experience soon.

Along with the previously announced Nintendo Switch release of Wolfenstein: The New Colossus which is due on 29^th June, the franchise is also getting a spin-off game called Wolfenstein: Youngblood. This new instalment features the twin daughters of BJ Blazkowicz and is set in 1980s Nazi-occupied Paris. The game is due in 2019 and can be played solo or as a completely co-operative experience.

With the games that Bethesda are publishing out of the way, it was time to see that their in-house game development team – Bethesda Game Studios - have been working on. Fallout 76 was briefly announced a couple of weeks ago, and then the first trailer was shown during the Microsoft Press Conference earlier today, but the detail was always going to be saved for this moment.

Fallout 76 is a prequel to all other Fallout games and features a map 4 times bigger than the one seen in Fallout 4. After spending 25 years in Vault 76, you emerge on Reclamation Day into the distinct and eerily lush mountainous Wastelands of West Virgina, which we’re told features 16 times more environmental detail than previous games, including distant weather patterns across the 6 distinct regions of the map. Fallout 76 is also completely online, and each character to emerge from Vault 76 with you is another player. You can play completely solo as in the previous instalments, focusing on your own progression and tactics, but the safest way to survive the many dangers of the Wasteland is to squad up with these other players at any time.

The game will feature a mobile construction kit, allowing you to build settlements on the fly all across the map. Fallout 76 will also feature dynamic game mechanics in the form of Nuclear launch sites. All you have to do is reclaim control of the silos from the hostile occupants, obtain the launch codes and choose where you want to launch. The impact site will completely change the landscape, and you can brave the many dangers to claim huge rewards from the devastation. Fallout 76 will launch on 14^th November 2018.

To close off the press conference, Bethesda Game Studios teased 2 new projects in development. Firstly, a completely new franchise called Starfield, which seems to be set in space is in the works. Hopefully we’ll get more details soon, but the idea of a huge Elder Scrolls style Sci-Fi RPG will get many fans excited! Speaking of which… The Elder Scrolls VI is officially in development! Not much was revealed about this one either – just some little appetisers to keep the fans wanting more! Well done Bethesda, we salute you.

- Nathan