Bethesda at E3 2018

What even happened here. Any show that starts with Andrew W.K. demanding that you party is already a promising one, but then one that also shows what appears to be a college recruitment video and an Atomic Blonde-esque Wolfenstein escapade in the same breath takes a turn for the buckwild. And hey, I’m perfectly fine with that.

It was interesting in a few ways, not least of all because despite having one of the biggest reveals spoiled earlier, it still managed to pack in several sizable surprises. And despite making such a big deal about “Save Player One,” there was a whole lot of multiplayer action happening. The marketing incongruity alone is fascinating. Where did that schism start?

Still, after a slow start, it was a mighty fine show. It’s hard to not be excited given Bethesda’s recent track record. So let’s get to it.

Rage 2

Hey, it’s real! Just joshin’ ya, we already knew that. It’s an interesting play considering how tepid the reception and legacy of Rage ended up being. I mean, we’ll always have John Carmack telling the entirety of QuakeCon about how memory paging works, but not much is remembered about that game beyond that.

And that kind of leads to a bit of disappointment in that the hyperactive attitude of the pre-E3 marketing is absent from this footage, but the gameplay does look appropriately more frantic. Like Mad Max with Bulletstorm and a boomerang zooming around, which sounds like a great combination to me.

It comes out in spring of 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Doom Eternal

You know what was a good game? Doom. Anything that involves more of that is fine by me. Look at all those demons tearing what looks like the remnants of our world further asunder. And look at him load that shotgun. If you’re not here for this exact sort of metal menagerie, then, well, I don’t know. It’s unfortunate because you’re missing out but good for you for having your tastes honed.

No release date but expect more at this year’s QuakeCon.

Prey Extras

There are several tidbits tucked away in this one. First off, there are new modes to the vanilla Prey experience. There’s New Game+ (which is what it sounds like) and Survival (which is also what it sounds like). Second and more noteworthy, though, is that there’s a new DLC called Mooncrash where you play through a loop on a Moon base that changes each time through.

There’s also Typhon Hunter, an asymmetrical multiplayer mode where players will split up as Mimics and humans and, I dunno, try to hug one another with reckless and deadly affection.

The DLC and update are out now and Typhon Hunter is out later this summer for VR.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Here we flippin’ go, folks. The New Colossus was a tremendous feat of a narrative that really only could work in video games, especially with the given legacy and tropes of this particular franchise. And now we get to go into the 1980s and play a co-op game with BJ’s twin daughters. That’s just two great big scoops of fuck yeah.

The odd thing to consider, though, is that this is not a numbered entry in the series and not featuring BJ, so it might not be a big full release and more of a mid-sized release. But it’s also being referred to as a sequel, and since it’s set so far into the future, it does a lot of work in establishing canon simply by existing. (I guess the Nazis kept winning, huh.) Hopefully this gets cleared up this week.

Look for it sometime next year.

Skyrim: Very Special Edition

Uh, it’s real. It’s very real. You can play it even if you don’t have an Amazon-branded device like the Echo.

Fallout 76

There’s a lot to unpack in this Todd Howard segment. Most notable is that Howard is a consummate fucking showman. Fallout 76 is a huge departure from the traditional Fallout game in that it’s online and multiplayer, but he presented it in such a way that he explained 1) why it’s happening, 2) why you should trust them to do it, and 3) why it’s happening. A lot of other presenters could learn from this. (But to be fair, he did get half an hour to accomplish this.)

Then we have to talk about the game itself, and on one hand, it’s cool. It feels logical in an unexpected way. Put the story in the hands of the players as they fill the shoes of the people that shaped the world of all the Fallout games that follow in a massive, persistent, online world. How can you not look forward to that?

But this is also peak problematic for a lot of reasons. We’ll get into it in more detail in another post, but the thing that hit the hardest was that it turns nuclear proliferation into a joke. In this time where an unpredictable Trump is about to enter into unprecedented negotiations with a legendarily hostile nation, how can you even offer the suggestion that giving everyone access to nuclear weapons is anything but a completely fucked idea.

Anyway, Fallout 76 comes out on November 14, 2018, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition

This is also very real. No judgement if you want it. But gosh is that helmet gonna be hard to explain to about 90% of the world.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades

It’s an Elder Scrolls game for mobile devices. I dunno, looks like it might be interesting but so did Fallout Shelter and I don’t know anyone that put more than an hour into that thing. A lot of thought does seem to have gone into it, though, which is perhaps the hardest thing to do when it comes to mobile action games. The unfortunate thing, however, is that it fully embraces the notch.

It’s coming this fall, and it’ll be free.

Starfield

This is where you kind of have to wonder what prompted this to be included. It feels almost like a response to the Rage 2 leak, like a lot of wind got taken out of their sails and they still needed something to stick the landing a little harder than Todd Howard talking about Fallout 76. There’s basically nothing here even though we’ve all known the title for the past year.

There’s also the question of why do they call it a “next generation” game. Next generation…console? Just the next generation of their tech? The console option isn’t out of the question considering Phil Spencer confirmed they were working on the next Xbox, but we’ll see.

The Elder Scrolls VI

Even more hilarious and question is the presence of the announcement of the next Elder Scrolls. We all suspected it was happening anyway, but it must be nice for Bethesda to finally get it out of the way and stop getting asked when it’s coming. Now the answer is “after Starfield,” so now they only have to worry about “when is Starfield coming out.”

But come on. Announcing a game that’s coming after a game that you just said is coming in the next generation? This show was going so well with its immediate and near future releases. Still, a comforting thought that we can more solidly expect a new game where we can shout at dragons.