Bethesda began this year's press conference showing off the different work/life culture of so many of the developers working there. In this, we get to see all manner of the development work life including musicians, artists, developers, and more. After that, the show is underway with a brief highlight reel showing off their most recent titles.
Pete Hines steps out onto the E3 stage for their 4th showcase. Today's theme was "Create" and how everyone from all of the teams is involved in the creation process. They started off the conference showing off RAGE 2 after making a quick joke at Walmart Canada's expense (for revealing RAGE 2) Andrew WK took to the stage to play a song asking the fans over and over if they were "Ready to RAGE." After the song was over Tim Willits from ID and Magnus Nedfors of Avalanche Studios took to the stage to announce the return of RAGE. RAGE 2 will have you playing as Walker, the last ranger in the wasteland. After speaking on the merits of ID and Avalanche working together a trailer was shown giving us an in-depth look at the world of RAGE and what we can expect to get up to while playing. Emphasis was put on the idea of "if you can see it, you can drive it" as well as a variety of different weapons and abilities to protect yourself. Abilities were also shown, specifically one called Shatter which seemed to push away and explode enemies.
Elder Scrolls Legends was up next with Christian Van Hoose, the community manager, talking about the new cards and modes that are coming to the game. Tonight they announced they will be relaunching the game with new visuals and it will be available later this year on Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. PC, Mobile, and Tablet progress from this free to play title will come across to your consoles.
Matt Firor from Zenimax Online Studies spoke about Elder Scrolls Online, after thanking his team, he then went to thank the fans that play the games with him even if they don't know. Now there are 11 million players of Elder Scrolls Online with 1m in the last year. After bringing up some brief accolades Firor brought up Wolfhunter DLC that will be about werewolves and the return to Black Marsh in Murkmire for additional story DLC. A trailer was then shown showing the journey that ESO players have already taken and what they can expect to see going forward.
Following on after ESO there was a change from lush forests to a fiery hellscape, it might be hell in actuality hell has come to earth in DOOM: Eternal. This game, sequel to the 2016 reboot, has taken shape out of what people asked for. More information will come out about this game at QuakeCon later this year.
Speaking of Quake though the next announcement is for Quake Champions. Quake is planning on continuing their commitment to eSport with competitions and championships. From here they plan to continue growing their community. New features have also been added to Quake Champions for players to get better together with friends. For the next week, the game will be free and those who download the game will be able to keep it for free even after the trial is over. A trailer was then shown showing off some of the characters that you can play as in Quake Champions.
Prey is the next game for Bethesda to talk about. Since launching a year ago as a sign of thanks a free update is coming to Prey tonight. There will be Story Mode, New Game+, and Survival Mode. The team at Arkane is also working on a new procedurally generated DLC called Mooncrash. A trailer for Mooncrash shows that it's set up as a simulation that you reset upon death. This DLC is available now. One last surprise for Prey is Typhon Hunter, this is a 1v5 mode where the 5 will be able to be Mimics, allowing them to disguise themselves as an object.
Machine Games is up next to talk about how many Nazi's were beaten last year. June 29th will be when Wolfenstein comes out for the Nintendo Switch. Wolfenstein Young Blood will continue the story following BJ's twin daughters. As the game follows the twins it will be a co-op experience. In the following trailer, we got to see the state the world is still in under Nazi rule with BJ explaining to his daughters the kind of things they should expect. This game will be launching in 2019.
To talk about VR Pete Hines spoke about Doom, Fallout 4, and Skyrim. From the games announced Prey's Typhon Hunter mode and a single player experience will be playable in VR as well as Wolfenstein Cyber Pilot where you play as a cyber hacker able to take over Nazi machines to promote their "Fuck Nazi" message.
Finally gracing the stage was Todd Howard took to the stage to talk about Fallout 76. After doing a great stand up routine, and jokingly launching Skyrim for Alexa, pagers, fridges, and more. Down to business Todd Howard reiterated that Fallout 76 is going to be 4x the size of Fallout 4 and set only shortly after the bombs go off. After that followed the trailer that was shown earlier today at the Microsoft Press Conference. New footage is shown as the overseer of your vault is talking to the playable character about reclamation day, the day vault dwellers are able to leave the vault. The world itself will feature all kinds of new technologies allowing 16x the detail and allow players to watch weather formations from far away. Fallout 76 is an online-only title where each other person you see is a human player. This game will be playable solo doing whatever you want but Bethesda wanted to try creating an online game using their formula. This title will be "softcore survival" where death won't mean the loss of progression or your character, you'll be in a world with dozens of players only to keep the apocalypse feel.
For added description, a series of VaultTec videos played to explain different features of the game including the 4 player party system, emotes, PvP as well as PvE. Building will also be returning as a mechanic using the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform, or C.A.M.P allowing you to build wherever you want. There will also be the option for other players to destroy your buildings or each other using missiles that are located in the game world. The last piece of news for Fallout 76 is that they will be having a beta to test their system. Collectors edition of the game will include a glow in the dark map of the world, figures you can put on the map, and a Power Armor Helmet with a working headlamp, and voice modulator that is completely wearable. Fallout 76 will be releasing on November 14th.
To keep with the Fallout theme Fallout Shelter was up next celebrating its third anniversary. As well as the game coming to PlayStation 4 it will also be coming to Nintendo Switch for free tonight.
Another mobile game was announced in the form of The Elder Scrolls: Blades will be coming. This will be a full first-person RPG with a "uniquely mobile experience." This game will have procedurally generated dungeons as well as handcrafted ones. This game will be playable in both landscape and portrait mode. As well as dungeons there are also outside landscapes. This game will have three modes Abyss a roguelike mode, arena for PvP, and the town a hub for story and quests. The game will release this fall for free and it's available for pre-order tonight.
Todd Howard then finally began teasing their first original franchise in 25 years, the long-rumored Starfield. All we got to see so far was a satellite of a planet but the crowd appreciated it. The game after that was also teased as we saw the Elder Scrolls IV logo and the familiar theme from Skyrim.
If you want to know more about this and other announcements happening at E3 then be sure to check out our E3 2018 Coverage Hub.
