Sunday Night E3 kicked off in a big way with Bethesda’s first E3 conference. There was an aire of mystery as to what else they would show off besides Fallout 4. Would there be a new Doom, Dishonored, maybe some Elder Scrolls? Yes, Yes, and in a way. I’m going to do things in order, until the end because that’s when they mixed it up a bit.
Starting with Doom. We got to see some gameplay trailer, which was gory as hell. Some of the favorite weapons are coming back, like the trusty shotgun and chainsaw. One thing that looks new is the melee combat, when the player gets in close enough, they can take down certain enemies and deal give them a death blow leaving them in a pool of blood and guts. They took the time to talk about multiplayer, notably Doom Snap Map. Snap Map allows players to create their own maps and how they want that map to be played. Create a level for a horde of enemies, or a map for a deathmatch, it’s all up to you. Then they ended the Doom talk by showing footage from the single player campaign. Where the BFG was teased. Doom will be released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in the Spring of 2016.
They mentioned Bethesdanet briefly allowing players to connect everything through one service. Then they went into Battlecry. Battlecry is a team based online game (similar to Team Fortress), with different classes battling each other. A lot of it looks like it’s melee combat based. A lot of the footage looked like it was still being worked on a little, but that was given a release window of later this year.
We then got a trailer for Dishonored 2. The trailer showed off a new character with different abilities, a female character named Emily Kaldwin, a secondary character from the first game who is revealed to be Corvo Attano’s daughter. They did confirm you would be able to play as either Emily or Corvo, but you only choose which one in the beginning. The player still gets to decide how they want to play and how they want to execute (if they want to execute) enemies. This was given a release window of the spring of 2016 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Dishonored: Definitive Edition was also announced for PS4 and Xbox One for the Fall of this year. With that included all the DLC, and upgraded graphics and framerate.
We had a look into the Elder Scrolls Online: Tameral Unlimited with a brief trailer. They didn’t make the show because they were busy supporting the game now that it has been launched on the current-gen consoles.
That transitioned over to a new strategy card game, Elder Scrolls Legends. They showed off a trailer and said the game will be free, available for PC and the iPad later this year.
They went into wrapping the show up until they “remembered” to show off Fallout 4. First I’m going to talk about the game they showed in between that just to make things a little easier and you can read all about Fallout 4 at once.
Available now via Apple’s app store is Fallout Shelter. It’s a game where you are the overseer of your own vault. You can make rooms for learning, recreation, training, etc. You can send out members of the vault to retrieve items, defend the vault from raiders, and even get members to make more members of the vault by…Traditional means of repopulation. Though it’s free to play, there won’t be any “pay to finish” type rooms, they’ll only have pay for certain items.
Now Fallout 4 got a more in-depth look at the creating factor, which you can play as a man or woman. The game takes place the day the bombs start dropping, and then picks up 200 years later. They showed off crafting to hold off raiders of your shelter. The shelter can be customized with any number of decor. Also all the items you find along the way will help you in modifying weapons. Players can go from a shotgun to a semi-automatic silenced shotgun with a scope for example. Also the power armor can be modified as well. And it looks like you’ll need it when you face off against death claws.
You may have seen the Fallout 4 Collector’s Edition with a functional Pip Boy. You slide your phone in there and use the Fallout 4 app, which will be available at launch of the game on, wait for it…November 10, 2015.
A lot was shown off for Bethesda’s first conference and they swung for the fences and I think they had a big hit. Doom looked very gory, and the chainsaw was easily one of the more brutal weapons I’ve seen in a game in a while. Battlecry looked interesting for the fans of those types of games, but it didn’t look finished. They did mention access to the beta, so that could be the reason for it. It looked like the graphics were still being worked on. I know graphics aren’t everything in a game, but they are, often times the first impression into it so a lot can hinge on that. Dishonored 2 looks pretty good. I have a good feeling fans of the first game will definitely be into the sequel.
I want to address Elder Scrolls Legends and Fallout shelter with a question: Where’s the app for Android users? Nothing was really mentioned outside of the iPad or iPhone apps. I’ll hold on to some hope that maybe it’ll come later this year.
Fallout 4 looked great. I heard some people talking about the graphics of the game, and to me it looked a lot better than Fallout 3. With that said, if there’s more of a focus on how the game plays, I’m okay with that. Who knows maybe the look of the game will help minimize any bugs that Bethesda has been infamous for when launching some games. I think the Collector’s Edition looks pretty sweet, mostly because of the functional Pip Boy (with your phone).
My initial reaction is Bethesda knocked it out of the park with their first E3 conference, they brought everything they needed to bring an a little more. I suggest checking it out, and there’s a little Q & A session with some of the people working on the games with former X-Play hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb. So if you have a couple hours to kill check that out, and let us know what you thought of it in the comment section below. It’s E3 season, so we’re going to have you covered right here at New Gamer Nation.