Bethesda At E3 2019: Here's All The News You Missed
Bethesda's show at E3 2019 has come and gone, thus ending our Sunday of major E3 conferences. Now that we have a moment to catch our breaths, how about we go over everything Bethesda covered?
To start, Bethesda went almost immediately at Fallout 76, knowing they had some crow-eating to do. And it happened, with Bethesda's Todd Howard coming out to talk about the difficulties the game faced and the criticism it received, which he called "well-deserved." Fortunately, it looks like Fallout 76 will have some new life breathed into it this fall. A brand new expansion called Wastelanders is set to change the game for the better, adding human NPCs, new rewards, dialogue trees, and more. In the meantime, though, the game is getting a free trial from June 10 through June 17 on its various platforms. And a battle royale mode called Nuclear Winter is also coming to Fallout 76, and can be played for free when the trial period starts tomorrow.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades also got some stage time during Bethesda's conference. A new update featuring a dragon questline, new jewelry systems, and more is out starting tonight. And an Arena mode is coming this fall that'll let you play PvP and visit your friends' towns. Oh, and Switch owners, take note: your console will be receiving a version of Blades this fall, and that version will have both cross-play and cross-progression with Blades on mobile phones. Nice.
Tango Gameworks has a new game they're cooking up, and it looks interesting. It's called Ghostwire Tokyo, and the premise will either intrigue you or have you swearing to never play it (if you don't like scary games). You see, it's an action-adventure title; one where you'll fight paranormal activities and battle against supernatural entities in the city of Tokyo. People are vanishing without a trace, and in Ghostwire Tokyo, it'll be up to you to figure out why. There's no release date for this one just yet, but we'll definitely be watching it closely.
The Elder Scrolls Online just released a brand new expansion in Elsweyr, but that didn't stop the folks at Zenimax from revealing two more updates that are coming this year. The first, Scalebreaker, releases this August. And one more called Dragonhold arrives in Q4. Did you think there weren't enough dragons in ESO? Consider yourself served.
When's the last time we saw a Commander Keen game? May 2001. That's a really long time ago. Fear not, however; Bethesda is bringing the series back as a mobile game, and not to confuse you, but it's called Commander Keen. You can expect a soft launch for this game in the summer on iOS and Android. For more info, keep your eyes on Bethesda's website.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends keeps on trucking. Not much news for this one, other than a new expansion is coming out for the title on June 27. It's called Moons of Elsweyr, so if you enjoy your strategy card games and Legends hits the spot, June 27 will have even more of it for you.
Rage 2 just came out back in May. Are you ready for more content? You're in luck. A rather large-looking expansion called Rise of the Ghosts will be coming in the near future, bringing new enemies, new cheats, new vehicles, new modes, a new story, a new enemy faction, and a freakin' mech you can pilot. Bethesda didn't announce a release date for this one, but we wouldn't be surprised if it drops sometime during the summer.
On the Wolfenstein front, Bethesda announced that its VR spin on the franchise, Cyberpilot, is coming out this July. And then there's Youngblood, the standalone expansion that stars B.J. Blazkowicz's two daughters. According to Bethesda, Youngblood can be played in co-op, which is a pretty unique thing for a Wolfenstein title. And you won't have to wait long for this one: as previously announced, Wolfenstein: Youngblood arrives on July 26.
Good news, everyone! Arkane is making a new game! Bad news: it's not a Dishonored game. If you can put your disappointment aside for a moment, you might find some room in your heart for Deathloop, an action-adventure game that is also Arkane's next project. It looks really cool, and as the team at Arkane has promised, it'll retain many of the gameplay elements the studio is known for, including the ability to approach a level in any way you desire. This one doesn't have a release date, so who knows: maybe we'll get more of a look at it this year.
Even with all of this game development taking place, Bethesda has still found time to do a little R&D in a completely unexpected space: game streaming technology. We got a look at the result of their hard work with the reveal of Orion, a new tech that optimizes game engines for streaming. Bethesda claims that Orion can stream content 20% faster reduce the amount of bandwidth required for streaming, and the company put its money where its mouth was by showing Doom (2016) running in gorgeous high-def at 60 frames per second. The best part? No noticeable lag at all. Bethesda wants developers to use this tech on all streaming platforms, so stay tuned: we could see it becoming more widespread over time.
And lastly, Doom Eternal. What can we say about this game? If you like blood and gore, shooting giant demon monstrosities, and also slicing said demons in half, you probably liked Doom. Doom Eternal is going to be more of that, though Bethesda did show off a new multiplayer mode called, well, Battlemode. It pits one beefed up Slayer against two player demons, and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. We'll know for sure if Battlemode is worth its salt when Doom Eternal comes out, and get ready: it has a release date of Nov. 22, 2019. Before the year is out, you will be playing a brand new Doom title. Praise be.
That's all for Sunday, but E3 will have plenty of other news stories breaking throughout this week. Check back tomorrow and we'll undoubtedly have more for you.