This year’s #BE3 showcase revolved heavily around the highly anticipated FPS entry Doom Eternal, but Bethesda had a number of surprises in store for players willing to check out the full live stream.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much about Elder Scrolls VI, which is likely delayed to take advantage of the next console generation. That noticeably missing title aside, everything from Rage 2 to Wolfenstein received major announcements, along with a slew of news arriving for mobile titles and free updates — like the Moons Of Elsweyr expansion coming June 27 to Elder Scrolls Legends.
If you missed it, we’ve got the full rundown on everything you need to know about the Bethesda 2019 E3 showcase below.
Also, don’t forget to log into your Bethesda account this week! In celebration of the E3 event, you can get five Ouroboros Crown Crates and a Clouded-Senche Leopard mount for Elder Scrolls Online, a Twitch Assault Rifle skin for Rage 2, and an Ancestor Moth card back for The Elder Scrolls: Legends.
Orion
We all know streaming is the future and tech companies are banking on streaming overtaking physical media in the very near future. We already buy most of our games from digital stores anyway, so why not just move the whole thing into the cloud?
Bethesda is working on the new Orion technology now, which is meant to optimize any game engine — with absolutely any game — for playing in the cloud on platforms like the upcoming Google Stadia.
A software solution rather than a hardware option, the purpose of Orion is to reduce latency and stream using lower bandwidth, which means you can stream at max settings for no reduction in graphics quality.
We’ll have to wait and see if it lives up to the promise, but that tech could be huge in seeing streaming services become more widely adopted worldwide.
Fallout 76
Oof, Todd Howard and the Bethesda Game Studios team got a very tepid cheering response at first, which got noticeably louder when they admitted the criticism the game has received was deserved.
That lackluster response turned to wild cheering when it was revealed that human NPCs are arriving with the Wastelanders update — including full dialog trees — to make this more of a full-scale Fallout game.
To lure people in ahead of that update, the game will include a free trial mode coming tomorrow (perhaps precipitating the game going free-to-play…?).
Last up, in a move we should have all seen coming, Fallout 76 is getting battle royale mode with a shrinking ring of fire titled Nuclear Winter. Will the wasteland pull you away from Fortnite?
Doom Eternal
We already knew this would feature the super fast, super powerful Doom Marine slaughtering demons by the thousands, but there were some reveals tonight to get fans even more excited.
This time around we’re also going to heaven, and it seems like the celestial denizens will be even more awful (and fun to kill!) than the demons in hell.
The biggest surprise was those in attendance at the Bethesda showcase got to actually play the game after the show. Lucky bastards!
The rest of us only have a few months to wait though, as Doom Eternal now has an official release date of November 22, 2019. We also got a quick glimpse of the comprehensive collector’s edition, which comes with its own wearable Doom Guy helmet.
Finally, Bethesda decided to show off a bit of the new multiplayer mode, which lets you frag away as either the Slayer or a demon in a 2 vs 1 asymmetric mode.
Elder Scrolls Blades
If you’ve been religiously opening your chests every day, you’ll be excited to know a major update launches tonight in celebration of E3. That patch features new jobs, solo arena battles, a custom jewelry system, and an extra dragon questline.
While not many details were revealed, we also found out an arena mode coming later this year for PvP content and visiting the towns of other players.
Hands down, the biggest news is that Blades is coming to Switch — where it will still be free — and will feature cross-progression with mobile, so you can take your mobile account to the Switch version when it arrives this fall.
Ghostwire Tokyo
There weren’t a ton of details beyond a cinematic trailer, but this new title from Tango Gameworks looks very promising and seems to indicate an open-world nature with a mix of investigative and combat mechanics.
All we really know for sure is that it’s a “spooky” action-adventure title that takes place within a supernatural haunted Tokyo, although they specified it’s not a survival horror game.
Elder Scrolls Online
The Season of the Dragon for Elder Scrolls Online will cap with the upcoming DLC Dragonhold, featuring the return of the iconic Dragonguard. In addition to an epic story trailer, we’re told more info is coming at Quake Con this summer, but they did reveal the dungeon DLC Scalebreaker is set to arrive in August.
Commander Keen
I don’t think anyone saw this coming… we’re about to see a return of the old school Id Software ’90s side-scrolling game Commander Keen, reimagined as a free-to-play Saturday morning cartoon homage on iOS and Android where you build wacky gadgets.
There’s a fun tongue-in-cheek tone here, although I kind of wanted to go find Arnie so we can get our memories wiped at Rekall after hearing lines like “get your anus to mars” and “kick some asteroid.”
This new version of Commander Keen will soft launch this summer on mobile devices.
Deathloop
Finally, a new title from Arkane was just made official, so if you’ve missed games in the style of Prey or Dishonored, get ready for a whole new iteration of the stealth assassination genre.
This noir sci-fi shooter puts you in an endless loop where two assassins relive the same day over and over trying to kill each other. The typical Arkane style of offering multiple options to tackle levels will be available, but we’re also getting a bit of a Tarantino vibe in the font and style on display.
Rage 2
Need ever more insanity? It’s on the way with the Rise Of The Ghosts expansion, including impending features like low gravity, additional enemies, a new pilotable mech, extra areas, and a new enemy faction, as well as weekly content additions.
Two New Wolfenstein Games
Yep, we’re getting two new games this summer, starting with the Cyber Pilot VR title coming next month. That’s not the big news though, as we already knew about that.
The more exciting announcement is Wolfenstein: Young Blood set 20 years after The New Colossus and very clearly embracing the 80’s aesthetic with wild abandon. Aside from the time shift, this time around we’ll get to kill Nazis with a friend in co-op mode!
It’s a pretty good bet that BJ Blazkowicz’s twin daughters are going to collect a whole lot more than 100 Nazi scalps, that’s for sure!
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What upcoming expansion or brand new franchise are you most looking forward to checking out this year? Sound off in the comments below!
Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more news and information on all of these games as they develop. Check out more of our E3 2019 coverage below:
