Bethesda E3 2019 Press Event Recap

Bethesda had a bit of a hill to climb this E3. With all of the craziness surrounding Fallout 76, their microtransaction filled Elder Scrolls: Blades game, and underwhelming Rage 2 – they had a ton to answer for.

If you missed the event, no worries; we made sure to add it to the site for your viewing pleasure. That said, we have highlighted the juicer tidbits below.

So of course, the first big budget game they talked about was Fallout 76. Todd Howard came out on stage to express how much Bethesda has learned. How they heard their fans loud and clear; a seemingly fair statement considering their continued efforts to turn things around. That lead to the reveal of two major updates.

First up was Wastelanders, an expansion of sorts that adds human NPCs and brand-new story-based questline. It affectively helps Fallout 76 inch ever so closer to previous Fallout titles. You’ll still have to contend with the survival mechanics and card-based upgrades, but the game will be more story driven. The second free update called Nuclear Winter. This one adds a new battle royale mode; 52 players will battle one another while mutants and a wall of flames/radiation closes in on them. They’ll be able to set up C.A.M.P. and build items like in Adventure mode. The only difference is that a lot of the mechanics have been tweaked to be more in line with the constant action. For instance, turrets won’t require resources to make. They’ll appear as loot found in boxes or dropped from enemies.

Wastelanders and Nuclear Winter will each be released this Fall and…sometime in the near future, respectively? Bethesda didn’t reveal when they’d release the mode in full. They did say that fans would get a chance to preview Nuclear Winter during a free trial weekend – from June 10th through the 17th, they’ll be able to play Fallout 76 for free.

After that, things lightened up a bit. Out came Shinji Mikami, Executive Producer at Tango Gameworks, to introduce a new game called GhostWire: Tokyo. He then passed things over to Ikumi Nakamura, Tango’s Creative Director, who’d go into more detail. She explained that it was an action-adventure game where players face off against dangerous spirits.

For some reason, people have started disappearing around Tokyo. In their absence is an evil force, a strange cult, and the aforementioned spirits. To get to the bottom of this mystery, our (seemingly) silent protagonist will need to use his powers to fight back; he’ll need to purge the city of evil before mounting a rescue.

Since being under Bethesda, Tango Gameworks has only made survival horror games. And while this is a departure from that genre, it still features horror elements. I’m looking forward to learning more about this strange title. Next up were more updates/expansions to existing games. The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr and Rage 2’s Rise of the Ghosts expansions stood out the most. They then revealed a new Commander Keen game. This cult classic series was one of the first id ever created (back when they were called Ideas from the Deep). It’s interesting to see that it’s still alive in some capacity. We didn’t get to see much gameplay; the trailer was an animated cartoon showcasing the twin protagonists Billy and Billie battle space aliens. It seemed like it’ll be a fun mobile game though.

One of the more surprising reveals was the new Arkane Studios (Arkane Lyon to be excate) title called Deathloop. This first-person shooter follows the lives of two assassins who are stuck in an eternal struggle; the trailer shows them killing each other, only for them to wake up seemingly hours before being killed.

Arkane is promising the same type of player agency seen in their Dishonored series. You’ll be able to approach each situation in a different way as you go about hunting down targets while contending with your rival assassin. Good times!

The last thing that was shown were two new Doom Eternal trailers. The first was similar to what was shown before – the Doom Slayer is dispatching demons in the most brutal of waves in a hellish environment. The second showcased a new multiplayer offering called Battlemode. Featuring strategic elements and bombastic gameplay, this mode puts two players (controlling demons) vs one player (controlling the Demon Slayer).

The demon players will have unique abilities tied to their particular monster, powerful weapons, and the ability to spawn minions. The Demon Slayer gets all of the weapons seen in the campaign and what seemed like more health. The mode looked like a ton of fun. After the reveal, Bethesda announced Doom Eternal’s release date – it’ll be available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC come November 22nd.

All and all, Bethesda had a decent showing. There were new games, interesting expansions/updates for older games, some VR stuff, and some cool trailers. I’m not sure if they won all of their fans over, especially those still upset about Fallout 76. And they also failed to mention Elder Scrolls 6 (beyond saying that they are working on it) and Starfield. Still, what was shown should be well received. Mostly.