Bethesda’s E3 2017 Notes

Bethesda’s E3 showcase opened up with a montage of the developer’s children encouraging us to get excited for their parents’ games. This is the same publisher that wants you to be less informed because they don’t ship review copies out to journalists and critics early.

VR Games

 

Bethesda’s VR offerings included brief glimpses of Doom (2016) VFR and Fallout 4 VR. Both were depicted with the HTC Vive HMD. It’s good that these games are getting VR editions, but it feels a little late. It’s good that VR is getting full games instead of just shooting galleries, but you’ve probably already played those games if you wanted to. Doom will also be available for the Playstation VR system.

No release date was made available.

Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind

Bethesda played a video montage of other people reacting to the trailer for the Morrowind expansion to their ESO. That is a very strange way to show off your game but I guess it kind of makes sense when the Morrowind expansion is $40 and has been out since May 22nd for Windows and Mac.

Creation Club, or For-Pay Mods, Again.

Hold up, what? Did we not do this before? I don’t have an issue with developers getting paid for work, but it’s obvious that the community at large does. I hope this works out better this time, and the developers of community made items get a better cut. It’ll be out for Fallout 4 and Skyrim on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows, this Summer.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends

It’s Bethesda’s digital CCG like Blizzard’s Hearthstone. Everyone must want to make their own Magic: The Gathering. It’ll get some cross-platform release on Steam, iOS, and Android next month. Also there’s some Skyrim stuff for it:

Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch

You’ll be able to play as Link if you have a certain amiibo. I hope the motion controls are optional. They don’t look so hot.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

It’s a standalone expansion to Dishonored 2 and it’ll be out on September 15th for $30. I still need to play Dishonored 2.

Quake Champions

BJ Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein is gonna be one of the playable characters. I’ve been pretty disappointed with what I’ve played of Champions, and while I’ll give it another shot once it is out of beta I’m not very hopeful. Quake 3‘s style of gameplay doesn’t feel good to me without a level playing field. It’ll never be level when different characters have wildly varying abilities like these champions.

Bethesda also announced a Quake Champions tournament with a $1,000,000 prize pool.

The Evil Within 2

Everything I’ve heard about the original was that it was flawed but promising. The sequel to The Evil Within could do with reassuring players by sending out review copies going out ahead of time. October 13th.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Machine Games’ Wolfenstein: The New Order was excellent. I look forward to seeing what they do with this, and the tears of Trump and GG supporters who see Nazis and Klan members being murdered in an occupied United State and feel some sympathy for them. It’s set for October 27th. There’s also this ridiculous collectors edition:

Overall
Besides Wolfenstein 2 and Dishonored‘s new expansion, there wasn’t that much here for me but I was glad for the shorter show.