Wolfenstein steals the show at Bethesda’s press conference.
Bethesda, the company that brings us the Skyrim and Fallout held their E3 press conference tonight and it was an affair of high highs and average lows. The show opened with a VR showcase followed by a slate of games, some of which were extremely compelling while others seemed a bit lackluster.
The number one highlight of the Bethesda conference was Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. The newest entry in the historic series takes place in an alternate history USA after the Nazis won World War 2. The previous game took place in Europe of the same alternate universe and introduced a tone to the series that was as dark and bizarre as it was compelling. The new trailer shows that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has not lost touch with what made the first game great. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will be available October 27, 2017.
Bethesda also showed off VR ports of two of their most popular recent games, Doom and Fallout 4. The Doom port, titled Doom VFR, appears to introduce a new playable character that is not the iconic Doom Marine and has more of a shooting gallery feel than Bethesda’s other VR offering, Fallout 4 VR. That game leverages the slower pace and crafting mechanics of the Fallout series to optimize for VR. The base building mechanics in the trailer for Fallout VR 4 actually look easier to use than the ones in the original game.
Another notable port showcased at the Bethesda press conference was the much anticipated Skyrim Switch. The game appears to be a fairly standard port of the remastered version of Skyrim with a couple notable additions. First, the Switch version supports Amiibo; the trailer shows the Breath of the Wild Amiibo unlocking a Skyrim version of Link’s costume and the master sword. Second, the port for the Nintendo console adds support for motion control via the Switch’s Joycons
Bethesda did show some other new games besides Wolfenstein: Quake Champions and The Evil Within 2. Quake Champions looks like an attempt to blend together the ultra fast movement, shooting and map design of Quake with more modern concepts of the hero shooter sub-genre. A beta for the game is available at Quake.com and Bethesda announced the addition of BJ Blazkowicz of Wolfenstein to the roster of playable characters at the conference.
In addition to all the ports and new games, Bethesda showed off add-on content for some of their already released games.
Finally, there was Creation Club, Bethesda’s new program for adding what seems to be professionally created mod content to their games. Bethesda games, historically known for being improved by modders, recently brought community mod support to consoles so the idea of the publisher creating a pathway for professional content of this type makes a sort of sense.