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'Fallout Shelter' is coming to Tesla cars
Elon Musk showed up on stage at E3 Thursday alongside Bethesda Studios executive producer Todd Howard to announce Fallout Shelter will be coming to Tesla vehicles. The wildly popular game is already available on just about every other system imaginable, so a move to Tesla in-car entertainment systems seems about right. It will be joined by Beach Buggy Racing 2, along with previously announced titles including classic Atari games and indie darling Cuphead.
'Wolfenstein: Youngblood' makes me want more co-op shooters
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is definitely a spin-off, not a sequel. It helps explain why the latest game in the reinvented Wolfenstein universe feels and plays so differently. When first revealed, I was intrigued by the idea of making the blunt, gory, Nazi-hunting first-person shooter into a cooperative game. In Youngblood, you work alongside a buddy or AI assistant to unlock doors, ransack storage and cut a swathe through fictional armor-plated soldiers and robots.
Watch Elon Musk and Todd Howard's E3 chat at 3PM ET
It's the final day of E3 2019 and for some reason, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is chatting on stage about "games, cars, space and everything in between" with Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard. Musk has a clear interest in games -- he even wrote and sold one when he was 12. He's also put a number of them on Tesla dashboards, including Asteroids, Super Breakout and 2048.
How Panic Button became masters of the Switch port
The Switch is a remarkable little machine. Part handheld and part home console, the device is home to some wonderful Nintendo-made exclusives such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. It's also home to some rock-solid ports, including Rocket League and the Nazi-slaying Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. These versions are visibly inferior to their PS4, Xbox One and PC counterparts, with murky textures and adaptive resolutions that frequently hover below 720p. Still, they are undeniably impressive, offering the same ferocious gunplay and bombastic humor whether you're playing at home or the back of a bus. The wizards behind these seemingly-impossible ports? Panic Button, a developer in Austin, Texas with less than 50 employees. It's an unusual specialty -- some companies, such as Bluepoint Games, have earned a reputation on their ability to remake and remaster classic titles such as Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Shadow of the Colossus. Few, though, are able to match Panic Button's skill at bringing so-called 'triple-A' games to effectively tablet-grade hardware.
Watch Bethesda’s E3 2019 highlights in 15 minutes
Bethesda kicked off its E3 event yesterday, and if your head is still spinning from all of the gaming updates announced this weekend, here's your chance to catch up on Bethesda's biggest news. The company debuted Orion, a software collection meant to optimize game engines for streaming on platforms like Google's Stadia or Microsoft's xCloud. The goal is to improve the game-streaming experience for folks with slower internet speeds or those who live far from data centers. Bethesda gave us a glimpse of Doom Eternal, Fallout 76 and the new Wolfenstein: Youngblood. There's also the new supernatural action adventure Ghostwire Tokyo and a new dragon quest line in Elder Scrolls: Blades. Today we learned that Doom will stream on iOS later this year. In case you missed Bethesda's E3 presentation or need a second viewing to catch all the details, we've compiled this supercut to bring you up to speed.
'Doom' will be streaming on iOS later this year
Earlier today at E3, Bethesda announced its new game streaming technology, Orion. The company promises Orion will be able to work with any game and any platform, and later this year iOS users will be able to test that promise out with Doom. The 2016 update to the classic first-person shooter will be available to stream on iOS devices later this fall and you can get access to the limited test run by signing up for Bethesda's Slayers Club.
Id Software built a framework to make streaming video games better
Bethesda is jumping on the cloud-gaming train with Orion, a software collection that optimizes game engines for streaming. Essentially, Orion is designed to make games run better on platforms like Google's Stadia or Microsoft's xCloud. It works with any game and any platform, lowering latency by up to 20 percent per frame and reducing bandwidth demands by as much as 40 percent.
'DOOM Eternal' lands November 22nd with a new take on multiplayer
DOOM Eternal, the latest installment in gory, frantic, demon slaying will land on November 22nd this year. Bethesda's E3 keynote showed snippets of the Doom Slayer's latest jaunt, which the publisher says will go "across dimensions" to heaven, hell and Mars. In a new multiplayer mode, DOOM Eternal will have two player-controlled demons face off against one slayer.
'Deathloop' is a first-person action game from the creators of 'Dishonored'
Aside from showing off the next major update to Fallout 76, dubbed Wastelanders, Bethesda has revealed a new first-person action game called Deathloop. This new title comes from studio Arcane Lyon, the creators of the Dishonored franchise. As you'll see in the trailer below, Deathloop looks intense and action-packed. Bethesda says that the world of Deathloop is designed to transport players to a lawless island called Blackreef, where you can experience the struggle of two "extraordinary assassins."
The new 'Wolfenstein: Youngblood' trailer is a killer good time
WIth the July 26th release date of Wolfenstein: Youngblood nearly upon us, Bethesda took the stage at its E3 keynote on Sunday to reveal additional details and gameplay of its latest installment of the Nazi-hunting franchise.
Evil Within studio debuts supernatural action adventure, 'Ghostwire Tokyo'
The studio behind horror series The Evil Within is building an action-adventure game set in a city of supernatural evil, called Ghostwire Tokyo. Tango Gameworks founder Shinji Mikami and the title's creative director, Ikumi Nakamura, debuted the new game during Bethesda's E3 press conference, showing a glimpse of the story and world, but skimping on details like platforms or release date.
'Fallout 76' is about to be a lot more like 'Fallout'
Back in February, Bethesda detailed its plan to revitalize Fallout 76 in 2019. After all, it's no secret that the developer's shared-world action RPG is in desperate need of improvement, having been plagued by a number of serious issues since it launched in November of 2018. And today, at its pre-E3 2019 event, Bethesda revealed the next major update for Fallout 76: Wastelanders, which it says will "fundamentally change the game." The biggest difference is the addition of non-player human characters, a feature that's going to make Fallout 76 feel a lot more like Fallout, thanks to a new main quest as well as choice and consequence scenes. You'll also get new weapons and gear, naturally.
Watch Bethesda's E3 2019 press event here with us!
Recovered from Xbox? Get ready for the company that resurrected Wolfenstein and Doom, as Bethesda caps off E3 Sunday. While we're unlikely to hear more on Elder Scrolls VI during its E3 showcase, expect update news for Fallout 76, a little more on the aforementioned Wolfenstein and Doom series and something new, maybe, if we're good? We'll be live-streaming alongside and after the showcase, so join Senior Editor Nick Summers and myself right here or on YouTube. It all kicks off at 5:30PM PT / 8:30PM EST / 1:30AM GMT.
YouTube will offer 10 hours of live E3 coverage on June 9th
YouTube is giving you a gigantic dose of E3 this year -- the service will offer 10 hours of live coverage through its Gaming section on June 9th, starting at 1PM Eastern. It'll include obvious coverage of E3 milestones like the Xbox showcase and Bethesda's presentation, but YouTube is treating this more like a day-long festival -- it'll be hosted by the Game Awards' Geoff Keighley, and will feature appearances from internet stars like Felicia Day, Jacksepticeye and Markiplier as well as performances from the likes of Marshmello, Bastille and Lindsey Stirling.
'Fallout Shelter' sequel adds PvP, but it's only available in China
A sequel to Bethesda's wildly popular game Fallout Shelter is coming later this month, though odds are you won't be able to play it. Fallout Shelter Online, which expands on the world of the original title by adding new multiplayer capabilities, will only be available in China -- at least for the time being, according to PC Gamer. Engadget has reached out to Bethesda for additional details and will update this post if we hear back.
What to expect at E3 2019
We're barely a week away from the start of E3 2019 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California! This year's event may be missing one of its stalwarts now that Sony has announced that it will not have a presence but there will be news aplenty from the show floor. Let's take a look at some of the anticipated high points.
'Rage 2' will receive at least two paid add-ons after launch
Just because Rage 2 is a single-player game doesn't mean its gameplay will remain all that static. Avalanche and Bethesda have published a 2019 roadmap for the open-world shooter, and it's evident that the developers want to treat the game almost as if it were an ever-evolving multiplayer title. There are two paid expansions in the pipeline, one in August ("Rise of the Ghosts") and one in November. While there aren't many specifics about the plot, there are promises of new stories, areas and gear for both add-ons.
'Elder Scrolls: Blades' mobile game opens its doors to more players
Bethesda's free-to-play Elder Scrolls game for mobile is still in its Early Access testing period, but apparently things have gone well enough to ditch the invite requirement. The company announced that anyone with a Bethesda account can download the game and play, while it looks at player feedback and rebalances the "silver chest" that some had complained about. We weren't too impressed by our early look at Elder Scrolls: Blades, but that was last year, and it's had plenty of time to bake since then. If you've been playing, drop us a note about the experience, and if you've been waiting to dive in then just hit Google Play or iTunes and try it out.
Co-op shooter 'Wolfenstein: Youngblood' arrives July 26th
Bethesda has been mostly tight-lipped about Wolfenstein: Youngblood since unveiling it at E3 last year, but it's not holding back now. The publisher has revealed that its co-op anti-Nazi shooter will debut July 26th on PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. You play as BJ Blazkowicz's daughters Jess and Soph (either with a friend or an AI substitute) as they track down their missing dad in an alternate history Nazi-occupied Paris circa 1980. The new story trailer (below) makes clear that there's plenty of the modern series' over-the-top action, although there's also a bit of mystery involved -- it's now clear that BJ doesn't want to be found, and that he's up to something big.
'Doom Eternal' and other Bethesda games are coming to Steam
The rise of proprietary game launchers appears to be getting worse, but there's at least one company headed in the opposite direction. Bethesda has announced that its upcoming games will be available through Steam, including Doom Eternal, Rage 2, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. On top of that, it's bringing Fallout 76 to Steam at some point later in 2019. While that won't help the shared-world RPG fare any better, it will at least ensure that you can start complaining about the game that much sooner.
