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'Fallout 76' beta begins October 23rd
You still have a while to wait before you can dive into Fallout 76, though Bethesda is whetting fans' appetites by releasing the game's intro video and revealing launch dates for the beta. The clip sets up the story, in which survivors of a nuclear war are leaving their bunker and stepping into the West Virginia wasteland with the aim of rebuilding America.
'Elder Scrolls: Legends' may skip PS4 due to cross-play ban
Sony's ban on cross-play for PS4 titles may create more than just inconveniences for some gamers. Bethesda's senior global marketing VP Pete Hines told Game Informer in an interview that the console version of The Elder Scrolls: Legends won't launch on any system that doesn't support cross-play -- in other words, it would skip the PS4. The card battling title revolves around an experience you can carry from device to device, Hines said, and it would be unacceptable to have one version walled off from everything else. The feature is "essentially non-negotiable," the executive said.
'Fallout 76' deals with trolls by making them part of the game
When Bethesda mentioned that Fallout 76 was an online game, you could hear alarm bells ringing in fans' heads. How were they going to deal with the inevitable trolls who come in to ruin other players' fun? Now we know: it's making them a part of the game. In a presentation at QuakeCon, game lead Todd Howard revealed that people who kill unwilling victims will get bounties on their heads, with the money coming out of their total cap balance (that is, currency) and reflecting their character level. They'll also be impossible to miss -- you'll see a red star on the map.
Bethesda threatens lawsuit over sale of secondhand game
You can legally resell your personal games in the US under the First Sale Doctrine, which allows resales of copyrighted media like discs so long as you don't modify them in any substantial way. However, Bethesda doesn't think that applies if the shrink wrap is still present -- the publisher recently threatened to sue gamer Ryan Hupp for listing an unopened PS4 copy of The Evil Within 2 on Amazon Marketplace when he realized he didn't need that version of the game. As Hupp explained to Polygon, Bethesda's law firm viewed the listing as "unlawful" because he was not only unauthorized to resell new copies, but had rendered the game "materially different" by not including the original warranty.
'Doom Eternal' doubles the (destructible) demons
Bethesda and id Software teased Doom Eternal at E3, but now we've got a much better look at it. id promises twice as many demons as last time, including reimagined classic enemies from Doom 2 like the Arachnotron. There are destructible demons now too, with chunks falling off as you rip and tear through them.
‘Quake Champions’ is free-to-play forever
Id Software released Quake Champions out of beta and in to Steam Early Access a year ago as a revival of its predecessors' arena shooter gameplay. Later, the studio stated that the game would be free to play, but only once the game fully launched. But at QuakeCon today, it announced the title is F2P, now and forever.
America's love affair with firearms bleeds into gaming culture
Gaming culture is rife with graphic representations of gun violence and has been since arcade goers first blew aliens out of Space Invader's skies. You'll be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of AAA titles designed for adults (sit down Rayman) that don't rely on firearms, or use gore in substitution, either as a primary tool for the gameplay or as a thematic element.
Here's how 'Wolfenstein II' manages to run on Nintendo Switch
Now that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is available on the Switch, there's a question many want answered: just how did Panic Button manage to squeeze such a visually intense game into a title you can play on the bus? You now have a clear answer. DigitalFoundry has produced a detailed examination of the many tweaks made to make the game work. The developer managed to preserve all the gameplay sequences, geometric detail and key visual effects (such as particles, volumetric lighting and motion blur) -- it's the less-than-essential features that get cut.
'Skyrim VR' is now easier to play and better to look at
Bethesda's Skyrim went full VR about seven months ago, and it's now getting a pretty significant update. That's a good thing, as not everyone was super pleased with this version of the venerable RPG. According to UploadVR, the title will receive improved visuals, a new main menu and some significant changes to the Move controller configuration.
'Elder Scrolls' on mobile isn't great
The universe of Elder Scrolls feels too big to fit on a phone, and it kind of is. Elder Scrolls Blades is Bethesda's attempt to give iOS and Android players a taste of its beloved high-fantasy franchise. It's a free game that includes streamlined character and city builders, and two different regions to explore (that's how many were in the demo on display at E3 this week, at least), the castle and the forest.
Bethesda's E3 2018 show: Our verdict
Bethesda's E3 press conference is over. Join editors Jess Conditt and Mat Smith as they break down the most important announcements. Or, if you haven't got seven minutes, here's an even shorter breakdown:
Watch Bethesda's E3 media briefing in under 12 minutes
Bethesda's E3 media briefing started with a performance from Andrew WK hyping Rage 2 and ended with a look at the company's future, closing its show with a tease of The Elder Scrolls VI. It took just over an hour for the publisher and developer to make its announcements, but you can watch it right here in under 12 minutes.
‘Elder Scrolls: Blades’ is an RPG you can play anywhere
Have you ever wanted to play an Elder Scrolls game on your phone, for free? Bethesda thinks you have and has you covered with Elder Scrolls: Blades, what the company's Todd Howard described as "a pure Elder Scrolls game." It'll run on every platform imaginable, Howard said, and all the versions will connect to one another, so, for instance, someone on an iPhone X can play against someone who's running through it on a PC-based VR system or standard console. It'll be out this fall. You use finger-swipes for melee attacks and casting spells against various beasts (and other players) in procedurally generated dungeons, and beautiful forests.
'The Elder Scrolls VI' is real
It's been seven years since Bethesda debuted "Skyrim," but the franchise's fans won't have to wait much longer for the sequel. Just after previewing "Starfield," the company's first original IP in a quarter century, Bethesda had "just one more thing" for the assembled crowd: "The Elder Scrolls VI." The iteration number is just about all we know about the upcoming title so far but stay tuned to Engadget for more updates, we'll be reporting from the E3 show floor all week. We're excited to announce our next chapter, The Elder Scrolls VI. pic.twitter.com/3aF5evUsnY — Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) June 11, 2018
'Starfield' could be 'Skyrim' in space
So it's not all sequels and ports. Bethesda revealed its next big single player project, Starfield. It centers around, er, outer space, has an aesthetically pleasing logo and the company wants us to get really hyped about it. And so it should: This is Bethesda's first new franchise in 25 years. We really want to hear more about it and how the company will bring its reliably deep gameplay and character development systems to space. Stay tuned.
How Bethesda plans to pull players back to 'Prey'
Last year's Prey was a creepy shooter and role-playing game set on a spaceship riddled with black, shimmering aliens. The so-called 'immersive sim' was praised for its science fiction story, which let you shape the main character and the fate of the hostile research station. The gameplay, though, was seen by many as a retread of BioShock, System Shock and other genre classics. Despite its wild Neuromod abilities, which let you become an expert hacker, fighter or shape-shifting alien, the rebooted Prey failed to catch the public's attention.
'Fallout Shelter' is coming to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch
In addition to blowing the crowd's collective mind with its "Fallout 76" news, Bethesda also had some news for the franchise's more casual fans. The company announced that Fallout Shelter is now available on both the Playstation 4 and the Nintendo Switch, for free. So get building Vault Dwellers! Follow all the latest news from E3 2018 here!
'Skyrim' comes to Amazon's Alexa
Bethesda is aware. Enough Skyrim ports. Enough already. Cut. It. Out. The game maker showed a shred of self-awareness of its endless wringing of the long-running franchise and appeared to faux-introduce Skyrim: Very Special Edition, a voice-based reimagining of the RPG for Alexa. The kicker? It's real and it's available now (just don't expect to actually do anything with it).
'Fallout 76' is an online survival game
Fallout 76 is entirely online and it's scheduled to come out on November 14th. The game is playable solo, but it was created with a singular vision in mind: building an open-world, survival-based game where every character players encounter is a real person. It relies on small instances, pulling in dozens of other players rather than hundreds or thousands -- it is the apocalypse, after all. Think Destiny, but in a nuclear-ravaged, retro-futuristic wasteland. This is Bethesda's latest entry in the post-apocalyptic Fallout franchise and it's the biggest game yet -- four times bigger than Fallout 4, in fact. Bethesda shared the release date and fresh details during its E3 2018 media briefing.
Bethesda unveils co-op 'Wolfenstein: Youngblood' at E3 2018
BJ's legacy lives on in the next iteration of Bethesda's Wolfenstein franchise. Set in 1980, players fight as Jessica and Sophia Blazkowicz, the twin daughters of Anya & BJ - one a weapons expert, the other a bare-knuckle brawler. They're tasked with finding their father, who has gone missing in occupied Paris, as well as making life hell for the 4th Reich. The game is slated for release later this year alongside a VR spinoff, Wolfenstein Cyberpilot.
