For the fifth year in a row, Bethesda Softworks hosted its own press conference at E3 2019, revealing new games in development and showing progress on previously-announced titles. If you were hoping for new information on Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI, you’re going to be disappointed, but the publisher did bring a few surprises that have us very excited. Most of these are from established franchises, with a couple of brand-new IP thrown into the mix. These are all the biggest announcements and games from the Bethesda E3 2019 Showcase.
Doom Eternal
Bethesda’s heavy hitter of the night was Doom Eternal, which was first revealed back in 2018. During the press conference, we had a chance to see the Doomslayer in action on Earth and in hellish locations similar to the 2016 game. Demons sporting machine parts are now available to slaughter, including one that is essentially a giant brain with spider legs attached. New weapons include a launcher that fires timed-detonating explosives, and a blade attached to the Doomslayer’s forearm for quick finishing moves.
The big addition in Doom Eternal, however, is called “Battlemode.” The new take on competitive multiplayer pits two players against an opponent. The two players both control demons while the lone wolf play as a slayer, and it’s a best-of-three match to determine who will walk out alive.
Doom Eternal will release on November 22. A collector’s edition with a functional helmet will be available, and you can join the official fan club for extra rewards. More information will be revealed at Quakecon this summer.
Deathloop
If you were hoping for a new Dishonored game announcement from Arkane Studios, we have some bad news for you, but we can soften the blow with some great news! Deathloop is a new science-fiction action game from studio Arkane Lyon that stars two rival assassins in an endless loop of killing each other. While one feels he is trapped, the other believes she is free, and when one dies, they wake up on an island at the “Black Reef.”
Deathloop takes place in France during a time of complete madness, and it will feature the classic Arkane level design and action gameplay we’ve come to expect. The game does not yet have a known release date.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Arkane Studios also assisted MachineGames in the development of the new Wolfenstein games Youngblood and Cyberpilot, both of which release in July. In the new footage shown for Wolfenstein: Youngblood, we see an aging B.J. Blazcowicz, whose disappearance has led to his daughters going on a rescue mission. This mission will allow them to use more weapons and upgrades than in any previous Wolfenstein games, and the levels will be more open-ended. The famous hatchet makes a return, and you’ll be able to play it either alone or with a friend when it hits Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC July 26.
GhostWire: Tokyo
Tango Gameworks didn’t reveal The Evil Within 3 during the press conference, but the Japanese studio did announce the action-adventure title GhostWire: Tokyo. Set in a version of the city that has seen people disappear in an instant and leave behind only their clothes, the game will have you encounter various supernatural forces. While some are friendly, others are dangerous, and we see a shadowy figure use a bow and use powers to send out an enormous wave of energy. We are told to not “fear the unknown,” but instead “attack it,” and we can’t wait to see what Tango has cooked up in its Leftovers-like world.
Orion game streaming
Did you think you could get through an E3 press conference without game streaming being mentioned? Wrong! Bethesda is working on its own technology, which it is calling “Orion,” that is inserted into games at the engine level instead of being relegated to hardware alone. By doing this, Orion is apparently able to reduce bandwidth usage by 40% and allow you to play your games at maximum settings, even if you aren’t near a data center. Games can be played at a native 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, and you can register for testing Orion by joining the Doomslayer club. During the conference, we saw 2016’s Doom running on a phone with a controller attached, similar to what Microsoft has demonstrated Project xCloud doing.
Fallout 76
Fallout 76 was a bit of a mess when it launched last year, and Bethesda Game Studios is well aware of the game’s poor state. However, it’s working to improve it significantly with a new free content update called “Wastelanders.” Available this fall, the update adds human non-player characters to the game, along with full dialogue trials, a new main questline to complete, new weapons, and additional areas to explore. The full game is also available to try for free from June 10 through June 17.
Fallout 76 is also getting its own battle royale mode, with a sneak peek available June 10. Called “Nuclear Winter,” the mode pits 52 people against each other in a fight to control Vault 51, and it includes the nuclear weapons featured in the main game.
The Elder Scrolls Blades
To help make yourself feel better about not seeing The Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda had plenty of news on the free-to-play The Elder Scrolls Blades. The game is receiving a major update that adds solo arena battles, new jobs, a new dragon questline, and custom jewelry system. The game is available to download on iOS and Android right now.
Additionally, The Elder Scrolls Blades will be coming to Nintendo Switch this fall, and it will support cross-play with the mobile versions. It will also support cross-progression, so you can be playing on your phone and shift to the Switch when that version is available. Bethesda had previously said it plans to bring the game to as many platforms as possible, including virtual reality, but they haven’t been officially announced yet.
The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls Online recently released its latest expansion, Elsweyr, and plenty of new content is on the way for dedicated players. Sai Sahan, the Redguard swordmaster, will return as leader of the Dragonguard, and we got a taste of the chaos dragons are bringing to the expansion in a CG trailer. A story-focused DLC pack called “Dragonhold” will release in late 2019, with more information available at Quakecon, and a second dungeon-focused DLC called “Scalebreaker” will be out this August.
Rage 2
Rage 2 released in May, and the game is receiving plenty of new content in the Rise of the Ghosts expansion, which will see the return of some enemies that fans of the first game should recognize. Alongside the enemy faction, Rage 2 is getting more cheat codes like “Low Gravity” and “Rejector Seat,” as well as more storylines and areas. New vehicles include a drivable mech vehicle, motorcycle, and “Armadillo,” and there are new enormous monsters that will probably kill you. The trailer also taunted players who are killed by falling off the cliff-sides, as well.
Commander Keen
By far the strangest announcement of the night, Commander Keen is back as a card-based strategy game for mobile devices. Developed by ZeniMax Online Studios, it stars Billy and Billie, twins and the children of original hero Billy Blaze. It’s free-to-play and clearly designed with a younger audience in mind, and its cartoony art style certainly looks the part. Still, it seems to bear very little resemblance to the original games, and the like-to-dislike ratio the game’s trailer is receiving on YouTube suggests it might not be what fans were hoping to see at E3 2019.
