Here at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles ahead of E3, Bethesda showed off its latest titles to a rowdy audience, highlighting the importance of community.
Senior vice president of marketing Pete Hines took the stage to lead the affairs, promising to "go deep on Doom Eternal."
Todd Howard, head of Bethesda Game Studios, starting the show with Fallout 76, highlighting the game's difficulties and "well-deserved criticism." He then turned it over to other big games. He also confirmed Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 are in development, but didn't show them at the briefing.
Doom Eternal
The flagship game of the briefing was Doom Eternal, which debuted on stage with a hyperviolent trailer with fluid gameplay shooting through hordes of enemies, including one with a light-axe. The game is launching November 22.
Marty Stratton, the executive producer and Hugo Martin, the creative director took the stage. Earth is being consumed by demons, and you have to cross dimensions to fight them off. Those include heaven and the Sentinel homeworld.
Martin praised his game's level design, saying it provides constant new experiences. In a bit of gameplay footage, we saw the Doomslayer breaking down walls, swinging through fire, jumping over pits and, well, you know, shooting demons. There were also some jump scares and bosses in there, including one whom the hero feeds its own eyeball.
In more footage, we saw our hero blasting through demons with a grenade gun and shotgun, sawing one's head and arm off, and poking a spider-brain monster in the eye with its own leg bones.
There's also a multiplayer mode, Battlemode, where two player-controlled demons take on a slayer. Bethesda called it a "first person fighter" that involves strategy for the demons and skill for the slayer.
The collectors' edition includes an actual helmet that you could wear, if you want.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Bethesda is promising that Wolfenstein: Youngblood will be bigger than ever with a bigger story, co-op and plenty of Nazis to slaughter.
Youngblood is set in the 1980s. BJ is missing in action in Paris, and his twin daughters Jess and Soph have to find him.
In the trailer, the two women wear cybernetic suits and hunt Nazis in a bloody rampage with big guns and lots of knives. We saw action set pieces jumping between roofs and on the streets of Paris. The game is coming July 26 on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Orion for Cloud Streaming
Bethesda announced its group of technologies to improve cloud streaming. It called out Stadia and xCloud as platforms that could potentially use it, and suggested it will reduce costs for publishers and gamers, and that it would let gamers stream games at the highest settings.
This technology lets you stream content up to 20 percent faster, per frame, the company said. It can also use 40 percent lower bandwidth. It didn't go deep into how the technology works.
It works at the engine level, so developers should be able to work this into games.
Bethesda showed a phone streaming a version of 2016's Doom on stage at 60 fps without any lag or latency.
Those who want to try can go to slayersclub.com tonight to join the Doom Slayers Club for early access.
Deathloop
Arkane Studios announced its newest action game, Deathloop, calling it "innovative, stylish and different from anything we've ever done before." It features Colt and Juliana, two deadly rivals, in a world where looks can literally kill. It takes place in Black Reef, where Colt wants out but Juliana feels free. Both rivals are after each other and other enemies.
The story seems stuck in a time loop, though it wasn't fully explained. But player actions will change the story. The game has no official release date.
Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot
In Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, you'll use Nazi tech to fight against the Nazis in VR. It's coming in July.
The Elder Scrolls Online
Bethesda revealed new server capacity has been added to the game to support all of the new players.
Zenimax Studios also showed off a trailer for the story line, Elsweyr. It, of course, had dragons. A cat person (yes, a person with a cat head), fought a dragon on horseback until it was knocked off. Then more traditional characters showed up to fight it, and eventually an entire army. (Honestly, the crowd's reaction seemed liked they wanted the dragon to win). An arrow to the heart killed the dragon, and the cat person survives. Happy ending.
The Dragon Guard will be back in the fall story line, Dragonhold. There will be a dungeon DLC called Scalebreaker coming later this year.Rage 2
Rage 2 is getting new features this week. It includes new vehicles, a pilotable mech, new enemies, new gameplay modes and more. The Rise of the Ghosts Expansion will have new areas, new story and new weapons.
Commander Keen
Zenimax isn't just working on the Elder Scrolls Online. It also showed off a new mobile game, Commander Keen.
The game was originated by Id software in the '90s, but is coming to iOS and Android this summer. There are two characters: Billy and Billie, following in their fathers' footsteps. They build gadgets to attack enemies and move through the environment.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
The next game from Tango Gameworks, Ghostwire is an action-adventure game in a city filled with supernatural evil.
Ikumi Nakamura, the game's creative developer, painted it as a mystery. People are vanishing, and you have to find out why.
The trailer, which had no actual gameplay, showed an empty version of Tokyo, with people disappearing and leaving their clothes behind. An empty high-heeled shoe moves up an escalator. Cars are stopped in the streets. Men in umbrellas face an assassin with a bow and arrow in the street. Then things get paranormal, as flowers die and turn into a demon creature, and people in masks show up.
"Don't fear the unknown. Attack it.," our hero says. No release date was announced.
Fallout 76
The Fallout 76 team was big on thanking gamers for growing with them. But they focused on a new expansion, "Wastelanders," to keep the game going. There are human NPCs, which got a huge shout. There's also a new questline, full dialogue trees and more.
"This is a long term story we're telling," the audience was told. Wastelanders will be free for all Fallout 76 players.
There's also a new game mode, Nuclear Winter, a 52-player battle royale mode to be the overseer of the Vault 51. This mode will be free.
Fallout 76 will get a free trial week from June 10 - 17.
Elder Scrolls: Blades
The Elder Scrolls: Blades team is promising a custom jewelry system, a new dragon questline and new arena battles for it's mobile system. And it's available tonight on the App Store and Google Play.
But Blades is also coming to the Nintendo Switch, should you want a more console-style experience. It's coming this fall and will still be free. The game will have motion control and will have cross-platform and cross-progression with the mobile versions.
