QuakeCon 2016: Bethesda

Posted on 05 Aug 2016 by
L Coulsen

Not content with showing off their skills at this year’s E3, Bethesda have gone into full blown tease mode. Not least because so much of QuakeCon 2016’s revelations has been done behind closed doors. Leaving those on the outside looking in, with some tantalising snippets of awesome to wet our appetites. Of course, all of it will make its way into the public eye in due time, but for now, we’re left twiddling our thumbs, poring over the snippets Bethesda had deigned to trickle down from on high.

VR

Like everyone else, Bethesda are embracing the new advancements in VR tech. With Fallout 4 coming to the HTC Vive in 2017, they were keen to show this off again. Along with DOOM, both games had a demo available for people to play around with. Expect more details on both to filter out over the next few days.

Fallout Shelter

Almost certainly set to cooincide with the recent PC release, you happy Overseers have a whole slew of new features to brighten up your Vaults. In the game’s biggest update yet, there are new enemies, new items and a brand new quest mode allowing you to do more than just send some chappy off to go wandering hither and thither. You can take your dwellers to exotic new locales, scouring the surface for resources in actual quests. There’s also been a rather major overhaul to the combat system. And about bloody time too! The number of times I’ve had a dweller die, because they’re all bunched up in the corner and I can’t give a stimpak to the one that’s actually dying! Urgh.

Prey 2

We’ve already seen a breakdown of the announcement trailer for the Prey reboot. But fear not, that’s far from the only thing we have learned. There’s a short, but rather tasty gameplay teaser now doing the rounds as well. It focuses more on the premise, enhancing the sense of repetition that was present in the first reveal. With the video opening and closing with the same line “I keep having this…dream.” Which, of course, we know is not a dream. Yeah guys, we really are getting a new Prey game! And it looks pretty freakin’ sweet.

The gameplay itself is…well it’s a teaser, so we see very, very little. But we see more than enough to get the juices flowing. It seems to be taken from earlier in development, with animations being a bit wooden at this stage, but hardly insufferably so even if it is representative of the final build. In fact, it could very well be a deliberate design choice to press home the point that poor Morgan is not some ultimate killing machine badass.

Quake Champions

Hearkening back to the heydays of full blown arena combat, Quake Champions is one to keep an eye on. Bringing back everything that has been missing from first person shooters, oft thought lost in the mists of time. It looks beautiful, though don’t expect to have much time to appreciate it. You gonna’ die. A lot. And yes, the rocket-jump is at your disposal. ‘Nuff said.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends

Finally hitting open beta. All one has to do is download the Bethesda launcher and make an account to jump in and try out the next big thing in card battling. Customise yourself a deck of fifty cards from the Elder Scrolls universe and do set about laying the smackdown on your enemies. Boasting some rather advanced, and intriguing, new gameplay mechanics to make Legends a highly strategic test of skill. Featuring a lane based approach, which allows you more indirect methods of dealing with otherwise insurmountable odds. And fear not, even should you find yourself on an endless losing streak, any progress made towards levelling up will not be lost. If you hit rank 5, you stay at rank 5.

DOOM

Meanwhile, back at the barn, by which we mean Hell, you can now face your DOOM in the most tripped out style you could possibly want. With new armour types and customisation options which, yes, includes pearlescent pink. It’s actually quite surprising that DLC for DOOM has taken so long. Less so that it’s purely for the multiplayer. But with the addition of a new Harvester demon and a golf tea taunt, amongst other things, one can be sure that many a marine will be stepping Unto the Evil. Especially since there’s a double XP weekend running until midnight EST on August 8th.

Dishonored 2

Which leaves us with the real star of the show. So put your hands together and welcome back Corvo. Showing off all his old skills, as well as a set of new ones. This latest…was one of the behind closed door reveals, so we only have a description to go off so far. But the gifs are rather tasty, and when coupled with the Emily gameplay from E3 we can be certain that it will be worth the wait.

So that wraps up day one, but keep your eyes open, because this is far from everything. There are already bits and pieces coming out about Shadow Warrior 2 and Strafe. And all those hidden presentations that have yet to be, ahh, haven’t accidentally fallen onto the internet yet.

Comments (1)


Posts: 349
L Coulsen
Posted 06 Aug 2016, 13:27
You know, I'm not usually much for Bethesda. But there's a lot coming from them that has my attention