This year’s E3 begins with Bethesda’s first E3 show! And boy was it a good one. One of – if not THE – the best E3 conferences I’ve ever seen. So much to talk about. You’ll get plenty of fluff tomorrow so, without further adieu, let’s get right to it. You can watch the video here.

 

Rest assured, if you want to shoot demons, Id Software has you covered. Bethesda’s conference kicked off with a gameplay sequence showing Doom‘s classically extensive arsenal of lovingly detailed big fucking guns. Taking a departure from the horror theme of previous Dooms, this game’s gore is almost slapstick. Stunning enemies with gunfire causes them to glow, signaling that you can use a finisher to rip, chop, crush and eviscerate a demon, whereupon they erupt in a shower of health and ammo pickups. Stunning and executing enemies to make sure you never run out of ammo looks very satisfying. We also see parkour! You can quickly pull yourself up onto ledges, and even double-jump.

Then we took a look at Doom’s multiplayer. Wouldn’t be Doom without it. Powerups and explosions abound. One player hops into a mech and bombards others with mounted railguns while flying above. Then Bethesda dropped a surprise on us. Doom’s multiplayer will take advantage of their new player-generated content engine called Snapmap.

Game logic, environments, match rules, enemies, weapons, and everything you can think of are fully customizable in an intuitive GUI. I cannot begin to describe how extensive this feature is – it would be the entire article. And your creations can be instantly shared. Holy crap, right?

Next up is Battlecry. Bethesda is now accepting signups for the beta at https://battlecrythegame.com! Register before June 18th for bonuses! A brief trailer was shown detailing Battlecry’s newest faction: The Han Republic. New classes include the Brawler, Enforcer, Infiltrator, Ranger and Gadgeteer.

Next we saw a prerendered trailer for Dishonored 2. The sequel takes place in Carnaca, a province in the Empire of the Isles, after the throne has been seized by an “otherworldly usurper”. Everything in the game looks amazingly beautiful. At the beginning of the game, you choose to play as either Corvo or Emily Caldwin each in their own campaign and with unique powers. While Corvo’s powers are about subterfuge and stealth, Emily’s powers seem more about aggressive mobility. She can grapple and pull herself to a distant spot with Far Reach, and turn into a clawed smoky creature to pass through narrow spaces while time slows around her. In the trailer, Emily combats saber-wielding clockwork robots with Corvo’s sword on her way to assassinate her mark in his palatial estate.

Remember rats? They fly now.

While the Zenimax devs were not present at the show due to being super busy, they prepared a brief trailer for new content coming to Elder Scrolls Online this year. New regions were shown, including the fallen Imperial City; and Orsinium, Realm of the Orcs. The last thing we saw on-screen was a parchment with a black handprint, with the words “We know” scrawled below. We know what that means! Also, bear mounts. Enough said.

What’s that? More Elder Scrolls, you say? Funny you should ask! Bethesda has yet to divulge details, but they announced a new strategy card game called The Elder Scrolls: Legends!

We’re almost there. But before we get to the main event, let’s discuss Fallout Shelter, the new mobile game Bethesda has been considering since 2007. As the Overseer, you oversee your own Vault full of residents in a 2D resource management game. Todd Howard cites inspirations such as Sim City, XCOM, FTL and Progress Quest (lol). Vault dwellers have various traits which improve by using the Vault’s educational and recreational facilities, and by venturing into the wasteland in search of resources beyond your sight. They’ll bring back random loot to empower your other peons. Dwellers may be called on to defend the Vault against threats such as accidental fires and hostile outsiders. The game is already out so find it on the app store.

Now, the game you’ve been waiting for: Fallout 4. After a staggering wealth of concept art, we were shown part of the game’s intro sequence. It begins pre-war, in a pleasant Boston suburb. Character creation occurs with your character looking into their bathroom mirror. When you switch genders, the character’s spouse takes their place at the mirror. Character creation contains no sliders: simply select facial features with a cursor to change and deform. Afterward, stroll around your home, meet your infant whose appearance Howard says is generated based on the traits of the couple you created. A statesman knocks on your door and provides starting stat distribution in the form of an Apocalypse Preparedness speech, then he eats door. Grr, those annoying public representatives! Things quickly turn sour, and after the bombs drop, you emerge alone from Vault 111 two-hundred years later.

Immediately, the world is open in all directions. This is the biggest and most detailed world Bethesda has ever made. The graphics are a massive step up from Fallout 3. Surprisingly, an NPC addresses the player BY NAME (Todd Howard says this is not scripted; thousands of names have been recorded). Conversation options are assigned to face buttons, and Todd told us we can simply walk away mid-conversation, or even draw and fire. Your canine companion can be given commands by pointing and activating. We see the player indicate an item inside a building, and the dog ran in to retrieve it, then brought it back to the player. VATS no longer stops time, only slows it to about 10%. Molerats provided a demonstration of ragdoll physics, and the ability to trigger or abort the next queued action in VATS.

The Pipboy has received big upgrades. It even has retro arcade games! The Fallout 4 Collector’s Edition comes with a REAL PIPBOY. You can slide your iOS or Android phone into it, and use the FO4 app. Silly? Yes. Cool? Hell yes.

Ready to have your socks blown off? Bethesda then showed us their new crafting system for Fallout 4. All that junk lying around now serves a purpose. Dismantle a tin can or lamp for raw resources needed to craft weapons and armor or – brace yourself – farms, generators, power lines; powered machines such as turrets, street lights, control terminals; structures such as houses, forts, barricades; all in a snap-to creation mode, in real-time. I DON’T EVEN.

NPCs will flock to your community as you build it, including traders with rare and powerful items. You can establish caravan routes. Raiders are attracted to your settlement, necessitating defenses.

The possibilities don’t end at home. Weapon and armor customization has been taken to absurd levels. Over 50 base weapons and 700+ interchangeable, craftable mods! Power armor is customizable down to each individual part. The player calls in and boards a helicopter with a mounted minigun and takes a cruise over downtown Boston! Power armor with jetpacks! Hindenburg! Fatman!

When do we get to play it? 10th November 2015. HYPE.

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