The biggest announcement came from Todd Howard at Bethesda Studios, which was that Fallout 4 would be arriving in November (11-10-15). Huge news and one that will certainly make consumer wallets a little lighter towards the climax of the holiday season. Warn your significant other and save up those vacation/sick days, boys and girls.
Let’s talk about what Bethesda had to show off.
Doom
Good gravy, folks, the devs at id Software have been working overtime on this one. Lots of nice action was included in the demo. I could tell you that this was a cross between Halo/Gears of War/Call of Duty, but that would be an injustice to a series that has been LONG established prior to those titles; heck it might have fathered a few of those.
(Click for video demo)
Anyway, the environments in this one are alive, active, horrifying and interesting. There is a certain amount of homage paid to the original, as well as some ‘Alien’-esque mannerisms that seemed to bring out the edginess pointing to a survival-action-horror of sorts (nothing you wouldn’t expect). The first level was the Mars space station that showed a bevy of weapons off (shotgun, plasma canons, etc). The graphics engine built for this is shiny and pretty. Great lighting effects mixed with superb particle effects that drive home the badassery of the series.
The level design and depth seemed to be loosey-goosey, which is a great thing. The less linear these days for FPS titles, the better. The main marine jumped his way from platform-to-platform and open areas, dispensing a various amounts of demons along the way. There was a hint of boost jump (kind of what you would find in Destiny), which seemed to help speed up the gameplay a smidge.
The demo was capped with a tour of Hell. Lots of wonderful melee moves (including ripping the heart out of a demon and stuffing it in his mouth) drove home the point that the series looks to be headed in the right direction. More action, less flashlight.
(Click for video demo)
Before the stage was exited, id Software also showed off something called Snapmap, which will allow players to customize their own stage and create their own gameplay rules. PC mod-freaks out there should really love that one.
No release date, sadly.
Dishonored 2
While there wasn’t much here to show off, there was a gorgeous trailer of new protagonist Emily fighting her way mist-fully through several robots in attempt to assassinate what I can only assume is an a-hole. If the trailer was any indicator of what to graphically expect out of the Dishonored world on PC and current generation systems, it’s going to be mind-blowing. The unique art from the first title is very much intact, though the tour of the environments showed a noticeable upgrade on depth and girth of cityscapes.
(Click for trailer)
Before the short Dishonored presentation wrapped, Arkane Studio reps announced a definitive edition of the original title. If you haven’t tried it before, folks, you need to grab that edition while you can. It’s a damn fine game.
Much like Doom, there was no release date announced.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
While we are still reviewing the PlayStation 4 version of the game, we were happy to see the title is getting some DLC expansions into the Imperial City and into an orc town in 2015. Anytime you can expand an MMO, you’re doing things right (See Destiny for Details).
Shortly after the ESO announcement, Pete Hines, who is the Vice President of Marketing/PR for Bethesda, revealed a digital card game called The Elder Scrolls Legends. There was no demo, sadly.
Fallout 4
This capped the night off for Bethesda, as Todd Howard walked out onto the stage and gave some hints on what’s to come. Howard showed off the customization of Fallout 4 and how creating your own character is truly customizing to its fullest. He showed how to customize the male character in the game, and then showed how to customize the optional female character (yay!).
Howard then moved into the story and how it shows off pre-apocalypse plot points that transitioned nicely into the post-apocalyptic world, though he didn’t give much away in terms of spoilers. The demo moved out into the environment a bit, showing the girth and depth of the world that Bethesda Studios built. What most impressed me was how the landscape seemed endless. I know that previous Fallout games showed that to an extent, but not like this. You had broken down roads, rundown trees and active wildlife that just stretched and stretched into the doomed world. Add dynamic lighting to the mix and a big taste for intricate details and this seems like a game someone could get lost in quickly. Loved the textures in the environment. I can’t say enough about it (though, I will).
The demo shifted gears into crafting buildings and setting up home base for your character out of parts/scraps laying around. This was a huge deal during the demo and I can completely see why. The that you can build a house from parts lying around, entice traveling sales people to set up shop in your backyard, as well as build (and wire) devices to protect/light/electrify your homestead is absolutely brilliant. The amount of insane detail put together for the crafting is incredible, and I might actually have to enjoy the fun of crafting for once.
The demo wrapped up with weapon customization and how you have 50 base weapons with over 700 modifications that can be made to them. The demonstration ended with a nice bit of pleasant music mixed with destructive gameplay in huge/lively set of environments.
This game looked amazing, readers.
As the demo finally came to an end, Howard mentioned a mobile app out now called Fallout Shelter, a free to play game that put you into a vault as overseer to raise and cultivate your inhabitants. He also mentioned that there is a Fallout Pip-Boy companion app for the wearable Pip-Boy included with the Pip-Boy Edition of Fallout 4 (how many times can I say that phrase). Very cool stuff and a great way to conclude Bethesda’s first show.
{media load=media,id=3332,width=720,align=center,display=inline}
Can’t wait to see Fallout in action in November.