E3 2017 Bethesda Press Conference Recap

After EA and Microsoft, it was Bethesda’s turn to awe the public with announcements regarding its IPs. Banking on titles that are already out was their way of approaching things. The series of announcements kicked off with those concerning virtual reality. DOOM VFR and Fallout 4 VR (which will, supposedly allow experiencing the full game with a virtual reality headset) are both said to come out by the end of the year. This was followed by a segment reminding everybody that The Elder Scrolls Online still exists and it just received its Morrowind expansion pack.

Following, we had the announcement of Creation Club which will bring new content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim. “But, Robert, we have mods for that”, I hear you saying, and yes, I totally agree. An in-game browser will allow selecting and purchasing mods by using credits. This will prompt the content to be downloaded to the game. Included, will be content from both devs and community members which boasts compatibility with all saves and addons. The service will be coming this summer to PS4, Xbox One and PC. Digging a bit on the Creation Club website, I found that “credits can be purchased on PSN, Xbox Live and Steam, being transferrable and usable in both games on one platform”. Addressing the question of paid mods, the Creation Club website states the following:

No. Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like. Also, we won’t allow any existing mods to be retrofitted into Creation Club, it must all be original content. Most of the Creation Club content is created internally, some with external partners who have worked on our games, and some by external Creators. All the content is approved, curated, and taken through the full internal dev cycle; including localization, polishing, and testing. This also guarantees that all content works together. We’ve looked at many ways to do “paid mods”, and the problems outweigh the benefits. We’ve encountered many of those issues before. But, there’s a constant demand from our fans to add more official high quality content to our games, and while we are able to create a lot of it, we think many in our community have the talent to work directly with us and create some amazing new things.

So, the answer to the question is “No, they’re not paid mods, but they’re mods you’re paying for”. Leaving the potential transformation of Bethesda into the industry’s version of a Cacodemon aside for a moment, this seems to be a way to add some more polished mod-like content to their titles. Mods don’t always come with lots of localization options and bugs end up being stomped even years after they are out. That’s not to say that full-priced games aren’t the same, in this regard, I’m just trying to make sense of this. So, to a certain extent, yes, Bethesda seems to be pushing for paid mods of some description. It’s worth noting that going through Creation Club won’t be necessary in order to create mods, so, free mods should be safe. It will, indeed be interesting to see how this will develop going further. You can check the FAQ on the Creation Club website.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends will receive its first expansion pack. Dubbed Heroes of Skyrim, it will arrive later this month on the 29th of June. Have a look at the Heroes of Skyrim Announcement Trailer. The Chaos Arena, Dark Brohterhood Story content and in-game tournaments are also coming next month to Android and Iphone. If you happen to own a Nintendo Switch, you’ll be able to play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sometime in the future. Furthermore, last year’s Dishonored 2 will receive a new DLC. Billie Lurk and Daud return in Death of the Outsider, coming out on the 15th of September. In case you haven’t caught on yet, they totally want to bring about the death of the, y’know, Outsider.

Quake Champions received a trailer reaffirming its focus on E-sports. B.J Blazkowicz will be a playable champion. The Quake World Championships were announced to take place on the 26th of August, at QuakeCon in Dallas, Texas. The prize pool will consist of one whole millon dollars. I think I could buy a fairly large bagel with that. The Evil Within 2 will put us in the shoes of Sebastian Castellanos once more. Taking place 3 years after the events of the first game, it will be centered around Sebastian’s search for his daughter who was presumed dead. The title will launch on October 13th 2017 (yup, it’s a Friday). Have a look at The Evil Within 2 in its announcement trailer.

The announcement of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus closed the Bethesda conference. Set after the events of The New Order, killing General Deathshead wasn’t enough to free the world of Nazi control. Set in the 60s, we see a B.J. Blazkowicz that’s soon going to be a father, which confirms that for all its mayhem, the rebooted series is also taking more mature, serious tones (something we saw with The New Order as well). However, that shouldn’t scare you off, as the protagonist is still double wielding machine guns. This time, in fact, there’s also killing Nazis while in a wheelchair and riding a robot dog that spits fire. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is set to come out on October 27th. Check out the Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus trailer which goes for some 8 minutes.

Bethesda’s conference was perhaps a bit too reliant on its Fallouts and Skyrims. While the Dishonored 2 DLC does sound cool, at least on paper, most of the things presented came off as underwhelming. There’s a chance the Creation Club will rile people up and any further information on it will be of utmost interest. I quite enjoyed my time with Wolfenstein: The New Order and, by all means, the trailer for The New Colossus was my favorite bit of the conference. What did you think of Bethesda’s presence at E3 this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Bogdan Robert, NoobFeed
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