After the absolute shit show that was Fallout ’76 last year, Bethesda have some work to do if they want to get back into the good books of the general public. But will they be able to pull it off? Let’s see…

ELDER SCROLLS: BLADES

I signed up for the beta version of Blades but it wouldn’t work on either my iPhone 6 or my iPad Air so I figured that was the end of that. But the announcement that it’s coming to the Nintendo Switch is very welcome news indeed, and it’s free! Ideal. Good start, Bethesda!

FALLOUT 76

Fallout 76 basically gets an upgrade to make it the game it should have been all along, and it’s getting a Battle Royal mode. They’re spending an awful lot of time on a game that nobody liked. But if it fixes the many problems of the game then maybe it’s not the worst idea. If No Man’s Sky can bounce back, then I suppose Fallout 76 can too.

GHOSTWIRE: TOKYO

I’m not sure what this is but it’s got my attention. Is Thanos somehow responsible? (of course he’s not. I know) Loads of people vanish and then loads of cool shit happens. I’m not sure if this is a sequel or not, but it looks pretty amazing.

ELDER SCROLLS: ONLINE

Half an hour into the conference and there’s only been one new game announced so far (to my knowledge, I wasn’t aware of Ghostwire: Tokyo beforhand if it was). It’s been mostly updates on existing games. Did they need a full conference for this? I mean, it’s a very nice cinematic but the game isn’t going to change all that much from what it is already, surely?

COMMANDER KEEN

So apparently this is a follow up to an early 90’s game I’ve not heard of. The trailer was fun though, very Dexter’s Lab, and I enjoyed the Alien reference. It had my interest until we saw gameplay and found out that it’s a mobile game that doesn’t really offer anything new.

ELDER SCROLLS: LEGENDS

…and yet another update. We’re over halfway now and it’s just been mostly updates and mobile games, and this one is for a mobile card game. You don’t need a conference for this.

RAGE 2

We were shown this at Microsoft’s conference yesterday. I’m still not interested. Oh wait, no we weren’t. It looks just like Bleeding Edge. I’m pretty sure I mentioned how all of these games look the same? Turns out it’s not Bleeding Edge at all, it’s yet another update, this time for Rage 2.

WOLFENSTEIN: CYBERPILOT & YOUNGBLOOD

TOO. MANY. SCI. FI. SHOOTERS. They are coming to the Switch though, which is always nice to hear.

DEATHLOOP

TOO. MANY. SCI. FI. SHOOTERS. This one certainly is very stylish though. Very Grindhouse.

ORION

Not going to lie, I kind of zoned out whilst they were talking about this. But it seemed to show that we could play current gen games on our mobile phones via streaming? They showed off a full working version of Doom 2016 on a mobile phone with an Xbox One controller and it looked pretty great.

DOOM ETERNAL

Anyway, this was followed up by a trailer for Doom Eternal. I mean, it’s a Doom game. If you love Doom then you’re going to love this. Nothing much more to say. It releases on November 22nd for those interested.

SUMMARY

…and, well, that was it. A fairly underwhelming showing from Bethesda. I like the fact I can play Elder Scrolls: Blades on the Nintendo Switch for free, but it’s still essentially just a port of a mobile game. Ghostwire: Tokyo has got my attention, and I’m sure Doom Eternal and Deathloop will have some people very excited. Otherwise it was just updates and DLC. There’s nothing here that I’m particularly interested in personally. I might try the Fallout 76 7 day trial and see what all the (negative) fuss is about.

I’ll be back tonight at 9pm where I’ll live blog through Ubisoft’s showcase. Haven’t really got a clue what they’ll bring to the table. I’d like a new Rayman game (unlikely) or maybe we’ll get to see a new South Park game (again, haven’t got my hopes up). It’ll probably some sort of Assassin’s Creed and a Tom Clancy game or two. I’ve also heard a few things about Roller Champions which sounds intriguing. We’ll see. Join me at 9pm BST.