Posted in: Games, Movies, Video Games | Tagged: Betheda, e3, entertainment, Fallout 4, video games

Out Of The Vault – Bethesda At E3

By Phil Harris

Bethesda took the opportunity to gazump the whole E3 press conference game by kicking off on the evening before the show officially launched; cleverly circumventing the rehash of game-play videos which will doubtless appear in the Microsoft, Sony and PC press conferences. Of note is that this was Bethesda's first outing at E3 and the bold way that they grabbed the whole Expo "by the horns" is something you feel which will cause all other parties involved to ask their marketing departments; "Hey. Why didn't we think of that?"

They kept the best until last and Fallout 4 was given pride of place at the end, with an enormous amount of content on show. How were they so confident to do this? Well most probably because whilst keeping the development very hush, hush over the past few years they are clearly entering the post-production stage and happy to announce a launch date of November 11^th for the title.

It would be remiss to fail to mention how amazing the game was looking on screen and how much love the team at Bethesda place on their own product. We not only saw but understood that the adventure would start before you even entered the vault, watching the "World on Fire" players of the game will be so familiar with being told, they don't want to see. Your new companion, the dog, was given plenty of screen time and added to the excitement of all that could be seen but every time they seemed to slow down they simply threw more content up on the screen.

A massively customisable weapon system was unveiled, crafting tools to build your own personal home and the integration of power systems so you could defend places you call home against attacks were just some of what was on show. A redesigned PIP-Boy also added to the player engagement with those purchasing the premium copies of the title getting a model of one you could strap onto your arm and totally geek out in public with – it can hold your phone with its very own PIP-Boy app.

For those who couldn't wait for the launch there was also Fallout Shelter for the iPhone, beautifully rendered in the popular style of the in-game cartoons and designs, and this in itself was a complete and free game. The idea behind this allowing the player to run their very own vault, populate it and even get their population to have children to keep the vault up and running. In fact, Fallout 4 has a real possibility of stealing E3 before it has even started and certainly stole the thunder from anything shown earlier in the press briefing.

Of those things we'll pass quickly over Bethesda.net, a "home for all things Bethesda", as it simply amalgamates what online gamers have been doing for years under Bethesda's own banner and also drift past Battlecry, which felt like a tech demo for said product and had little character of its own. We'll also move quickly on from The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited which uses Bethesda.net and was presented with a brief show-reel of what to expect followed by a video from the development team, feeling like a last desperate call from Mars in Doom, explaining they couldn't be with us because of all the online support they were providing – possibly due to the server issues that are occurring across PS4 and Xbox One.

Speaking of Doom, Marty Stratton, Executive Producer for id Software, introduced Doom – the second graphical reworking of the franchise since Doom 3 failed to really deliver what many had wanted as a sequel to the eponymous Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 64 (yes, it does exist). Whilst Marty started well, talking to the crowd of the cultural influence of Doom he also said;

"The foundation of any Doom experience past or present is unquestionably combat, which is centred around three things; bad ass demons, big f-ing guns and moving really fast."

Is it Marty… is it really? Because Doom 3 had that in droves and was an unsatisfying experience on the whole, as id seems to have forgotten that one of players (nee – my personal) favourite things was the clever level design, often revealing a hidden prize you needed to calculate how to reach, or find a key behind a subtle piece of hidden wall or take a lift into a room that trapped you in a desperate firefight that you felt proud to defeat.

What we saw however seemed like a blunt edged hammer being used where a sword would do. The gameplay looked energetic and exciting there was nothing that made it stand out from the other First Person Shooter experience out there and, whilst we appreciate that this is a show-reel, the point remains that no-one at the studio has pinned down what made the original so great, and makes its initial incarnations so re-playable even today. Time will tell however and with a release date of 2016 there is still lots of time to create exciting and engaging gameplay.

The other major announcement of the event was Dishonoured 2, a game which was the cultural successor of the original Thief games. Whilst no release date was forthcoming there was in-game footage which showed both male and female protagonists available to play and the game was set in the same world. A sequel to the original with the predictable remake of the original Dishonoured game for the latest consoles available soon, so players who had missed out the first time could catch up with the plot.

Personally I felt the first game had failings, including the Blink skill which made everything impossibly easy and thus quite dull but if they iron out the balance the rich world they created definitely has possibilities and the opportunities of developing new skills and powers is always one that adds to game play fun. It is interesting that the game sits as a direct sequel because not everyone I knew finished the original game – but let's suppose that's what the reduxed original will do.

All in all we were here for Fallout 4 and weren't disappointed with what we were shown or the launch date named. The rest of the products are much more a wait and see.

Phil Harris (@PhilipGHarris) is a games developer and writer currently working with One Thumb Mobile on their MMORPG Celtic Heroes. He also created Zentorii, helped design Nevistech's Pet Roulette for Android devices and is the story writer for Blazing Griffin's new space strategy game Distant Star: Revenant Fleet. To read more about Phil check out his profile on Indie Teamup.

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