STACK July 2017 Issue 153

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B

ethesda left its mark on E3 2017 with

a 45 minute press conference followed

by a considerable set from New York

producer duo The Chainsmokers.

This year was dubbed Bethesdaland, and the

conference truly was a theme park in every form

of the phrase. As soon as you walked through

the gates there was free popcorn, pretzels

and fairy floss as far as the eye could see, and

each section of the park was divided into a

franchise-themed setup, from DOOM to Prey

and everything in between.

There was a Ferris wheel, a giant Vault Boy

statue, and a looming Revenant presiding over

passers by. They were handing out Nuka Cola

Quantum, beer steins, pins, badges… hell, they

were even making balloon animals.

Bethesda's brief conference (held outside,

standing room only) heralded only two

appearances from Father Pete, and only two

huge new titles. Skyrim was shown to have

motion controls on the Switch, as well as amiibo

compatibility to some degree, but the VR wasn’t

actually announced until the Sony conference.

Aside from that, there was an announcement

for

Elder Scrolls Legends

, and Bethesda

reminded us that

DOOM

and

Fallout

are both

getting VR releases – hopefully before the end of

the year. In saying that, I managed to get hands-

on with DOOM VFR at Quake Con last year, and

it was outrageously fun.

One potentially exciting announcement

was the reveal of the Creation Club. Similar to

Bethesda bringing mods to consoles for the

first time, the Creation Club will allow the public

to actually create new weapons and armour

(possibly even more) for use in-game. That’s

pretty cool, and I personally can’t wait to use

Mjolnir against Alduin.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

and

The

Evil Within 2

were the two announcements

Bethesda saved for last. There was also the

reveal of a standalone Dishonored adventure

–

Death of the Outsider

– but not much else is

known about it as yet.

While the media briefing may have been a

little light, the booth was remarkable. A large

portion was taken up by

The Elder Scrolls

Online: Morrowind

, and there were limited VR

booths for

DOOM

,

Fallout

and

Skyrim

. However,

the crowd lines and enthusiasm for the VR

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GAMES

FEATURE

BETHESDA

The EvilWithin 2

Wolfenstein II:The New Colossus

042

JULY

2017

Words

Alesha Kolbe and Paul Jones

Good and evil prevail