STACK #153 Jul 2017

GAMES FEATURE

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BETHESDA

The EvilWithin 2

Words Alesha Kolbe and Paul Jones Good and evil prevail

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

Wolfenstein II:The New Colossus

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

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.

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JULY 2017

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