After scheduling an unusual press conference last year, which many thought was a one-time deal because of the release of Fallout 4, Bethesda once again anchored the Sunday evening slot. With nothing as impactful as last year’s Fallout announcement and release date, the Rockville, Maryland based publisher delivered a more subdued, yet solid briefing. It was impressive to see them handle a year without a big release, especially compared to the EA press conference that preceded it.
Thumbs up:
Skyrim Special Edition
Better looking Skyrim, eh? Sure, I’ll dump another 50-60 hours into it. Remasters, HD upgrades or whatever you want to call them are not a thing that excite me (more on that in a future post), but when a studio does more than make the game look prettier, I’m in. That is exactly what Bethesda is doing with Skyrim: Special Edition. One of the great things about Skyrim was the mods on the PC version of the game, something a console owner, such as myself, only experienced through Youtube. By adding this feature into the game, I’m real close to pre-ordering it. Now if they can guarantee that the Macho Man Dragon mod is included, I will pay whatever they want.
Dishonored 2
While not one of my favorite games, Dishonored was an intriguing title that played to my stealth killing sensibilities. My only real fault with the game is that it was too unforgiving when you were unable to sneak through an entire level, and thus, stopping you from seeing the dynamic difference between the high chaotic and low chaotic final level. Hopefully, Dishonored 2 will either reduce the amount that your chaos rating rises from a lethal kill, or give you more options to retreat from an alert without needing to retry the level. No matter what the final mechanics are at release, one thing is true, this game is beautiful and offer a much different setting from the first game. Here’s hoping this mirrors the increase in quality that the Assassin’s Creed series showed from 1 to 2.
Prey
As a fan of the original Dead Space and Bioshock, a new game in that ilk will always piqué my interest. Almost 10 years after the original Prey was released and two years since Prey 2 was “cancelled”, Bethesda introduced a reboot (?) of the series, and boy does it look disturbing (in a good way). It has all the hallmarks of a game you do not want to play with the lights off, and it will be interesting if they can deliver on the creepiness that the trailer showcases.
Thumbs Down:
Fallout DLC
I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a theme park. With the increased price of the season pass, I was hoping for a more interesting story based DLC. Now, Nuka World could be spectacular, but nothing about its introduction lead me to believe that I need to buy it. Most of the fun will probably come from the contraption and vault-dweller workshop expansions, but the former doesn’t interest me and I played way too much Fallout Shelter for the latter to excite me. Maybe I was expecting too much, but then again, Fallout was one of my top five games of 2015 and I would like even the slightest excuse to play it again, but these titles don’t do that at all.
Moment of the press conference:
“Woo girl” during the Elder Scrolls Online Segment
Honestly, I have no idea why this made me laugh as much as it did, but I was enjoying every over-the-top reaction she gave to this rather mundane segment. My assumption is that it was someone close to ZeniMax’s Matt Firor, who was giving the presentation on Bethesda’s MMO, but I really hope it was some drunk college girl who stumbled into the press conference.
Check out the video.
The Main Damie 