When Nintendo used The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to tease it's new hybrid portable game console, a lot of us were left confused. Sure, portable Skyrim sounds great, but is it enough to get gamers to buy the game for a second, or even third time? No? How about if Bethesda throws in support for motion controls, Amiibo and adds in the Master Sword?
VR is all the rage these days and Bethesda is bringing two of its popular games to the medium in 2017. One of those is Fallout 4, and the title is making the leap to HTC Vive this fall. At E3 last year, Bathesda revealed that both Fallout and Doom would soon be available in virtual reality and now we know when to expect at least one of them.
Details are still scarce for now, but what we do know is Fallout 4 VR is set to hit that virtual reality headset in October. We'll add more details here as they're announced, so stay tuned. Who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to play the new version here at E3 2017 later this week. For now, watch the Fallout 4 VR trailer down below.
The Evil Within 2 exists and you'll be able to play it across Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 13th -- Friday the 13th, that is. The series comes from Shinji Mikami, the director of the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4, the latter of which is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time, horror or otherwise.
A mere two years ago, Bethesda was in the E3 driver's seat. Its initial E3 press conference was also the earliest of 2015, meaning that its Sunday night event was the one to kick off the week's festivities.
My how things have changed. This year, Bethesda's annual Sunday evening presser is the third of the year. EA and Xbox already took their turns. The thunder has been stolen.
With a good showing, Bethesda can recapture that thunder. It's an interesting year for Bethesda, as Quake Champions is basically the only announced game that hasn't been released yet (along with the Skyrim port for Switch). There's an hour to fill and we know very little about what's certain to be shown.
It's late at night (especially for anyone who's not on the west coast), but stay up a little later with us and see what Bethesda's bringing to the table. This press conference kicks off at 9pm Pacific, 30 minutes after this post goes live. Hit the comments with all your reactions and joking off.
When it comes to E3 press conferences, Bethesda is kind of a wild card. The company is the steward to iconic franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Dishonored and Doom, but it's press conference is often something of a surprise. The company has a habit or reviving old franchises unexpectedly, or releasing games just months after their public announcement. It's almost best to avoid predicting what the company is going to announce and just sit back and enjoy the show. So, where we are -- welcome to the Bethesda E3 press conference! You'll find the company's livestream embedded right here on this post, as well as on YouTube and Twitch.
Watch live video from Bethesda on www.twitch.tv
Excited for the show? Let us know what you're looking forward to in the comments below.
The first big, big, big E3 2017 press conference has come and gone. I'm choosing not to count EA because I've already forgotten what was there. Something about a Madden story mode and Battlefront II looking like how Battlefront should've in the first place. Meanwhile, Microsoft has finally stopped cockteasing the Scorpio -- or, Xbox One X -- price and admitted its the $500 we expected. Yikes. Yikes.
On the other hand this is probably the best Microsoft E3 conference in my six plus years at Destructoid! They pulled a Sony and just went games games games bleeding into one another. No one tried to sell me a subscription media service. There wasn't even any focus on sports games (not counting their exclusive, Forza Motorsport). Wow!
On the third hand, a lot of the games were known (EA understandably teased Anthem the day before) or not exclusive. Plus with Microsoft's few, full exclusives all are playable on Windows, which kind of undercuts their exclusivity if you have a PC (and could undercut the point of an Xbox One X). But hell yeah, new Metro! And a Cuphead release date, holy shit! Not a bad showing.
I've honestly never heard of Mixer before. When Microsoft was hocking it during their E3 conference, I thought it was some weird dating app geared towards gamers. Apparently it is a livestreaming community made for gaming...so Twitch. Anyway, that vague promise of "freebies" for linking Mixer with your Live account wasn't a bunch of baloney.
If you link your account from today until Friday, you'll get Rare Replay for the low price of nothing. It will be yours to keep, as well. That is a tremendously good deal, even if you happen to not like more than half of the games included with that collection. I don't even own an Xbox One and I'm going to nab this, so that says something.
You are a shadowy Fandom Thief, preparing to pull off the videogame heist of the century. After E3, social media will be abuzz with tales of how you mysteriously altered the course of a major player in the games industry.
Which major player, you ask? That's up to you! Want this year’s Nintendo Direct to focus on Mother 3? Simply change Reggie Fils-Aime's beefy heart to make him see the importance of Lucas's strange, heart-rending adventure. Want Ubisoft to preempt their new IP announcement by canceling Far Cry 5, as penance for its heretical direction? Simply show Yves Guillemot’s inner demons the guillotine, and show him the light.
The rules are thus: much like the heroes of super-stylish cognitive caper Persona 5, you must make your way through your target's mental palace to steal their treasure.
To say that I miss NCAA Football games is a massive understatement. Those games were my respite from classwork in college and continued to be a staple in my library for a few years after. Of course, EA hasn't made a college football game since 2012 after a pricey lawsuit over the use of athletes' likenesses in the franchise. Thankfully, the studio is giving us a new option for amateur football glory this fall via Madden 18's "Longshot" story mode.
We're doing the contest thing again, and this time you get to win a Switch right after E3! Your odds of winning are visible this time: your number of entries out of the total entries submitted below.
How to win: Tell a friend about the site with a verified social media profile using Gleam (terms and conditions) and you're in. Gleam will then draw a winner at random, and I'll announce the winner after E3. Good luck!
When Disney gave Electronic Arts the exclusive gaming rights to Star Wars, the company took the brand almost literally. EA's first take on the Battlefront franchise was little more than a war among the stars -- filled with the sights, sounds and characters of George Lucas' iconic space opera, but completely devoid of story. The end result was a gorgeous title that felt a little incomplete. With Star Wars: Battlefront II, EA is changing that. This time, narrative is key.
Scorpio, like most code names, was too good to live forever. We have the Xbox One X now, a name that savvy internet users immediately noted can be abbreviated to "Xbox." Also, X is the roman numeral for 10, and Microsoft is pretty big on the number 10 right now.
For whatever reason, the Xbox One X isn't available to pre-order yet. You'd think that'd have gone up as soon as the price was announced. Nope. If you're here for that, I just have a page for you to stalk.
However, some of the triple-A games that Microsoft showed off are already available to pre-order on Amazon. It'll be a while before they release, but you can wrap them up now if that's your style.
Here's most of the major stuff from the Xbox presser as listed by Amazon. Note that these prices are without the discount that Prime subscribers get, you just have to add them to your cart to see the savings.
We're having a thing at E3. You should come. RSVP here*
Come have a chillaxing, refreshing, possibly fatal non-dance party drink-up hosted by Destructoid's Editors and the Enthusiast Gaming Network. We're gathering in wrinkled clothing on Monday the 12th at The Golden Gopher, located just five minutes from the Silent Hill Convention Center. *Doors open at 8pm, no list. Bar closes at 2 A.M.
Map and Directions
417 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213) 614-8001
So we can stop calling it the "Scorpio" now. In all of its literature leading up to this moment Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was described as "Scorpio" compatible, but that end today with the announcement of the Xbox One X.
The October 10 bound game (that's also coming to PC and PS4) had another demonstration today, mostly showing off some boss fights, banter, and the domination/nemesis system yet again. It's...all a little too similar for my tastes.
"Beat up boss, hold B, then choose a QTE" isn't the best way to show off Shadow of Mordor, at least not as well as the siege system in its debut trailer. As someone who wasn't the biggest fan of the first, there's plenty of room for improvement.
Today, during the Xbox press conference, EA and BioWare showed off "in-engine" gameplay from new BioWare IP Anthem. The game is a co-op open world RPG, where players team up with their friends to go beyond the walls of an unnamed city to fight robotic enemies.
Anthem has all the hallmarks of a modern shooter RPG: named colored loot, different classes anchored by a decent "all-round" class, and challenging areas that require multiple players. The game will feature exo-suits called "Javelins" that can be customized on a visual and gameplay level, as well as a sick-looking jetpack you can use to fly around the game world.
Sadly, the gameplay trailed lacked any of the BioWare hallmarks, so it's unclear if Anthem will have any kind of dialogue wheel or romance options.
Both PS4 and Xbox One come with at least 500GB of storage, which seems colossal until one realizes each installed game typically takes up 40 to 50 gigabytes. Back in August 2015, hard drive maker Seagate released a 2TB external HDD specifically keyed to both Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Today, they've unveiled a new version that bumps up the space to 8TB and promises to work with every version of Microsoft's current-gen console -- including the upcoming Scorpio.
Source: Seagate
Ready for another look at Anthem? The new game from BioWare was formally announced at EA's press conference yesterday with a short CG trailer. But beyond the setting, a futuristic planet filled with mountains and tropical forests, and the heroes, some armour-clad space soldiers, there was little to glean from the video. Today, at Microsoft's E3 press conference, we've been shown a whole lot more. The first gameplay reveal has the player venturing into the wilderness in search of some workers who have landed themselves in trouble. It's a breathtaking tour of the game's luscious, hostile world, ending in a tense face-off with some aliens.
Well, it didn't have a Final Fantasy VII Remake moment, but I for one enjoyed Microsoft's game-filled E3 conference this year.
Microsoft did what it need to do after touting the Kinect and the "all-in-one entertainment system" angle for so long -- show us games. We got some real exclusives, some timed exclusives, and some 4K/HDR exclusives, but a number of them looked pretty great, and the ID@Xbox program is thriving well enough.
Leave it to Sony or Nintendo to have some sort of blowout announcement though -- they almost always do.
Little over a year since physical copies of the award-winning Ori and the Blind Forest hit stores, and we finally have a sequel. Yep, Ori and the Will of the Wisp looks to be an even more sumptuous two-dimensional platformer, and will arrive with Xbox One X optimizations as well as a 4K option if you have the appropriate hardware. We're hoping it will be a little bit more forgiving than the original -- or maybe that was half of the charm? There's no word yet on release date, but we'll update you when we know more.
The $500 Xbox One X won't just do better at playing new Xbox One games: it will also play some of your old Xbox One games at higher resolution.
"Over 30 titles" are currently slated to get enhanced, 4K updates for the new Xbox One, including: Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct, Halo Wars 2, Minecraft, Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil 7, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and Rocket League. These games will be updated for free.
Ori and the Blind Forest was such a treat and, to date, it remains one of my favorite Xbox One games as a beautiful, challenging, and at times emotional metroidvania title. (It's not too late to play it there or on PC. Go go go!). Just hearing the name of the sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, is enough for me.
This detail-drenched trailer out of E3 2017 sure is nice, too.
"Embark on an all new adventure to discover the mysteries beyond the forest of Nibel, uncover the hidden truths of those lost, and unravel Ori's true destiny."
Will of the Wisps is coming exclusively to Xbox One and Windows 10.
You won't have to spring for new games to take advantage of the Xbox One X's 4K prowess. Microsoft is updating several of its own games to play in 4K on the newer console. In addition to the already-announced Minecraft upgrade, you can expect to see the higher resolution in Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and Halo Wars 2 (what, no Halo 5?). Not surprisingly, all of the updates will be free -- Microsoft wants you to have as many One X-ready titles as possible.
Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!
After bringing 385 Xbox 360 titles to the Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature, Microsoft is going even further back in time. The company announced at E3 today that it'll soon offer original Xbox titles on the Xbox One, as well. That includes Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, one of the console's best titles. Microsoft says it'll share more details when the program officially launches later this year.
While it might seem strange for the company to spend resources bringing over older games, it's a smart way to appease Xbox fans, and it could introduce a whole new generation of gamers to some memorable titles.
If you even casually follow large scale multiplayer shooter games like DayZ and Arma 3, you've probably heard of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. This battle royale game has taken the PC gaming community by storm by remixing the murder-competition gameplay of a popular Arma 3 mod into a fast paced and tense experience -- and the console experience will be available to Xbox One owners first as a launch exclusive. When will PS4 owners get access? It's hard to say: Sony doesn't have a preview program for broken, unfinished games.
As previously rumored throughout the day, the Xbox One X will launch November 7 at $499. The price of the Xbox One S has been dropped by $50.
Two years ago, Microsoft's E3 bombshell was that Xbox 360 backward compatibility was coming to Xbox One. Today, Microsoft turned the clock back a little further.
Xbox head Phil Spencer took the stage again to reveal that backward compatibility is extending to original Xbox titles. The first announced game to be included is 2003's Crimson Skies.
However, that was also the only game to be announced. Xbox committed itself to 360 backward compatibility, and now it has nearly 400 games in the program. Original Xbox titles will probably be shown the same dedication.
The development of Cuphead has been prolonged, to put it mildly (we first saw it back in 2014), but it's finally here... almost. Studio MDHR and Microsoft have announced that the 1930s-style side-scroller will be available for Xbox One and Windows PCs on September 29th. The release date isn't shocking when the developers had already pushed the game to 2017, but it's still a relief for those who've wondered whether the title would ever exist outside of trade show demos. Given the nature of the title, though, it's almost surprising that it's arriving as quickly as it has.
Source: Xbox (Twitter)
Life is Strange was an episodic hit across multiple platforms, and today during Microsoft's E3 2017 press conference we got a first look at developer Dontnod's follow-up: Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Judging by the trailer, it deals with the period when Max left Chloe and, (spoiler alert?) Rachel is there. The first of three episodes will debut August 31st, and since it wasn't announced as a console exclusive, we're guessing it will be available on more than just Xbox.
When Rare teased us with Sea of Thieves last year, it left the release date up in the air. Sure, we knew the game would set us on an adventure across the high seas, but we had no idea when we would set sail on our quest for loot. Now we know. Sort of. Today at E3, the company penned the adventure in for a 2018 release date, naturally exclusive for Xbox One and Windows 10.
Annapurna's foray into the world of video games continues with Ashen, a game set in a ruined world where the player characters look to bring light back to whatever bad situation they've found themselves in.
The game is a multiplayer open-world RPG and has been in development in some form since 2014. Ashen reportedly takes inspiration from The Road, and will feature Dark Souls-esque combat with a stamina system. It's currently set for release on Xbox One, Steam and the Windows Store.
Those rumors of a Life is Strange prequel ended up being true. Surprising absolutely no one, Square Enix showed off Life is Strange: Before the Storm during Microsoft's E3 conference. The biggest takeaway from the trailer was that this won't follow the typical five episode format of most episodic games, but will be chopped down to three.
The game will take a look at Chloe's years without Max before the events of the first game. Whether or not this will dilute the actual impact of the narrative in the original game is yet to be seen, but I guess getting some more HELLA will make us all better people.
The game will be launching on August 31 and will feature Xbox One X enhancements. I'm also sure it will be heading to PC and PS4, since it wasn't listed as a console exclusive.
There's a huge list of indies coming to Xbox One soon. I'm really looking forward to the super cute Ooblets myself, and Dunk Lords so I can dunk on all my buddies. Check out the sizzle reel for a peek at all of these:
Osiris: New Dawn, Raiders of the Broken Planet, Unruly Heroes, Path of Exile, Battlerite, Surviving Mars, Fable Fortune, Observer, Robocraft: infinite, Dunk Lords, Minion Masters, Brawlout, Ooblets, Dark and Light, Strange Brigade, Riverbond, Hello Neighbor, Shift, and Conan Exiles.
Crackdown 3 was a big Microsoft reveal seemingly ages ago with a focus on how "cloud computing" was going to make the game very, uh, cloudy, I guess. Anyways it showed back up at Microsoft's E3 presser, as introduced by Terry Crews, and finally has a release date: November 7, 2017.
It will be exclusive to the Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive, and launches the same day as the new Xbox One X.
