Perhaps its just me, but was this the first E3 in years that mattered? Perhaps in years past big news happened for console plebs, but this year a lot of big announcements happened for the master race. The biggest two for me are the details about Fallout76, and the announcement of Elder Scrolls 6.
The ES6 announcement is important for two reasons. One, it finally puts to rest the idea that since ESO exists, we can’t have a real ES game. Two, I think the fact that it was announced means ES6 is further along than most are predicting right now. Not this year of course, but it would not shock me if we see ES6 in 2019. Bethesda traditionally doesn’t do the whole ‘announce game, release in 5 years’ bit.
I’m thrilled about the info we got for Fallout76. I’m glad that ‘leak’ about the game being Fallout ARK was wrong. I’m glad Fallout76 is a ‘real’ Fallout game. And I think I get where the multiplayer thing is going. In all Fallout games, you always had a companion, right? I think (hope) that the twist here is rather than an NPC companion, the game is designed around your companions (now more than one) being real people. I’m perfectly fine with that, for a number of reasons.
They stated you can play solo, which means content isn’t hard-coded to be played with others. That’s good. They also said the game doesn’t support hundreds of players, so there won’t be a focus on content designed for a large number of people. That’s also good and more along the lines of traditional Fallout content. They didn’t say if PvP was in the game at all, but I suspect it might be a ‘tacked on’ feature for people who want to enable it, which itself might be worth messing around with if the basebuilding and shooting gameplay are improved over Fallout 4.
Right now I expect that Fallout76 will be a game that I will enjoy solo, and potentially also play it co-op with a friend or the wife (we have been looking for a game to play together for a long time now). I’m debating getting the collectors edition too. That glow-in-the-dark map is pretty sweet, and I do have some shelf space for that helmet…
Hardcore Casual 
Bethesda acknowledging they are working on ECMAScript 6 was enough for this E3 to “matter” to me too. Now if only they had pulled off a stunt like they did that one time when they released the game immediately after announcing it… What game was that, anyway?
Fallout Shelter? They basically did that again with Shelter being released to the Switch (I think) that night.
Also Fallout 4 was announced and released in the same year. I remember that one because Tobold and I had a friendly flame war over it.
I am seeing a November 14th release date. That is very quick compared to the time for most games between announcement and release.
Did we watch the same presentation? Todd Howard (and official press materials) state that every surviving human in the game is a player. As in, zero human NPCs. There will be plenty of Ghouls, Mutants, Robots, etc, to fight, but that is really no different than dinosaurs in ARK. It also calls into question the nature of the quests and story in this game without human NPCs. And while they did state that you can play the game solo, that doesn’t necessarily mean “alone.” Did you miss the Always Online statement set to (fake) cheering?
If you can create private servers, then fantastic, I’m back aboard the hype train. Mostly. Because the whole “every human is a player” completely obliterates the notion that this is a “real Fallout” game from a quest sense, even if it makes lore sense (given Vault 76 is the first to open).
The gameplay videos themselves specifically showcased PvP and players killing other players too. I’d honestly be surprised at this point if you were allowed to disable PvP at all. This doesn’t seem like a world that is actually playable solo. Todd even said that while you can, it won’t be easy.
What video showed PvP? The one I saw only showed grouped players fighting NPCs.
Based on how the victor got caps automatically, and Howard’s statement about “softcore survival,” it may not be a full-loot situation (the “no loss of progression” could just mean no losing XP/states/blueprints). Still, the whole focus on getting nukes and potentially nuking peoples’ bases specifically, makes no particular sense in a non-PvP way. Will that be disabled in a PvE server somehow? I’m imagining that the nukes themselves will be the Fallout 76 endgame ala summoning bosses in ARK.
My view of the nukes is they convert an area into a higher tier one, with stronger enemies but new resources. I guess you could nuke another player settlement if playing PvP, but I can also see it being used in PvE to ‘progress’ the map forward.
I guess the big question I have now is if the game is meant to be played start-to-finish like a traditional RPG, or if its the ARK model, where character progression isn’t directly tied to the ‘map’ you are currently playing and building on. The latter would kinda damper my enthusiasm for the game.
Holy hell that trailer/gameplay vid was hilarious!! I still have no idea what the heck this game is but totally respect Todd Howard and friends no punches pulled macabre sense of humor 😂
Yea the no humans part is interesting, because if the world does have traditional Fallout stories and quests, are they all told in different ways (my guess), or is all ‘questing’ content just radiant-style filler stuff. If its the second people will rightfully be pissed, but i think Bethesda would know that and not set itself up for the outrage.
As for the always-online, my guess is its similar to Diablo 3; you can fully play solo, you just have to log in first. I’m fine with that. It would be hugely misleading if what they meant by ‘you can solo’ is that quests can be completed by one person, but that you are always forced to be in the same world as other players.
The plan was always to continue the ES series. You knew Warcraft was dead once WoW took off. However right off the bat, ESO was announced as a prequel in the far distant past, comparable to KOTOR vs canon Star Wars. That was an obvious move to not interfere with the main games and allow Bethesda proper to continue the single player series. There was extremely subtle shade thrown by Todd last night ignoring ESO’s existence when talking about Fallout 76. It’s easy to put the pieces together.