June 11, 2017, 9:00 PM PT
L.A. Center Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Skyrim
Years may have gone by, but Skyrim is still one of Bethesda's most reliable properties, and it's no surprise that it showed up at the Bethesda show in the form of Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch, the first-ever Bethesda game on a Nintendo console. It looks to be a straightforward port of Skyrim, with the addition of Amiibo support to allow players to equip Nintendo-themed gear. The example in the trailer was a chest that gave the player Legend of Zelda-themed equipment, including the Master Sword.
Creator's Club
Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 will also be getting access to the new Creator's Club. This will be a series of Bethesda-curated and -sourced add-ons for both games, which can be obtained by spending special credits that are purchased by players. From the trailer, it's unclear how this is different from traditional mods, but it looks to be an expansion of the mod add-ons for both games.
VR
While word on VR support has been fairly quiet on the ground this year, Bethesda announced VR support for two titles. Doom VFR is a new Doom title designed exclusively for VR. It will feature a teleporting movement and otherwise seems based around Doom's signature frantic high-octane action. Fallout 4 VR looks to be a straight VR port of the game designed with some mechanical changes that allow you to play through the entire game in full VR.
Elder Scrolls
There were no new Elder Scrolls games announced this year, but we saw two bits of content. The first is an expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online, which will allow players to return to Morrowind, the fan-favorite location featured in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. This expansion is already available, so it was not a huge surprise.
The other is The Elder Scrolls Legends, which will be getting a Skyrim-themed add-on appropriately called Heroes of Skyrim. We didn't get to see much of what this entails, but the teaser showed a ton of familiar monsters and creatures from the classic, ending on a pan on the Dragonborn.
Dishonored
Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Dishonored 2 will also be getting a DLC expansion pack featuring Daud, the crown-killer and protagonist of the original Dishonored's DLC expansion. The trailer showed Billie Lurk, who played a major role in Dishonored 2, performing a series of technologically enhanced takedowns to rescue Daud from an unknown group of men. It ends with a stinger: Their target is the Outsider, the godlike force responsible for giving out superpowers in the Dishonored universe. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider will hit later this year.
The Evil Within 2
The bigger surprise of the night was the reveal of Shinji Mikari's The Evil Within 2. The original was Mikami's attempt to follow up Resident Evil 4 with a more overtly horror-themed game but was met with some mixed success. The Evil Within 2's trailer was rather light on information, focusing instead on an almost Silent Hill-like mix of trippy visuals detailing the story of a father looking for his missing daughter. The gameplay clips we saw looked more action-packed than the original, though it's hard to tell due to the wild mix of gameplay. Appropriately, it will be releasing on Friday the 13th in October of this year.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
The final reveal of the show was Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Players will be returned to the shoes of an increasingly aging BJ Blazkowicz. He still lives in a hellish alt-timeline where Nazis won World War II due to their incredible technology and have taken over America. Blazkowicz discovers that he has a pair of twins on the way, and begins to set up a revolution so they don't have to grow up in a Nazi-run world. The game largely involves explosions, dual-wielding weapons, and plenty of brutality. In addition, a younger version of Blazkowicz will appear in Quake Champions as a character and retains his trademark ability to wield two guns at once.
All in all, Bethesda had a fairly quiet show this year, but every game mentioned at the show is either out or will be out before the end of the year. There aren't any long-off 2018 or 2019 release dates, like so many other games this year. It seems like this year is a breather for Bethesda after the past two action-packed years, but there's still plenty coming out to keep fans happy.