The E3 conference in Los Angeles is chugging along, with two major presentations on Sunday June 10. Microsoft announced their plans for PC and XBox, and Bethesda took center stage. I didn’t expect much in the way of cute and colorful for the Switch or mobile, and I proved to be right.
Their show did interest me though, being a recent Skyrim convert, and I wasn’t disappointed: there was a lot of news they brought for that massive immersive world. A little bit was shown for the Elder Scrolls 6, the next brand-new installment in the series. The people in the audience went wild for that, but as I have no idea yet if this will be a Switch title, I’ll curb my enthusiasm for now.
Elder Scrolls goes mobile
It was only last year that the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim landed on the Switch, making it possible to take the game with you wherever you go. Surprisingly, Bethesda announced a new way to experience the adventure game on-to-go with Elder Scrolls Blades.
Bethesda’s Todd Howard introduced the game tonight, describing it as “a pure Elder Scrolls game” and “a massive first-person RPG with console quality graphics.” It features touch-screen combat in crafted and procedurally generated dungeons, as well as outdoor arenas. Players can battle enemies in melee as well as using range abilities and spells.
Leveling up and character creation is part of the game. The Blades are the empire’s top agents forced into exile. You can play it in several modes: Abyss is a roguelike in which players fight for as long as they can. Arena features one-on-one battles against other players. I’m not sure if any of those modes will be my strong point.
But what interested me the most is The Town: a hub for story and quests. In the game,The Town has been destroyed. But a building mode allows players to rebuild, upgrade and decorate individual elements. In turn, this unlocks new NPCs and quests. Players can also visit their friends’ towns.
Now, doesn’t that sound good? The mobile game can be played in portrait mode as well as landscape. Check out the trailer that was shown:
Skyrim can be played on just about anything
I always like it when a company has the ability to make some fun of themselves. You might have noticed The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is available on any kind of console now since it was first released in 2011. Bethesda noticed too, and mad this funny video clip.
Fallout Shelter now on Switch too
The Switch gets another interesting Bethesda game: as off today, Fallout Shelter is available. This free to play mobile game from 2011 is now a free download on the Switch! Of course, there are in-game items to buy, but downloading it and trying to see if you like it doesn’t cost a penny.
In the game, you are in control of the underground Vault where you have to keep your Dwellers happy and protect them from the dangers of the Wasteland. It’s a management game where you chose the kind of rooms that fit various Dwellers best, find the right jobs for them. And by turning worthless junk into useful items, you can change things around.
You can even play matchmaker, and explore the wasteland to find some loot. I don’t know about you, but i’m going to give this one a try! 
I never cared much for Fallout Shelter on the iPhone/Android, but I think the game is right at home on the Switch. I never like F2P games, as the line between what’s truly free and what is designed to make you part with your money is always painfully obvious. However, Shelters has had a few years to mature and it’s easy to jump right in and play for a bit! Load times are very quick too, I tried it this morning on the bus 🙂
Blades looks really neat – I really admire the fact that they are allowing portrait mode. From a development perspective that sounds like a huge pain but one handed playing is solid when a lot of cell phones are still pretty small.
Overall, some great stuff from Bethesda. I’m so excited for this E3, more so than any in recent years!
I did try it at one time on mobile, but I guess you have to be in the mood for it. I’m going to give Shelter another try. About the F2P: if a game is good I don’t mind spending some cash on it in-game. If I had bought the full game, I would have spent money too!
What did you think about the rest of the E3?
Oh I’ve spent some cash on games, of course! Jeez I probably spent like $200 on the Badge Arcade over a 6 month span before I quit… I suppose I’m more comfortable spending money on gambling, and not to make the game tolerable, know what I mean?
Overall, E3 was uh… interesting. 90% of what I liked was the physical copies that LimitedRun are putting out. And all of those games already exist! Hah, Bethesda had some cool news but we won’t see most of those titles for a year at least, some of them probably more.
Nintendo let me down big time and apparently I’m not alone in thing that!