Post-apocalyptic wastelands have never been hotter. Prime Video’s Fallout was not only a huge hit for the studio, it has led to a massive surge of interest in Bethesda’s video games. But unlike its playable counterparts which each feature their own characters and storylines, the show’s second season will stay on the same path. Fallout will continue to follow season one’s main figures when it returns.

Variety‘s new piece about the incredible interest in Fallout video games that has followed the debut of Prime Video’s hit show has some important information about Amazon’s adaptation. Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard said the show won’t continue the video games model of introducing all new characters. Instead the TV series will continue to focus on the stars of season one. That includes its three main characters: Lucy, Maximus, and the Ghoul. But it also means more of Norm and Chet, too.

 Amazon MGM Studios chief Jennifer Salke and head of TV Vernon Sanders recently echoed these sentiments. Salke noted, “We are committed to our journey with our beloved characters. Such a great Season 2 coming…  I saw some of the talk of, is this an anthology? And it does have a lot of doors we can go through, which is the beauty of the IP. But we are fully committed, and we’re all on this journey with the characters that we’ve met and loved in Season 1.”

Sanders meanwhile notes, “I think the fans of Season 1 will really love where we’re going for Season 2.” And adds, “We’ve been fortunate because this was the vision all along. I think we’re ahead of schedule, in terms of being able to get Season 2 back. We don’t have an exact launch date yet, but we’ve already gotten scripts in hand.”

This news isn’t a surprise. It doesn’t mean we won’t see any new faces, either, just that we’re not moving on from the old ones. But it should ensure this post-apocalyptic wasteland stays hot.

Originally published on May 30, 2024.

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We still have a couple of years before we get Mahershala Ali’s Blade film. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any other adventures with everyone’s favorite dhampir that could happen sooner rather than later. The Game Awards 2023 gave gamers lots of announcements to enjoy… almost to the point of being overwhelming. Some of them sparked more joy and curiosity than others, like the Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele horror game collaboration. Another game that fans cannot wait to get their hands on is Marvel’s Blade by Arkane Studios, Xbox, and Bethesda, which we saw in an announcement trailer. 

The clip is short because the game is still in its early stages of development. But it is clear that Marvel’s Blade is taking place in France because, well, we hear French in the trailer. Maybe he will see Daryl Dixon there and they can fight undead beings together. (I am kidding. Sort of. But someone write that fanfic please.)

Here’s the game synopsis of Marvel’s Blade to give you a little more context:

In Marvel’s Blade, Eric Brooks is the legendary Daywalker, half-man, half-vampire torn between the warm society of the living and the rushing power of the undead. From Bethesda and Arkane Lyon, the studio that brought you Dishonored and “DEATHLOOP”, Marvel’s Blade is a mature, single-player, third-person game set in the heart of Paris, now in development in collaboration with Marvel Games.

Very interesting. Arkane pulled a fast one on fans who were sure the announcement would be for Dishonored 3. Sometimes, that “leaked information” is not so solid after all. But I digress…

What Is the Release Date for Marvel’s Blade Video Game?

Of course, we do not know the release date for this game quite yet but at least we know it exists. No matter what, we are totally down to see what horrors the City of Love will offer Blade.

The post MARVEL’S BLADE Game Trailer Teases Eric Brooks’ Daywalking Adventures appeared first on Nerdist.

The show may be virtual this year, but that doesn’t mean E3 2021 isn’t going to be epic. This year, Nerdist has partnered with E3 to bring you first looks, breakdowns, and  analysis for all your gaming news. Make sure you tune into our daily livestreams for commentary from our very own Dan Casey!

Sunday’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase previewed 30 new titles, trailers, and gameplay, 27 of which will be available on the Xbox Game pass. The studios also announced back-to-back monthly releases now through the end of the year, including Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Age of Empires IV, and Psychonauts 2. Plus, Bethesda previewed new games like Starfield and Redfall, which will both be Xbox exclusives.

Bethesda Games

Take a look at the show’s highlights below!

Sea of Thieves:  A Pirate’s Life

Starfield

Bethesda Games’ highly anticipated new open-world RPG takes to space exclusively on Xbox Series X and Windows PC on November 11, 2022.

Back 4 Blood

Contraband

Redfall

Halo Infinite

Psychonauts 2

The Outer Worlds 2

Forza Horizon 5

Slime Rancher 2

Stay tuned this week for more from Nerdist and E3 2021!

Featured Image: Bethesda Games

The post Xbox & Bethesda Preview STARFIELD, HALO INFINITE, and More at E3 2021 appeared first on Nerdist.

This week we learned that future Star Wars games will be published under the new Lucasfilm Games banner. But it didn’t take 12 parsecs for the company to branch out beyond the galaxy far, far away. Today it announced a partnership with Bethesda and MachineGames for another George Lucas creation, Indiana Jones. And it should appeal to movie fans and gamers alike. It will feature an entirely original story, executive produced by one of the game industry’s most beloved figures.

Bethdesda and Lucasfilm announced on Twitter (in news we first heard about at IGN) that they are teaming up with developer MachineGames, the company behind the Wolfenstein franchise since 2014. The Indiana Jones element is reason enough for this to be big news. But gamers will be excited to learn that Todd Howard, the gaming industry icon who led the development for both Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, has signed on as the game’s executive producer.

Paramount Pictures

Movie lovers will also find something here for them. The game won’t be a rehash of any of the four films, or even The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (though that would be awesome). It will feature an entirely new, wholly original story for gamers to make their way through. While details are scarce, the game will take place at “the height of the career of the famed adventurer.” Which means characters from the original three films could return.

We don’t know when the game will debut or even go into production. Or whether or not Harrison Ford will be involved. But there’s more to this announcement than meets the eye. A post at StarWars.com says the teaser video that was shared on Twitter “may hold some clues” about the story. So you know what that means.

Get out your books about symbols, artifacts, and ancient civilizations and go digging through them. (Only, stay home where its safer and you don’t have to fight Nazis while looking for them. Leave the rough stuff to Indy and the game.)

The post New INDIANA JONES Video Game Will Feature an Original Story appeared first on Nerdist.

It’s time to fight some fascists. In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the “Terror Twins” are searching for their missing father, BJ Blazkowicz, and they’ll do whatever they have to find him. Take control of sisters Jess and Soph Blazkowicz and begin your search in an alternate-history 1980s–and take out any Nazis that get in your way.

Bethesda brought the bad-ass to their E3 2019 presentation with the first full trailer for Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

(That synth-tastic music really gives us that electrifying 80s vibe.)

The first game in the franchise’s long history to offer both solo and co-op play, Youngblood takes the sisters to Nazi-controlled Paris where they set up base in the city’s catacombs. Take on the role of one of the twins and grab a buddy (or an AI partner) to embark on assignments to gather resources and increase your skills during your hunt for your father. You’ll shoot, blast, and stab any Nazis that stand in your way on your merciless mission to find him.

Your friend doesn’t have a copy of the game? No problem–these sisters are prepared for anything. The Deluxe Edition of the game comes with a Buddy Pass that you can give to your partner, which they can use to download and play the game for free as long as they’re playing alongside you. Only one pass is available, but it can be reused if that friend picks up their own copy of the game.

You’ll find Wolfenstein: Youngblood July 26, 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

All Images: Bethesda

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If you’ve felt like the world around us is slowly turning into a never-ending hellscape, then you’re not alone. But this November, you can actually do something about it in Doom Eternal, the sequel to 2016’s Doom (a series reboot for the venerable FPS), which takes the demon-slaying action from Mars to Earth as you once again assume the mantle of the iconic Doom Slayer (or Doom Guy if you’re nasty).

On Sunday night at Bethesda’s annual E3 press conference, audiences in Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium were treated to a bloody, brutal, and bone-crunching new story trailer that showcased all manner of new locations, weapons, and gory ways to turn the minions of Hell into a fine, red mist.

Seeing a demon being sawed in half with a chainsaw immediately sets the tone for what you can expect from id Software’s bloody first-person shooter. Honestly, I feel like I need a shower after that trailer; it’s the virtual equivalent of sitting in the front row at a Gallagher show.

First announced at Bethesda’s 2018 E3 press conference, Doom: Eternal comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC, and Nintendo Switch on November 22, 2019. It will also be coming to Google’s streaming game service Stadia after it launches this November. This time around, though, you won’t just be going to Earth; you’ll also be able to travel to Heaven and Hell, as well. Introducing angels to the BFG? Don’t mind if I do!

In addition to the story trailer, which you can view above, Doom: Eternal is getting a new multiplayer mode known as “Battlemode.” This competitive mode pits two players against one in a grueling battle of wits, wiles, and murderous strategy. One player takes on the role of the Slayer, while two players assume the role of various demons. What follows is a no-holds-barred fight to the finish as each side tries to outplay the other in a deadly duel.

Bethesda and id Software also announced that you can get a Doom Guy helmet of your very own if you purchase the swanky pre-order edition, so start saving up if you are in dire need of some demon-resistant headgear.

Want even more E3 updates? Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest trailers, hands-on impressions, and inside scoops on all your favorite video games.

Images: Bethesda

The post DOOM ETERNAL Takes You to Hell and Back in New E3 Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.

Sinister ethereal beings stalking the streets, a wistful Shiba Inu, and people seemingly being raptured during their midday commute are just a few of the eerie, disturbing things happening on the streets of Tokyo in Tango Gameworks’ newly announced GhostWire: Tokyo. 

Revealed during Bethesda’s E3 press conference on Sunday evening, GhostWire: Tokyo is a brand new action-adventure game from the studio founded by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami following his departure from Capcom in 2010. Best known for The Evil Within, Tango Gameworks’ new title seems to be a departure from its tried and tested survival horror formula.

Don’t worry, though — Tango isn’t completely leaving the creep factor behind. As creative director Ikumi Nakamura so eloquently put it, “It’s an action-adventure game, but spooky.” It’s a game that will have you constantly asking yourself if what you’re seeing is paranormal or normal, navigating the streets of Tokyo during an unexpected crisis.

“After strange disappearances hit Tokyo’s population, it’s up to you to uncover the source and purge the city of a strange, new evil,” according to a post on Bethesda’s website. “Armed with your own mysterious abilities, you will face down the occult, unravel conspiracy theories and experience urban legends like never before.”

Tango Gameworks’ previous games, 2014’s The Evil Within and its 2017 follow-up The Evil Within 2, have shown that Mikami and his team have a keen eye for worldbuilding, especially when that world is full of unexpected, supernatural dread. While the trailer doesn’t give much away, we’re crossing our fingers that it will deliver the same brand of supremely spooky mystery that we’ve come to expect from Mikami and his creative collaborators. Also, if they don’t let us pet this damn dog, I’m going to fight someone.

Tango has not yet commented on which systems GhostWire will be available, nor have they announced a release date. We’ll be busting out our Ouija boards to keep a close eye on this one though.

Want even more E3 updates? Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest trailers, hands-on impressions, and inside scoops on all your favorite video games.

Images: Bethesda/Tango Gameworks

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Follow Jessica Chobot and Andrew Bowser from Nerdist’s Bizarre States as they head to the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia to be one of the first people to play Bethesda’s highly anticipated addition to the Fallout franchise, Fallout 76.

Fallout 76 is available worldwide on November 14. Play the B.E.T.A. first on Xbox One. Pre-order the game now: http://fallout.bethesda.net/buy-now

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Is Fallout still just as fun if you’re no longer the Lone Wanderer? Bethesda doesn’t want to set the world on fire, but they are literally changing the game with Fallout 76, the first multiplayer entry in the long-running sci-fi role-playing game series. The hotly anticipated game comes out on November 14, but Nerdist went hands-on with the game at a recent press event in West Virginia where we put the post-apocalyptic prequel through its paces. So how exactly does the addition of multiplayer alter the fundamental Fallout experience? Join host Jessica Chobot to get the inside scoop on what to expect from Fallout 76 on a brand new episode of Nerdist News Edition.[brightcove video_id=”5848172059001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=“rJs2ZD8xâ€]Friendship and cooperation are the name of the game in Fallout 76. Gone are the days of relying on NPCs to ask you repeatedly about the hunt for those tapes or warn you that a settlement needs your help. Now you’ll rely on your fellow humans to brave the horrors of the Wasteland instead. If that doesn’t sound up your alley, then…too bad. As Bethesda told Nerdist, multiplayer is far and away their most requested feature from fans.Fallout 76 isn’t just going to be another multiplayer shooter, though. “It’s Fallout with your friends,” Bethesda told Nerdist. You and up to three others can form parties to roam around the nuclear hellscape together, killing monsters, conquering quests, and building up massive settlements. And thankfully there’s no friendly fire to worry about, so you can relax, Kyle Hill. For now.

READ: 10 Things We Learned Playing Fallout 76

Speaking of shooting your enemies, V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting Sytem) is still in the game, but it no longer slows down time like you’re Neo in The Matrix. Now, V.A.T.S. happens in real-time, allowing you to pop off super accurate shots on the fly. It’s a skill you’ll definitely need considering West Virginia is teeming with all sorts of monsters, familiar and brand-new. (One word: Mothman)But, as we all know, the real monsters are our fellow players. Thankfully, Bethesda has implemented anti-griefing countermeasures to ensure your time in the Wasteland isn’t entirely unpleasant. If you’re worried about grade-A jerks raining on your irradiated parade, then you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that you begin the game in pacifist mode. This means that until level 5, it is impossible to engage in player vs. player combat.

READ: Why Fallout 76 Made the Leap to Multiplayer

If you do find yourself being killed over and over again by a stranger–especially when you don’t want anything to do with PVP–then the game has ways to help protect you. If you kill innocent players (i.e. ones that aren’t flagged for PVP), you will be marked as a murderer and a bounty will be placed on your head, incentivizing other players to hunt you down. If they do catch you and gun you down, the bounty will come out of your pocket.Bethesda understands that no matter how hard they try to push multiplayer on us, some of us are still lone wolves at heart. You can play the game solo if you so choose. There is a main story to the game, which you can complete all by your lonesome, that involves you trying to find nuclear silos and make the wastes of West Virginia habitable once more for you and your fellow man. Instead of receiving quests from NPCs and talking to them to advance the narrative, the story unfolds through various holotapes and computer terminals. Don’t worry if you’re a Fallout purist, though. Fallout 76 is not replacing Fallout 5. Bethesda told us that this is an entirely separate entry from the next big single-player entry in the fan-favorite series. But come on — are our fellow meatbags really that much worse than Dogmeat? (The answer is yes. No one is as good as Dogmeat. No one.)What do you think of Fallout 76? Will you be playing on day one? Let us know in the comments below.

Additional reporting by Clara Mae.

Images: Bethesda

The post How FALLOUT 76 is Changing the Game (Hands-On Preview) appeared first on Nerdist.

This week at Quakecon, our friends at Bethesda Softworks provided a lot more information about Fallout 76 in addition to revealing more of Doom: Eternal, the sequel to 2016’s hit shooter Doom.  Here’s some of what we learned about Fallout, and feel free to watch the below video to see the panel for yourself.

Getting Stronger

-Leveling up allows you to invest one point in one of your main stats, as well as giving you access to a Perk card. If this game doesn’t have a system like Gwent in The Witcher: Wild Hunt, you have my full permission to riot.

-Perk cards give specific benefits and can be interchanged on the fly. For example, the Night Person card increases your intelligence when the sun is down but unfortunately does not make you an actual vampire.

-Every few levels you get a Perk Card Pack, which will give you four random perks, some of which can be higher level than you can currently equip. Like digital card games such as Hearthstone, some of these cards can be golden and animated. Unlike Hearthstone, you won’t open 60 packs and only get a Hemet Nesingwary. Yeah, that’s right, deep cuts.

-There is no level cap, but you’ll stop gaining stat points at level 50, only gaining cards after that. So you won’t get stronger anymore, but you’ll get more versatile. This helps close the gap between low and high level players. Speaking of…

Playing with Others

-There are no NPCs in Fallout 76. Instead, all interactions are with enemies or other players. A first for a series so steeped in lore and and conversation. That leaves only one way to communicate with people. Yep, you guessed it. The Nintendo Switch voice chat app.

-The Charisma stat has been altered, since there are no NPCs to charm. Instead, high Charisma allows you to share perks with friends, as well as providing a few strong perks itself. Like getting a date to the prom.

-PVP is completely optional. A player must accept your challenge before you can fight each other.

-It is possible to kill other players without challenging them, but it is difficult and makes you a WantedMurderer. In what is perhaps the best anti-griefing measure I’ve seen in a game, this places a bounty on your head, makes you visible on every player’s map, and doles out the bounty reward from your own pocket. You can be a troll, but at least you’ll be a broke troll.

-If a player kills you, you are given the option to block them, seek revenge for double reward, or simply keep playing.

Play Your Way

-After the character creation screen, you can change how your character looks at any time, even down to the character’s gender. Now you won’t get stuck with that horrible monster you made just because you could.

-The map is big enough that it can be difficult to find other players unless you’re looking, meaning you could potentially play 76 like a traditional Fallout game, but the game is really built around multiplayer.

-Base building is back, this time with more variety. You can also create blueprints of things you’ve created and build them again elsewehere. This is important, as chances are your settlement is going to get nuked at some point.

-NUKES.

-Nukes radiate the map around the blast, creating stronger enemies and generating better loot. So if you want a challenge, go ahead and nuke an area then see if you can fight your way through it.

-V.A.T.S. is back, but now in real time. Now it just helps you aim at specific body parts and generally makes you a better shot. This might be a bummer for some longtime fans, as V.A.T.S. made the mechanics unique from every other shooter. Hopefully Bethesda has found a way to make it feel just as good to use.

-More info on Fallout 76 will come out in the upcoming months leading to the game’s release, so let us know what you think in the comments and be sure to stay tuned to Nerdist for all your Fallout 76 needs.

Images: Bethesda Softworks

The post What We Learned About FALLOUT 76 From QUAKECON appeared first on Nerdist.

The world of Bethesda’s Fallout games is wide and incredibly immersive, and it’s easy to lose hours explorering, questing, crafting, and fighting all of the crazy creatures found in the Wasteland.

And while the adventuring is fun, have you ever stopped and wondered, while you watch your character enjoy a delicious, grilled radstag or a stingwing filet, what it would be like to eat like a Wastelander?

Happily, you don’t have to wonder anymore! As Geekologie reports, we’re getting an officially licensed cookbook called Fallout: The Vault Dweller’s Official Cookbook by Victoria Rosenthal, which will let you make some of the Wasteland’s most famous delicacies in the privacy of your own home… without the worry of taking any of those pesky rads.

With over 75 recipes of Fallout-inspired appetizers, soups, sides, main dishes, and desserts, you’ll be able to make Wasteland delicacies easily. Whether you want to whip up your very own Nuka-Cola float, some warm tato soup, or even chow down on some heartier options like braised Deathclaw steak, this cookbook has you covered.

Seriously, with this new cookbook, you’re going to be able to throw the absolute best release party for Fallout 76.

And don’t worry, if you’re not leveled up enough to fight a Deathclaw or you’ve got friends with dietary restrictions (mirelurk allergies can be such a challenge to work around for Wasteland potlucks), each recipe lets you know which non-Wasteland creature the recipe is based on (like exchanging Deathclaw for pork belly) so you know exactly what you’re cooking and eating.

You can get your hands on your very own copy of the cookbook when it releases on October 23, 2018, for about 35 caps. Fallout: The Vault Dweller’s Official Cookbook is currently available for pre-order, so you can snag a copy for yourself today.

What recipe are you dying to try from the Fallout cookbook? Is there something from the games that didn’t make it into the cookbook that you’d like to try to adapt to real life? Let’s talk Wasteland food in the comments!

Feature Image: Bethesda

Image credits: Bethesda/Insight Editions

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The Fallout hype is real right now, especially after the Fallout 76 E3 news we recently got. And what better way to celebrate than by collecting these awesome real life  props of items from the game, including replicas of the plasma rifle, plasma pistol, power fist, and a build-your-own Pip-Boy kit?  Now we finally get to live our vault-dwelling dreams, but with all the cool stuff and none of the radiation poisoning or death claws. Whether you’re a cosplayer, a collector, or just looking to run around your house playing Wasteland, these props could be a sweet deal.

The weapon replicas are 1:1, meaning they’re life-size. The Pip-Boy is not only true to size, but wearable as well. It comes in a kit that you get to build yourself, which was designed after the kits Vault-Tec gave out in the game. The box and components all take after the classic Fallout ’50s style, and can either be taken apart for the Pip-Boy to be assembled, or can be displayed on their own.

All of the props are on sale now on Gamestop‘s website, created in conjunction with ThinkGeek. The rifle retails for $119.00, the pistol for $59.99, the power fist for $99.99, and the Pip-Boy kit is going for $149.99. If you consider how much you might spend making a cosplay prop from scratch, these prices could be comparable or even a bit cheaper. The Pip-Boy drops on November 13, and we’ll have to wait until December 31 for the weapon replicas.

Given what we’ve seen so far, do you think these props are going to be worth the wait? Fall in to the comments below and let us know.

Images: Gamestop

More Gaming News!

• Check out our list of the best games at E3!
• The trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 looks like a sci-fi dream.
• Hideo Kojima hid a code in the new Death Stranding trailer, because of course he did.

The post Amazing FALLOUT Props Can Make Your Vault-Dwelling Dreams a Reality appeared first on Nerdist.

Every year, E3 brings gamers around the world breathtaking presentations, new stories, and innovations that we can’t wait to get our hands on, and meme-worthy moments that don’t happen anywhere else. (“My body is ready” will live on the Internet forever.) The incredible amount of streamed coverage, paired with real-time reactions on Twitter, make us all feel like we’re sitting in the front row of each presentation together… and we have opinions.

Here are just some of the funniest, smartest, and most intriguing reactions on Twitter from this year’s E3. Give these folks a follow if you’re a fan of live-tweeting and gamer gut reactions.

Bethesda

Bethesda‘s Todd Howard was a rock star at the company’s presentation, which wasn’t afraid to make fun of itself. With meme-worthy videos, a peek at Fallout 76, and a new Elder Scrolls game announcement, Twitter lit up the night of Bethesda’s presentation.

Mr. Todd Howard my wallet doesn't feel so good… #BE3 pic.twitter.com/cJHsmKbW52

— Anthony (@SilverAtrain) June 11, 2018

I sneezed right as Todd said “a blessing” and I thought he said “bless you” and my blood turned to ice

— Sam King (@SamanthaCKing) June 11, 2018

Ubisoft

Assassins Creed Odyssey, which offers a choice of Spartan protagonists, might be the game that stole the show this year. Kassandra and her possible romance options caught the eye of more than one live-tweeter.

Ask the correct question coward #E32018 pic.twitter.com/M4aORGlL4I

— Nibel (@Nibellion) June 11, 2018

Sony

Sony‘s presentation got a lot of attention this week, thanks to a look at Kingdom Hearts III, the frenetic energy of Spider-Man, the gorgeous graphics of Ghost of Tsushima, the jaw-dropping gameplay of The Last of Us Part II, and… whatever it is Death Stranding is. No one’s quite sure still.

You simply can't mess with greatness. #E32018 pic.twitter.com/v4Hd9P8zrH

— Gib of war the 95th (@Gib_reel) June 12, 2018

These animations are unreal. #TheLastofUsPartII pic.twitter.com/XOFwImrzd5

— shinobi602 (@shinobi602) June 12, 2018

Me for the past two years:
"Okay, I don't understand what's happening in #DEATHSTRANDING but I'm sure as soon as I finally see gameplay I'll understand"
Me after seeing gameplay: pic.twitter.com/xvAckokzYg

— Professor Thorgi (@ProfessorThorgi) June 12, 2018

Wow, humbled by the high expectations for #DEATHSTRANDING at the #E3… Now we're hoping we didn't elevate the hype too much 😅

— Kojima Productions (@KojiPro2015_EN) June 7, 2018

Basically everyone today. (Sorry i couldn't resist) @khinsider @KINGDOMHEARTS #E32018 #KingdomHearts3 pic.twitter.com/AJScp1x890

— Venom @ AX soon (@VenomDeathNinja) June 11, 2018

WHERE IS THE LAMB SAUCE, SORA!? pic.twitter.com/qAqMFFQ286

— Rainn (@ExoRainn) June 11, 2018

Nintendo

Nintendo‘s presentation was just on video rather than a glittering stage this year, but that didn’t make their announcements any less exciting for JRPG and Super Smash Bros. fans. Animal Crossing fans, however, had their hopes smashed for seeing their favorite villagers on the Nintendo Switch any time soon. (Although many tried to cast a spell to make it happen.)

There’s also some understandable concern for Mega Man and Mario after Metroid’s Ridley got his claws on them…

Animal Crossing fans watching Smash fans get all the news. #E32018 pic.twitter.com/OSKhg47wrQ

— Reb (@serinide) June 12, 2018

When it hasn't even been 5 seconds since you got back in Smash and Kirby already ate your brother pic.twitter.com/gW71n7nsYM

— Tylor (@theSirToasty) June 12, 2018

New #SmashBros now has Daisy… and Ridley…

Daisy and Ridley…

DAISY RIDLEY!!!!#SmashBrosUltimate #NintendoE3 #E32018 #E3 #BlackNerdE3 pic.twitter.com/TnCJ2g4iW4

— Andre ▶️ #Vidcon (@BlackNerd) June 12, 2018

Y’all not gonna comment how Ridley killed Mega Man and Mario #NintendoE3 #SmashBrosUltimate pic.twitter.com/UjKjgkwrbA

— XITO (@XITOXITOXITO) June 12, 2018

E3 2018

Overall, this year’s E3 has had positive reactions, especially to the number of women featured as protagonists in the most anticipated games coming in 2018 and beyond.

WHO RUN THE WORLD? GIRLS! 🙌🏼 #E32018 pic.twitter.com/drHuJq5ucF

— kae (@idkmybffkae) June 12, 2018

this has been like every e3 game shown so far pic.twitter.com/cTVRYtTeQJ

— sploggles 🎣🍃 (@sploggles) June 11, 2018

What are some of your gut reactions from the show? Let us know in the comments below.

Featured Image: Nintendo (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

More from E3!

• Why is Waluigi being snubbed again by the Super Smash Bros. series?
• You can play as Mew in the new Pokémon game!
• Super Mario Party looks like it’ll maximize the properties of the Switch

[brightcove video_id=”5794448371001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]

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Get ready for everything to go to hell in a handbasket all over again! On Sunday night, Bethesda surprised the crowd at their annual E3 press conference with a surprise reveal of Doom Eternal, a sequel to 2016’s critically acclaimed Doom. The 2016 game served as a series reboot of sorts, offering up brutal combat, grisly melee executions, and hordes of murderous demons. Bethesda said the game will feature a more powerful version of the Doom Slayer (the metal-as-hell name for the player character) and offer twice as many demons as the 2016 game. In addition, the game will be set on what appears to be a hellish version of Earth, overrun by the armies of the underworld.

The teaser, while exceptionally light on details, sets the tone for what looks to be a bonecrunching sequel to what many regard as one of the best games of 2016. While details about Doom Eternal are scant for now, Bethesda promised more details will be revealed at Quakecon, which takes place in Grapevine, Texas from August 9-12.

What do you hope to see from Doom? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest and greatest in E3 coverage.

Images: Bethesda

Even more gaming news!

• Check out this DIY of God of War‘s Leviathan axe!
• We’re officially getting a Hitman 2!
• This Overwatch fan made ASL signs for all of the heroes!

What if Majora’s Mask made our moon fall to Earth?

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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

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If it feels like it’s been an eternity since the last game in The Elder Scrolls saga, it’s because the better part of this decade since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim captured our collective imaginations. The Elder Scrolls Online has also helped tide us over, but now, Bethesda has finally confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI is in development. At the very end of Bethesda’s E3 2018 presentation, it was announced that The Elder Scrolls VI will be released after Starfield, another new single-player game that is also without a release date.

This teaser is about the full extent of what we know about the next game in the series. But there is something new on the horizon for fans: The Elder Scrolls: Blades. According to Bethesda, Blades will be a massive first-person rpg for mobile devices that will have console quality graphics. Utilizing touchscreen controls, players can tap to move and the combat system will respond to their specific movements and timings.

Players will also have the option to create their own characters, as well as a range of abilities and spells to use beyond simple melee combat. It was also noted that the entire game can be played in portrait mode. There will be three primary modes in The Elder Scrolls: Blades. In The Abyss, players will travel through a seemingly endless dungeon. Players can challenge each other in The Arena. But The Town will give the players a chance to chart their own adventures as they rebuild and upgrade their towns after returning from exile. Players will even be able to visit each other’s customized towns.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades will be available for free this fall on Google Play and the App Store. However, Bethesda also hinted at plans to bring the game to other platforms, including high end VR on PCs. Are you excited about The Elder Scrolls VI and The Elder Scrolls: Blades? What do you want to see in the next chapter of the saga? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Bethesda

All Bethesda, all night:

• A little self-parody with Keegan-Michael Key.
• The first teaser for Fallout 76.
• Super Nintendo-inspired Skyrim art.

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After two weeks of feverish speculation, we now know exactly what Fallout 76 is going to be, and it’s both everything and nothing like what you expected. On Sunday night, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard took the stage at Bethesda’s annual E3 press conference and revealed that Fallout 76 is going to be an online-only survival RPG–confirming Kotaku‘s earlier reports–set in the wilds of West Virginia. As mentioned during the Xbox E3 press conference earlier on Sunday, Fallout 76 is more than four times the size of Fallout 4 and is a prequel to all the other Fallout games. Howard mentioned during Bethesda’s presentation that they have completely overhauled the game’s graphics engine, which allows for “16 times the detail” and players can “even view distant weather systems across the map.”

The players exit the Vault at the behest of the Overseer, who sends them on a quest that will take them through 6 distinct regions with their own risks and rewards. “We even used the folklore of West Virginia to bring the world of Fallout 76 to life,” Howard said as we got a look at a handful of new monsters, including the infamous Beast of Grafton, a Bigfoot-esque, ogre-like creature said to lurk in the West Virginia mountains.

Every non-monster character you encounter in Fallout 76 will be controlled by a living, breathing human. However, unlike other so-called “hardcore” survival games, death is not meant to be an impediment to enjoyment. “Death never means the loss of progression or the loss of your character,” said Howard. “You’ll be in a world with dozens — not hundreds and not thousands of other players.” You will be able to join your friends whenever you want, and all of your progression will go along with you. So think of Fallout 76 as a persistent online RPG, but one that is sparsely populated given the fact that you all just survived a nuclear apocalypse. Together, players will go on quests, slaughter monsters, build communities and eke out a hardscrabble existence in the irradiated wastelands of West Virginia.

However, the nuclear bombs may not be done falling, according to Howard. “We love dynamic game systems, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we put multiple nuclear sites on the map and let you do whatever you want with them?'” Howard mused. That’s right, one of the many things players will be able to do in Fallout 76 is discover nuclear launch codes and use them to decimate their enemies’ strongholds. Once the nuke has struck its target, you will be able to explore the fallout to unlock rare items and probably get enough radiation to grow a vestigial tail.

Fallout 76 is available on November 14, 2018 and will offer a special edition that comes with a glow-in-the-dark map and a wearable Power Armor helmet, which is a dream come true for anyone who has had aspirations of joining the Brotherhood of Steel but was too afraid of proselytization to commit.

To be extra specific, it’s the T-51b helmet from the Fallout franchise, which will make a nice companion piece to the wearable Pip-Boy that came with the Fallout 4 special edition. The online-only game will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC.

What did you think of Fallout 76‘s big reveal? Will you be picking it up? Let us know in the comments below.

Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest and greatest in E3 coverage.

Images: Bethesda

Even more gaming news!

• Check out this DIY of God of War‘s Leviathan axe!
• We’re officially getting a Hitman 2!
• This Overwatch fan made ASL signs for all of the heroes!

What if Majora’s Mask made our moon fall to Earth?

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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

The post FALLOUT 76 is an Online-Only Survival RPG appeared first on Nerdist.

Last year, Bethesda’s Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus thrust gamers into an alternate world where America was under control of a Nazi regime, as nearly the entire world had fallen to the Nazis before BJ Blazkowicz overcame death itself to spark the second American Revolution. Ahead of E3 2018, Bethesda unveiled the next chapter in the saga: Wolfenstein: Youngblood. This time, BJ is stepping aside for a new generation of the Blazkowicz family. However, BJ’s presence is still felt as he narrates the trailer and shares a simple philosophy with his heirs: “It’s not about the pain that you can deal; it’s about how much you can take.”

As implied by the trailer, Wolfenstein: Youngblood allows gamers to control Jess or Soph Blazkowicz, BJ’s twin daughters. According to Bethesda, the game is set in 1980, nearly two decades after the events of The New Colossus. This time, the action is taking place in Nazi-occupied Paris, and the Blazkowicz sisters have a very personal motive to be there. BJ’s gone missing in the city, and it’s their job to find him.

Bethesda also revealed that Wolfenstein: Youngblood will offer a co-op mode in addition to its single player campaign. Essentially, two people can simultaneously play as Jess and Soph and make their way through the game together. Wolfenstein: Youngblood is expected to hit consoles in 2019, but Nintendo fans will be able to add Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus to their Switch library on June 29. Additionally, it was also revealed that a VR game called Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot is also in the works. But it’s unclear when that title will be released.

What do you think about the new Wolfenstein: Youngblood teaser? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Bethesda

It’s Bethesda galore!

• A little self-parody with Keegan-Michael Key.
• The first teaser for Fallout 76.
• Super Nintendo-inspired Skyrim art.

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Has it really been 25 years since Bethesda gave us a new IP? The original and best masters of first-person changed the gaming world with Castle Wolfenstein and Doom, and blasted it with Fallout before notably taking arrows to the knee in Skyrim. But it’s time they showed us something fresh to blow our minds again, and, well…let’s just say we don’t hate Sundays.

We’ve known for a while that something was coming called Starfield, because of a patent filing leak. Now we know it is a single-player action game. But we’ve also heard rumors that it would be a game to connect the Bethesda-verse, and include the worlds of both Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. That would be pretty epic, and give us a the closest we’re ever likely to see to a Krull game.  The Beast and the Black Fortress could totally have come from a post-nuke world, right?

At the moment, though, all we have is a brief trailer that evokes 2001: A Space Odyssey. And yet we have a creeping suspicion it will be a lot more violent, and faster-paced. Gamers don’t want to spend whole levels jogging around in a zero-gravity circle.

Right now, there’s a lot of room for guesswork–call this reveal “Starfield Without Starfield,” if you like. What do you think Starfield will bring? Let us know with your comments.

Image: Bethesda

It’s Bethesda-palooza!

• A little self-parody with Keegan-Michael Key.
• The first teaser for Fallout 76.
• Super Nintendo-inspired Skyrim art.

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The post A Frustratingly Brief Look at STARFIELD, Bethesda’s Newest Game Franchise appeared first on Nerdist.

Well, it wasn’t quite a Skyrim 2 announcement. But if you’re going to do anything even moderately frustrating, pulling it off with genuine humor is a good way to go. As part of an E3 presentation that was a fakeout prior to a new Fallout 76 trailer, Bethesda showed a “new commercial” for Skyrim on some all-new platforms, including Alexa, Etch-A-Sketch, and ’90s-style pagers.

Keegan-Michael Key, who solidly proved his nerdy bona fides as part of Key and Peele, is the test case for all these new versions, and of course he finds himself uniquely challenged by the all-new interface, as well as a wife who seems confused about the distinctions between video games and reality.

“Fus Ro Dah” seems to require actual physical action even in a speech-based adventure, so lord knows what has to happen for you to take an arrow to the knee. But this seems like a limited scope for new/old media. Can we not get a Skyrim VHS board game? A Skyrim touchtone interactive 900-number? Skyrim Choose Your Own Adventure books? Let’s at least get Keegan into one of those horned helmets, because we bet he could rock it pretty hard.

Are you bummed this commercial is obviously fake? Should Skyrim branch out in strange new and old ways? And if so, what format would you like to see? Give us some suggestions below in comments.

Image: Bethesda

More video game news!

• Jump Force lets every major Shonen Jump manga character fight.
• Gears of War gets a Funko Pop game.
• Cyberpunk 2077 looks pretty great so far.

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Much like The Ink Spots, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard may not want to set the world on fire, but he left the stage ablaze at the Xbox E3 press conference on Sunday with the first details about the hotly anticipated Fallout 76. 

According to Howard, Fallout 76 is a prequel to all the other Fallout games. In terms of size, it is four times larger than Fallout 4, taking place in the sprawling mountains and hills of West Virginia.

Announced earlier this month by Bethesda, Fallout 76 takes place in the Shenandoah Valley, putting players in the shoes of a survivor from Vault 76, emerging from the relative security of the vault to brave the post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland and rebuild society.

The trailer featured all manner of iconic imagery from previous Fallout titles, as well as some monsters that look like brand new additions to the game. According to Kotaku, the game is rumored to be an online survival RPG in the same vein as DayZ or Rust, but there have been no official details yet. We will learn more about Fallout 76 at Bethesda’s E3 press conference on Sunday evening, so stay tuned for updates as they come in.

What do you hope to see from Fallout 76? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest and greatest in E3 coverage.

Images: Disney/Lucasfilm

Even more gaming news!

• Check out this DIY of God of War‘s Leviathan axe!
• We’re officially getting a Hitman 2!
• This Overwatch fan made ASL signs for all of the heroes!

What if Majora’s Mask made our moon fall to Earth?

[brightcove video_id=”5794448371001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=“rJs2ZD8x”]

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

The post FALLOUT 76 Will Be Four Times Larger Than FALLOUT 4 appeared first on Nerdist.

After a 24-hour live stream on Twitch filled with balloons, puppets, and bobbleheads, Bethesda finally dropped some big news for Fallout fans. Just ahead of their June 10 panel at E3, we got our first look at a teaser trailer for the newest Fallout game, Fallout 76.

The teaser doesn’t give a ton of hints regarding what is to come in the game, but it does give us several shots of the inside of a well-kept but empty Vault 76 just after celebrating “Reclamation Day.” Vault 76 looks quite homey, with no weapons or blood showing up, and we even get glimpses of a child’s well-kept but lived-in bedroom.

In the teaser, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” plays happily in the background, and a snippet of a press conference is shown on the television where a man says, “When the fighting has stopped, and the fallout has settled, you must rebuild.” While the celebrations for “Reclamation Day” seem to have recently ended, it’s not clear what happened to the survivors living in the vault. In fact, we only get one quick glimpse of a survivor who is clad in a Vault 76 jumpsuit and equipping a Pip-Boy.

The trailer has gotten a lot of fans hyped for a new adventure in the Wasteland, but the trailer doesn’t a ton of details about what to expect from the game itself. Of course, Vault 76 has been mentioned before in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, so it will be interesting to see where on the timeline Fallout 76 falls.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait terribly long to get some more details on the game. Bethesda will likely hand out a lot more information about Fallout 76 at Bethesda’s press conference at E3, called BE3, on June 10 at 6:30 PM PST. We can’t wait to see what adventures await us all in this new journey into the Wasteland!

What did you think of the Fallout 76 teaser? What do you hope to see in the new game? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

Feature Image: Bethesda

More in gaming!

• The Joker headlines the first LEGO DC Super-Villains trailer
• Pokémon is coming to the Nintendo Switch!
• Read our review of Detroit: Become Human

The post Bethesda Releases Teaser for New Game, FALLOUT 76 appeared first on Nerdist.

Survivors Ivan Van Norman, Ash Minnick, and Joseph Limbaugh join Becca Scott for Fallout: The Board Game. Grab a Nuka-Cola and watch to see who wins as they venture through the wasteland.

Tabletop games are super fun, but learning the complicated directions and rules can be a challenge. Becca Scott is your game tutor, explaining the game mechanics in an easy to follow way, so you can get to playing the games faster.

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There are only three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the full-body hangover that comes from spending countless hours on the E3 show floor. The biggest event in video gaming got even bigger this year as it opened to the public for the first time, allowing 15,000 lucky fans to purchase passes to the previously exclusive, industry-only event. The 68,400 attendees were able to test out more than 2,000 products showcased by 293 exhibitors, and it was our enviable task to find the best of the best, wading through the muck and the mire to find the cream of the crop. After many hours of deliberation, spending extensive hands-on time with games on the show floor, and agonizing over which was worthiest of accolade, we have winnowed down the list to the 10 best games we saw at E3 2017.

The awards are split into two distinct categories, Editor’s Choice and Best in Show. Our Editor’s Choice seal of approval marks the most innovative, energizing, and genuinely fun titles we saw at E3. However, for that one game that rose above the competition to stand on its own, we have the equivalent of a high five wrapped in bacon: our Best in Show award. In a year with many very impressive entries, these are the games worthy of additional accolade as selected by our editorial team.

Editor’s Choice

Detroit: Become Human

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAmKdZdfV1cWhat happens when machines develop emotions? This was a question posed by author and futurist Ray Kurzweil, and serves as the basis for French game developer Quantic Dream’s neo-noir thriller Detroit: Become Human. The game takes place in a world where androids are as commonplace as iPhones and are used to perform all manner of menial tasks, existing as a class of secondary synthetic citizens. Now they are achieving a manner of sentience and questioning the system that subjugates them, and you are in the driver’s seat of this burgeoning mechanical mutiny. With breathtaking graphics, a 2,000-page-long script, and compelling gameplay, Detroit: Become Human is an expansive, engrossing experience that looks like it won’t just offer hours upon hours of entertainment, but cause its players to ponder some of the deeper moral and philosophical questions about identity, personhood, and free will that are fulminating below the surface. Every decision you make matters, and will have dire consequences that come along with it. Characters can die, the story can mutate in unexpected ways, and the only way to find out what else might have happened is to play it again.

Assassin’s Creed Origins

For the tenth major installment of its mega-popular Assassin’s Creed series, Ubisoft couldn’t afford to rest on its laurels. Rather than take us back to a familiar location or continue the narrative of an Assassin we’ve already met, Ubisoft Montreal is taking us back to where it all began: ancient Egypt. Assassin’s Creed Origins takes the series, quite literally, back to its roots as it explores how the centuries-long struggle between the freedom-loving Assassins and the fascistic Templars first began. Set in a stunningly rendered, open-world version of Ptolemaic Egypt, Origins puts you in the shoes—or sandals, in this case—of Bayek, a Medjay, who works to keep order in the realm and fight for the common people. With a robust loot system, refined combat that feels fluid and fast-paced, and a vibrant ancient world to explore, Origins is the freshest the series has felt in ages. While the hallmarks of a great Assassin’s Creed game are all in place, what makes Origins feel special is its potential to surprise you. Whether that comes in the form of shooting a flaming arrow at a barrel of oil to take out enemies aboard a heavily guarded ship or finding yourself in a life-or-death struggle against nature’s deadliest creation, the hippopotamus, while you’re swimming underwater is entirely dependent on how you play the game—and therein lies its magic.

Sea of Thieves

My timbers were well and truly shivered this E3 thanks to multiplayer pirate games like Skull & Bones and Sea of Thieves. Yet where Skull & Bones opted for the gritty realism that made it work so well in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Sea of Thieves takes a far jauntier approach to being a scourge of the seven seas. It’s a game that lets you do nearly anything you can think of—provided you can think of piratical antics for you and your crew to undertake. You and your teammates can hoist the mainsails, batten down the hatches, prepare a plank to be walked, plunder that booty to your heart’s content, fight undead warriors, drink your body weight in grog, eat a banana like a goddamn monster, and so much more. It’s still a bit clunky in its current condition, but the premise of the game is so strong, so deeply silly and unreasonably fun that it cannot be denied. While Rare definitely has its work cut out for it between now and when it finally sets sail onto Xbox consoles, it is one of the most endlessly fun, uproariously funny gaming experiences in ages, and that is something to be celebrated.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

When Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor hit consoles in 2014, it reminded us why we fell in love with the rich, gritty fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien in the first place, and washed the taste of those abysmal Hobbit movies out of our mouths. For the first time, it didn’t feel like we were just retreading ground already laid by Tolkien’s novels or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films; rather, it felt as though we were blazing our own trail through a new segment of Middle-earth’s expansive lore on our own terms. When I played the first game at E3, I meant to play for 20 minutes and wound up playing for 90. I’m proud to say the same thing happened with its sequel. With Shadow of War, the forthcoming sequel from Warner Bros. Interactive and Monolith Productions, the ante has been upped in every conceivable way to make a stellar sequel to a tremendous game. Whereas the first game offered the experience of being a solitary badass, a lone wolf stalking the plains of Middle-earth, Shadow of War recasts you as a burgeoning general, recruiting and commanding forces to wage war against the forces of Sauron and the Nazgul. With enhanced combat, the addition of an upgradeable gear system, and an overhauled Nemesis system (which allows you to dominate and recruit orcs and uruk hai as your minions), Shadow of War is shaping up to be “The Battle of Helms Deep” of this franchise, which is to say bigger, better, and more epic in every conceivable way.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

It has been a long, dark decade-and-a-half since we’ve had a good Spider-Man game. In 2004, Treyarch released a Spider-Man 2 tie-in game that proved to be the most authentic and joyful video game version of being Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to date. Now, Insomniac is finally ready to claim the crown of “best Spider-Man game ever” for its PS4-exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man, which releases in 2018. The game looks and feels like the Spider-Man version of Batman: Arkham City you’ve always wanted. Set in a massive version of Manhattan, Spider-Man will let you swing around New York City, laying the smackdown on members of Spidey’s incredible rogues gallery with all manner of gadgets and fisticuffs, and strike a delicate balance between being Peter Parker and being Spider-Man. And the best part? Since it takes place when Peter is an adult—fresh out of college—so you won’t have to relive the trauma of seeing poor, sweet Uncle Ben die for the umpteenth time.

Far Cry 5

After four games of globetrotting, open-world survivalist action, Far Cry 5 is bringing its unique blend of FPS action and survival back to the United States with a new game set in a version of rural Montana that has been taken over by a violent doomsday cult called Eden’s Gate. Does its imagery evoke uncomfortable parallels to real-world political analogues? Yes. Does the main antagonist look weirdly like Jared Leto? Yes. Can you have an adorable dog named Boomer help you take down these gun-toting loons, then pet him for being a Very Good Boy? Oh, hell yes. With a vast open world to explore, teeming with dangers both human and bestial, Far Cry 5 gives you endless tools with which to complete your myriad missions, and does looks damn good doing it. Far Cry 5 is not a radical departure from the formula that has made the series a fan favorite, but it is an incredibly polished, vibrant, absorbing experience that I felt myself jonesing to play more of long after my hands-on demo ended.

God of War

“Why is Kratos such a daddy?” asked Tumblr, presumably. “Because he actually is a daddy,” replied Cory Barlog, creative director of Santa Monica Studio, also presumably. Influenced deeply by Barlog’s relationship with his own young son, as well as the countless parents on the Santa Monica Studio development team, God of War is plumbing new emotional depths with its latest iteration while still delivering the blood-soaked, spine-ripping, epic action we’ve come to expect from the series. The game so nice we awarded it twice, God of War is pushing the envelope in every conceivable way—narratively, graphically, mechanically—and the results are as breathtaking as the world serpent, Jörmungandr, rising from the depths of the ocean before Kratos and his son, Atreus. The next chapter in Kratos’ saga recasts him as not just a warrior, but a father too, and explores the difficulty in finding a balance between those two roles. While Kratos struggles to suppress the rage within and teach his son a better way of living, he must also teach his son the skills necessary to surviving in the harsh Norse wilds in which they now find themselves. As we’ll come to learn, being essentially immortal doesn’t mean you have to stop growing up.

Monster Hunter World

If using a grappling hook to swing around a lush, primordial jungle, and doing righteous battle with all manner of dinosaurs, dragons, and other gargantuan megafauna doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, then I guess I never really knew you to begin with. One of Japan’s most popular franchises, Monster Hunter, is poised to break big in the United States with the release of Monster Hunter World. What Capcom has created with its next-gen version of Monster Hunter is less of an open-world and more of a living, breathing ecosystem teeming with life. Granted, most of that life wants to rend your flesh from your bones and tear you limb from limb, but no one said it was going to be easy. Whether you explore this dangerous land solo or with up to three of your friends online, Monster Hunter World looks like a land in which we most definitely want to be lost.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

While we never condone using physical violence to solve one’s problems here at Nerdist, there’s just something about punching a Nazi that feels like a time-honored tradition, both pop culturally and historically. And punching is just the tip of the iceberg of what you’ll be able to do to the Nazis in Bethesda and MachineGames’ Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. You’ll be able to unleash flame-spewing mechanical dogs, turn them into a fine red mist with an electricity cannon, and blow them to smithereens with grenade launchers, too. Set in an alternate universe 1961 where the Nazis won World War II, The New Colossus puts you back in the shoes of B.J. Blazkowicz as you try to launch an insurrection against the Nazi regime occupying the United States. It’s alt-history pulp action at its finest and looks to build upon the sterling FPS pedigree MachineGames established with 2014’s excellent Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Best in Show

Super Mario Odyssey

You can sum up our excitement for Super Mario Odyssey in five words: Mario possesses a freakin’ dinosaur. But here are few more words anyway. From our first glimpse of Super Mario Odyssey, we felt a strange compulsion to play it, but we had so very many questions. What the hell kind of name is New Donk City? Why does Mario’s hat have eyes now? Wait, Mario can possess people? Is this game about Mario stealing free will? While those deeply philosophical debates are still raging hot and heavy in the Nerdist office, our excitement remains unabated, especially after getting hands-on time with the game on the E3 show floor. This time around, we’re leaving the well-worn territory of the Mushroom Kingdom behind to explore places unknown, and the results are so gloriously weird, so uproariously fun, and so full of secrets to uncover that we barely scratched the surface in the two levels we played. Like many games on our list, Super Mario Odyssey is a game that rewards exploration and experimentation, and offers a wide world to explore through the classic Mario mechanics you’ve come to know and love. While I still find Cappy, your sentient hat, to be deeply disconcerting, using him to take control of various creatures and objects in your environment or simply to thwack everything in sight is unreasonably fun. Video games are one of the ultimate expressions of play, and Super Mario Odyssey looks like it is going to be sheer joy distilled into a weird, wonderful little package.

Honorable Mentions:

• Destiny 2: Activision and Bungie have upped the ante for their shared-world co-op FPS, and it’s looking better than ever. We can’t wait to play more this September.
• Dragonball FighterZ: Our excitement level for this Dragon Ball Z fighting game is over 8,000. Sorry, anime fans, but we’re staying true to the source material on this one.
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm: While you won’t be able to travel through time, this prequel to Life is Strange that puts you in the shoes of Arcadia Bae is one of our most anticipated summer releases.
• A Way Out: A co-op prison break game? Lock us up, then sign us up!
• Anthem: Is it the Mass Effect sequel we deserve? Only time will tell, but we are thirsty for more details about BioWare’s gorgeous-looking new sci-fi action RPG.

What were your favorite games from E3 2017? What would be on your list? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Nintendo

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Fans of the Fallout series had our minds nuked in late April with the announcement of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, “the first tabletop miniatures game based on the Fallout universe”. Geek & Sundry is proud to bring you exclusive details from official Vault-Tec data files on more content we can expect in FWW, along with a look at two as yet unrevealed miniatures!

Wasteland

When FWW launches to retail stores in November, the base game will be set in the Commonwealth, the area of and around Boston, Massachusetts, as it was made known in the hugely popular Fallout 4 video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks.

“We’re drawing on the breadth of content in Fallout 4 first (since there’s so much)”, said Modiphius’ Publishing Director Chris Birch. “The campaigns will feature a lot of well-known locations from Fallout 4”, he added, with more locations scheduled to be included in monthly game update packs.

As those game updates grow FWW, so will the locations available for play, eventually growing beyond the Commonwealth of Fallout 4 to include famous locations in the previous Fallout video games. Fallout 3 locations will be the first to follow, and “we have access to 1 and 2 as well but you’ll see a gradual roll out of factions, characters and expansions”, said Birch. “Fallout 3 and 4 will keep us pretty busy but we’re not forgetting about the others!”

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare will also closely follow the same factions as Fallout 4, with three playable factions at launch: Survivors, Super Mutants, and Brotherhood of Steel. “The Survivors consist of pretty much your settlement in Sanctuary Hills in Fallout 4 including Sturgess [sic], Preston Garvey, Ronnie, Mama Murphy, Piper and other allied groups,“ said Birch, “but they could be any group of survivors.”

Birch added that expansions will add more factions, including the Institute, Raiders, and everyone’s favorite, the Minutemen. “We’re planning a survey imminently to check which factions fans are really wanting first as that will help us tailor the schedule around the community.”

Of course, with those locations come the famous Fallout 4 characters we all know and love. The game will include male and female miniatures of the Lone Survivor at launch, with expected others such as Preston Garvey, Sturges, and Codsworth (Mr. Handy) from the Sanctuary Hills settlement. Birch says they will be surveying the Fallout community for their favorite characters to be added in the future, and that the list of obvious ones they’re currently working on includes Paladin Dance, Elder Maxson, Lancer-Captain Kells, Knight-Captain Cade, Dr. Zimmer & Armitage, Allie Filmore, Alana Secord, Curie (Miss Nanny), Boomer, Ack Ack, Sinjin, Hancock, X6-88 (Courser), and Strong.

Warfare

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare will have four play modes: standard (head-to-head) play, a narrative campaign arc, solo play against AI, and co-op play against AI. Standard, solo, and co-op play will have players choosing a faction force according to a Caps total, or based on a pre-made scenario. Caps are also used to buy more characters to fill out your crew, according to Birch, along with “equipment and weapon upgrades, consumables, settlement resources (which provide bonuses during your game) and more.”

The in game AI works by way of playing cards with “themed tactical responses and events based on specific factions or creatures,” said Birch. Upgrade packs will include more cards that function as faction-specific AI, “so no matter which sets you have, you’ll always have some enemies to play against on your own.”

The narrative play concept aims “to have a more story driven series of scenarios,” said Birch. “In the narrative missions what you achieve will have an effect on the next mission, a player’s forces will gradually increase in size and resources, you’ll get access to new options and so on.”

While it isn’t exactly the official Fallout tabletop RPG we want, Birch says “you can just take 3 or 4 characters and take them on a narrative based mission in the wasteland [sic] vs random creatures or an AI force so I think it will scratch the itch of a lot of people looking for small or large scale gaming in the Wasteland.”

Modiphius is working hard on having the base game fully set up for launch, but also already planning ahead for the future of the game. A huge Campaign expansion is being arranged “which introduces full advanced AI rules, building your crew from scratch, settlement building, and much more,” said Birch.

“There will be cards that introduce faction specific quests that once completed lead to another quest and this can give cool side objectives in missions that can really help your crew,” said Birch. “We’re looking at armour, weapons, chems, equipment upgrades, as well as consumables like grenades. You’ll be able to get better gear through the different expansions (including card decks or unit packs) so you can outfit your growing force.”

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is set for a November launch date, and will be available for pre-order “in the summer once Bethesda have signed off on the game and launch sets,” Birch said. “We’re aiming to launch in retail in November with the game first available at Essen Spiele.”

Base game and update pack prices are still being worked out, with Birch stating they are “obviously trying to get the best price for everyone.” Be sure to follow Chris Birch (@Modiphius), @Fallout, and @BethesdaStudios ‏for live Fallout: Wasteland Warfare updates!

On a scale of one radroach to Preston Garvey with word about a new settlement that needs your help, how excited are you for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare? Comment below!

Header image credit: Modiphius Entertainment Ltd/Bethesda

Article images credit: Modiphius Entertainment Ltd

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Bob Ross has painted his way into our hearts with his soothing voice, his low-key painting tutorials, and his general joy for life. So pairing the guy with a game that is all about the end of the world, fighting and scraping for survival seems like an odd choice, right? Regardless of the unique pairing, the evil geniuses over at the YouTube channel UpIsNotJump decided a Bob Ross/Fallout 4 mashup needed to happen. And thank goodness they did, because this is probably one of the best mashups I’ve seen in quite a while.

Ross takes us on a journey through post-apocalyptic painting that you won’t soon forget. While the video starts off playing on some of the unique/glitchy aspects of “painting” in a video game like trying to dip a brush into a permanently closed can of paint, things get intense pretty quickly. From using crafted weapons to fire paint at the canvas to stabbing the canvas with a knife, Ross gets a lot more intense in this painting session than we’ve ever seen on his old TV show.For how desolate the world of Fallout 4 can be, it is pretty nice to watch that world get a bit of Bob Ross sunshine, even if he’s a bit more aggressive than we’re used to. It proves that Bob Ross can brighten any day, even those days completely altering the world as we know it forever thanks to the hubris of man and the fallout from nuclear weapons.

What other game would you like to see mashup with Bob Ross? Would you watch a regular show with Ross painting in the Fallout 4 universe? Let us know in some happy little comments!

Featured Image: UpIsNotJump/Youtube

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Lock and load your BFG 9000s, troops! We’ve got demons to kill.

Fantasy Flight Games is releasing a new board game based on the beloved video game franchise DOOM with DOOM: The Board Game. In the video game series, you play as a United Aerospace Corporation elite marine who’s attempting to defeat an invading horde of demons at a facility on Mars. These first person shooters are both terrifying and ridiculously fun. Everything is trying to kill you. Horribly.

So how does Fantasy Flight turn a shoot-em-up video game into a board game? With a lot of creative thought, apparently. What they’ve developed is a complex, strategic, and replayable game for 2-5 players.

HOW IT WORKS

DOOM: The Board Game pits player against player rather than player against computer. One player takes on the role of The Invader. The Invader is the one opening portals and summoning demons to kill the marines. The remaining 1-4 players take on the roles of the marines attempting to survive and fend off the invasion.

The gameplay offers two operations of six missions each for the invader and marines to battle through. Every mission takes place on a unique map and presents a different set of objectives and threat levels. The invader’s goal will always be to murder the marines. Demons spawn from portals placed around the map, but how they behave will depend on if the invader draws the Horde, Infestation, or Assault threat cards. Demons vary in threat level and abilities.

The marines will have different win conditions each game, depending on what mission they draw. The marines all have the same base health points and sprinting ability, but they differ in class skills. Each marine also receives 10 starter action cards that include armor, pistol actions, and gun cards. Each card is either an action, a bonus action, or a reaction. Action and bonus cards can be chained together on a marine’s turn to cause massive damage. The reaction cards give bonuses to defending from demon attacks. But be warned, the Invader also has their own deck to rain fiery hell upon you all.

How it’s like the video games

First and foremost, the demons are straight out of DOOM, specifically Bethesda’s 2016 version. You can battle a Pinky, a Cacodemon, a Mancubus, and of course, everyone’s favorite rocket-shooting, horned badass the Cyberdemon. Just thinking about the Cyberdemon brings on flashbacks of rocket impacts to the face. Like the video games, each demon has its own strength and attack styles, forcing the marines to attempt different strategies to take them out.

The other similar element is totally unexpected, but sounds ridiculously fun, and that’s the ability for the marines to respawn. Again taking a cue from the digital version, the marines can respawn after being killed, but only a limited number of times. This ability allows the marines to play with the reckless abandon that’s expected of a UAC marine. When a demon’s health falls below a certain threshold, the marine can charge in to attempt a Glory Kill. If they die in the process, oh well! Just respawn.

But the real question I have is, “IS THERE GOD MODE?” I guess I’ll just have to play to find out. For more info, check out Fantasy Flight’s official blog.

What do you think about this board game edition of a classic shoot-em-up? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Image credits: Fantasy Flight Games

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Design an RPG that’s infinitely customizable. Build a virtual world seemingly without boundaries. Make a sandbox players can do anything they want in. The results have been unexpected, to say the least. Because even if those are the goals/hopes of game developers, it’s still unlikely that Bethesda ever expected an adventure with such strong themes of responsibility to emerge in what’s essentially the margins of Skyrim.

Which is to say that Patrick Lenton, author of a Man Entirely Made of Bats, was so consumed by the moral quandary of a certain side-quest that he pursued it to its most extreme end. And naturally, he Tweeted every step of the journey. The saga begins simply. Many Skyrim are surely familiar with the plight of the orphaned dog, Meeko.

worst part of Skyrim was when I found that dog whose owner died in a cabin, and then I of course had to adopt the dog bc i’m not a monster

— Patrick Lenton (@PatrickLenton) April 5, 2016

As conveyed by several dozen subsequent tweets, that opener led to many treacherous zigzags before Lenton reached the terse end point below. Think of them like stanzas in an epic poem. Turns out, even virtual pets are a huge burden. First, Lenton had to protect his reckless new dog from dragons and bandits. Then, he had to put major quests aside to build a house for it. Then, he needed to adopt a child to take care of the dog. But to do that, he needed a wife, so he then needed to court one, which brought on added domestic drama. And so on, and so on, in the endlessly-unfurling fashion that only an open-ended game like Skyrim can enable.  

@PatrickLenton i know that my dog is safe. THE END. THANK YOU — Patrick Lenton (@PatrickLenton) April 5, 2016

No true saga is complete without an epilogue, of course, and Lenton’s post-script angles this whole affair in terms all-too-relatable to any blogger. Or honestly, anybody who’s gone on long internet “tangents” while they could’ve done something a bit more constructive.

@annaspargoryan i can’t believe I wrote this instead of that article that will earn me money which is due today

— Patrick Lenton (@PatrickLenton) April 5, 2016

Not since John Wick has one dog caused such turmoil! What are your tensest Skyrim experiences? Have you turned a cold shoulder to Meeko yourself? Hit the talkback!

Featured Image Credit: Bethesda

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Being a big fan, I am always on the lookout for more exciting Fallout goodness and recently I made a discovery that had eluded me for years. J. E. Sawyer, project director and lead designer of Fallout: New Vegas, designed a Fallout tabletop roleplaying game!

It’s unofficial and sadly neglected, but for a roleplayer like me, it was pure joy to discover! Lots of people have been working to adapt Dungeons & Dragons, G.U.R.P.S, and other existing RPG systems for Fallout, but Sawyer’s game, called Simple, was designed specifically for the series. It uses a simplified version of Fallout’s notable S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system, sans the Luck stat. Sawyer first started working on the system in 2004 using a Wiki page. He never finished and sadly the page has since been shut down and erased. There is some hope though. A few intrepid sites sought to archive pieces of the Simple system and you can still find details at Nukapedia, a Fallout wiki.

Other plucky designers created Fallout: PNP. The game system returns the Luck stat to its rightful place in the stat block and uses an action point system similar to the video games. Driven by percentile dice, this system allows you to explore the wastes of Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: Tactics as a human, ghoul, super-mutant, deathclaw, robot, and even a dog.

You can still find a PDF of the game here and while it is considerably outdated, it is a playable system and gives us a look at what gamers can put together for the love of their fandom. You can also find a version of PNP that is prettier and cleaned up, but in the streamlining process, it lost the ability to play the some of the non-human races. Sorry Dogmeat. You can check out Paweł Dembowski’s PNP here.

I’m hoping in the future, someone will create an official system, but until then I’ll rely on current systems like D&D to run my Fallout games. Heck, the character sheets already exist thanks to redditor LiquidArson!

What systems would you use to play a Fallout roleplaying game? Have you ever played in a Fallout LARP? What kinds of characters do you want to play? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Image Credit: Bethesda

Image Credit: Interplay Entertainment, LiquidArson/Imgur

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Those that have been exploring the immense landscape created in Fallout 4 know that there’s a whole lot of landmarks and points of interest that need further examination. Whether you’re looking for a new settlement to make yourself comfy, or you’re just trying to locate a new vault filled with secrets, a handy Fallout 4 map would go a long way in making the whole process a bit more efficient.

[mpx_video type=”alpha” guid=”FbLqLKFOiU9cs6d2lD_qid85aI0fhXQ2″]

For that reason, we just had to share this impressively detailed fan-made map of the Commonwealth. Reddit user Koolkyle802 posted this map that has locations of settlements, vaults, bobble heads, magazines, and even threat levels. It’s a perfect guide for those trying to make use of their time efficiently. Peep the magic below.

You can click on the image to zoom in for all the nifty information. The map itself was put together using in-game screenshots and a little editing magic. Several online resources were used to pinpoint the important items scattered in the wasteland. Now that’s dedication.

It’s not going to be 100% accurate, but that doesn’t diminish its usefulness to all of the dwellers out there. If you have the time, and energy to help the cause, the project file was posted so that it can be improved upon by the community. One thing that does stand out about this map is just how massive the world of Fallout 4 is. It may not seem very large at first, especially when comparing it to other open-world titles, but this place is filled to the brim with things to do and places to get lost in.

Are you going to use this in your escapade? Are you going to help improve the map? Let us know in the comments below.

HT: Reddit

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Image: Bethesda

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The post apocalyptic game of exploration, survival, and occasional shenanigans that is Fallout is my favorite video game series. The fact that you can have so much control over the creation of your character and the openness of the world, makes this game appeal to the roleplayer in me, and just like in Dungeons and Dragons, you character has stats.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is the acronym Bethesda Softworks uses for character statistics in the Fallout franchise. Each stat represents an important aspect of your character and improves what your character can do such as how much weight you can carry or how many hit points you’ll get. Bethesda’s new Fallout 4 is coming out November 10th, so there is very little time to get your own stats topped out before the game releases! Here is a simple guide on how to raise your IRL S.P.E.C.I.A.L.’s to be the best Fallout player you can be!

Strength: You are going to have marathon sessions in front of your computer, so you are going to need to strengthen your mouse clicking muscles. Finger push-ups will get you the strength you need to play long into the night.

Perception: The wastelands are full of useful items and deadly enemies. Your five senses will need to be honed to a razors edge. Okay, maybe you won’t need your sense of taste for a computer game, but the rest will come in handy. (Seriously, do not lick your computer.) One way to top off your perception stat is to hold a staring contest with your cat. Your furry friend can stare at a wall for hours, how will you hold up against their incessant gaze? Your eyes will never have more intense work out.

Endurance: Do you have what it takes to wait in line all night to pick up Fallout 4 when it releases or are you one of those brilliant people that is downloading so they can play the second the game goes live? Regardless, you should not ignore this important stat, as it will sustain you through the longest of play sessions. Instead of driving, run to your local coffee shop several times and buy drinks packed with caffeine. Not only will your ability to sustain effort increase, but you will have a supply of coffee to back you up should your endurance fail.

Charisma: A large part of Fallout games is role-playing. You’ll be put in situations where you must convince people to do things such as hand over their extremely valuable food and weapons for old bottle caps. Being able to fast-talk your way out of any situation is key.

Intelligence: You may feel like you have been training your intelligence all your life after years and years of school, but you should know that improving oneself never ends. Make sure you set aside time to jack your intelligence score up by pouring over the old Fallout game guides, wiki’s, and fan sites. There is plenty of trivia to be found, that might just give you the edge you need to survive in the wastes. For example, did you know that Fallout 4 is not the only Fallout game that features a dog companion? Each game has a loyal hound to walk by your side including Rex, K-9, and the rather aptly named Dog Meat.

Agility: Heightened reflexes will allow you to react quickly to those surprise encounters with feral ghouls and deathclaws. An easy way to train this stat is to get 10 of your friends, hand them dodgeballs, and insult their parents. Learning how to weave and dodge a fusillade of incoming projectiles will certainly teach you a lot and show you which of your friends has the best throwing arm.

Luck: This is the hardest stat to raise. You either have luck or you don’t, but you can certainly use your newly increased perception to scour fields for a four-leafed clover or buy yourself a rabbit. If one rabbits foot is lucky, imagine how lucky four are (also, now you have a cute bunny! Win-win situation).

Sticking to this rigorous workout regime will make you the envy of every other vault dweller. Do you have other Fallout 4 preparedness exercises? Share them with us in the comments below!

Featured Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks

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