Take It Or Leave It – E3 2015 – Bethesda

Welcome to Take It Or Leave It, E3 2015 edition! It’s that time of the year again, when gamers come together and learn about the titles that will be leaving their wallets aching and hollow over the next year. Here, I will go over each of the major showcases with brief descriptions and reviews of what was announced, in typical Take It Or Leave It style.

E3 2015 marked the very first time that Bethesda Studios had their own showcase. Kicking things off the night before most of the others had their turn, there was some pressure on them to be entertaining and make the show worthwhile.

Bethesda’s Briefing It may not be very surprising considering the games they promised to show off, but they started the festivities by damn near blowing the roof off of the place. While there was very little in the way of brand new game announcements, the content and amount of gameplay shown more than made up for it. They even had former hosts of G4TV’s X Play, Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb host the pre- and post-shows (extra props to them for hitting me right in the nostalgia with that one). Good luck to them when it comes to topping all of this next year. Verdict: Definitely Take It

Doom The grand daddy of demon-slaughtering shooters is back, and we finally got to see some real gameplay from the long-awaited game. “BFG”s, chainsaws, over the top violence, everything fans have come to love about the series seems to be here in full force, along with some new little treats like melee finishing moves. Doom SnapMap will also allow anyone to make and share their own custom maps and game modes. Remake the classic horde mode, put your own Doom spin on Call of Duty‘s Zombies mode, it looks like the possibilities are pretty much endless here. Verdict: Take It

	Bethesda.net This new website will basically act like Rockstar’s “Social Club”, serving as a social hub for every game in Bethesda’s arsenal. Access game forums, share creations and see the latest news on everything they have to offer. Verdict: Probably Take It

	Battlecry It’s about time Team Fortress 2 saw some real competition. This looks to mimic the same formula of gameplay focused around competitive multiplayer mayhem, with the main difference being that the vast majority of characters don’t use guns. Whether this will take off is still yet to be seen, but there’s certainly potential in it. Verdict: Unsure

	Dishonored 2 The only new announcement as far as full games go, the sequel to the 2012 hit offers the choice of playing as Corvo once again, or the new badass lady known as Emily, each with their own set of powers and play style. The story looks more like it revolves around corruption than revenge this time, but it still looks very interesting. Verdict: Take It

	Dishonored: Definitive Edition . . . And if you’re looking for a reason to play the original – for the first time or once again – the original is coming back to the newer platforms, with all of the additional content and the visuals upgraded along with it. You know, the typical stuff for a re-release like this. Verdict: Take It

Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Having just recently dropped the monthly subscription fee and releasing on consoles, the developers now focus on releasing consistent new content. Some of that new content coming in the near future was teased during the show, including a return to the classic Imperial City, which looks to be in even more trouble than it was in Oblivion. Verdict: Probably Take It

The Elder Scrolls: Legends HOLY SHIT A NEW ELDER SCRO — Oh, it’s a card game. Well, not a whole lot to say about this one . . .  mostly because not much was said. All we know at this point is that it’s a strategic card game, it has pretty cool art, and it mainly focuses on the stories and lore of the Skyrim and Online games, though I get a strange feeling there will be expansions that focus on the earlier stuff, too. I’m not much of a fan of this type of game myself, so it’s gonna take more than pretty pictures to sell me on it. Verdict: Maybe Leave It

Fallout 4 Finally!! There was an insane amount of gameplay and features shown here, from the incredibly detailed customization of your character (who is finally no longer a mute), to brand new features like gun creation, power armor customizing, and settlement building / defending. Other characters may even say your name if it’s among the approximately 1,000 “most popular.” Oh, and it comes out this year! November 10th, to be more precise. Verdict: Definitely Take It

Fallout Shelter In the middle of showing off all of the Fallout 4 goodness, Bethesda decided to head over to the mobile gaming side of things and announce Fallout Shelter, a free-to-play game where you get to play as a vault’s Overseer, maintaining your own vault and its inhabitants. Make them work on their stats, control who heads out into the wasteland for supplies, have them make babies . . . all while making sure they stay happy. It seems like Windows Phones were completely ignored here (AGAIN), so I can’t try this out for myself yet, but it is out now for most current iOS devices and should be on Android very soon. Verdict: Probably Take It

Jeremy Harrison has been into gaming and just about everything nerdy or out of the norm for as long as he can remember. He likes to keep an open mind about things, but also has a strangely high amount of fun getting into a rant or good debate. . . which is probably why he was recruited to this site in the first place. You can Email Jeremy or follow Jeremy on Twitter @NightmareAsylum or Facebook