With E3 coming next week, news and rumors about what major developers/publishers will be showing off during the event are coming in at unprecedented speeds. One company that many of these rumors concern is Bethesda, and if they are to be believed, it has quite a lineup in store for everyone.
Titles that Bethesda is reportedly planning to show off during E3 2016 are a remaster for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Prey 2, Wolfenstein 2 and The Evil Within 2.
News of the Skyrim remaster originated from industry insider Shinobi602, as well as another apparent insider posting on NeoGAF as Enter the Dragon Punch. Typically, both would have gone under more scrutiny, but they also happened to be part of the Dead Rising leak from yesterday.
Speaking during a H.A.M. Radio podcast, Shinobi602 said, "I would expect a remaster of sorts [at Bethesda's press conference] ... for something."
Later, when German website GamePro.de published a story saying it was Skyrim, Enter the Dragon Punch corroborated the assumption in the associated NeoGAF thread by saying, "It's real."
According to Enter the Dragon Punch, the Skyrim remaster will include mods, all DLC and improved visuals. The DLC and improved visuals are a given, considering that all Skyrim DLC was included in the Legendary Edition, and improved visuals are mandatory if Skyrim is moving to the PS4/Xbox One.
With that in mind, the bombshell in the announcement is the addition of mods. Despite being released in 2011, Skyrim is still quite popular on PC, and mods are part of the reason for that. Console mod support is something that Bethesda has up and running in Fallout 4 on Xbox One, and it will be coming to the PS4 later this month, so everything will be ready (hopefully) by the time this alleged Skyrim remaster comes around.
As for the rest of the titles, there isn't as much information about them, but there have been some rumblings concerning a few of them prior to this report.
First off, there is Prey 2, which is believed to have been built from the ground-up by the Austin, Texas division of Dishonored developer Arkane, rather than around the Human Head-developed iteration that was discussed in 2011. The only thing going against it? Bethesda said in 2014 that the game was dead.
Wolfenstein: The New Order 2 was somewhat "leaked" when Alicja Bachleda-Curuś, the VA behind Anya from the first game, strongly suggested in September 2015 that a new Wolfenstein was in the works when she said, "[W]e're making a second one, which will take two more years."
Lastly, while there has been no mention of a sequel to The Evil Within 2 prior to these reports, one was expected since it did well and developer Tango Gameworks has been quiet since all DLC for the first game was in mid-2015.
If these rumors pan out, then Bethesda is certainly poised to top last year's E3 announcements. Now, all that's left is to wait until Sunday, June 12 at 10:00 p.m. EDT/7:00 p.m. PDT to see if it's true. The full schedule for E3 2016, and how to watch every press conference live, can be seen here.
