Quake Champions, the new competitive shooter from id Software, was announced at E3 2016. To the cheers of the crowd, the famous studio presented the first cinematic trailer, showing the bloody battles between the game's characters.

Quake Champions is positioned as the heir to the Quake series, or rather, their multiplayer part. The game is a hurricane arena shooter. Unlike their predecessors, the characters in the novelty from id Software are different and have unique abilities, and the game, accordingly, belongs to the class-based FPS genre. Local heroes are called Champions, hence the name of the game. Supporters of classless shooters should not despair - classic DM, where all heroes are equal, is also announced.

Dynamics and old-school hardcore from Quake Champions are rushing. Crazy speed, legendary rocket jumps and the skill of the player - that's what the developers are betting on. At the moment, Quake Champions is only announced for the PC platform.

In an inconvenient for most Russians, the presentation of Bethesda began. From 5 am on June 13, an amazing number of games were shown, some of which flashed in the press in quality. A squeeze of announcements and trailers for those who overslept everything.

Quake Champions

The seed turned out for those who love to combine nostalgia and new game techniques. Announced multiplayer shooter Quake Champions, exclusively for PC.

Developers from id Software announced from the stage that the project will be directed towards e-sports and they will launch several tournaments at lightning speed at the same time as the release. The debut trailer looks really good. The game itself promises a lot of classes, maps and weapons. We will get more data in August at QuakeCon.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends

A nod to Hearthstone - The Elder Scrolls: Legends. Online card game in your favorite universe for PC and mobile platforms. In the same block, it is stated that Fallout: Shelter will come to PC.

Updated The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Something that everyone was guessing about. They showed a remaster of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for current consoles and PC. On October 28, everyone will receive a game with a pack of all DLCs, an improved picture and mod support. Steam users who have previously purchased it and add-ons will receive new version is free.

A little later, they talked about a new addition to The Elder Scrolls Online called "Dark Brotherhood". In addition, the BethesdaVR program was announced from the stage, within which and for virtual reality glasses will appear.

Prey

A few more new games followed: a spectacular relaunch of the long-term action game Prey. The project is in no way related to what we were shown before, and is being created by the creators of Dishonored - Arkane Studios.

The protagonist participates in an experiment to improve a person, but gets into trouble with aliens, eventually becoming a target for hunting by people and aliens. The sci-fi thriller will premiere in 2017 for PC. Xbox One and PS4. And Fallout 4 will get three minimalistic additions: Vault-Tec, Nuka-World and Contraptions. In one of them they will let you build shelters!

Dishonored 2

The largest block of the exhibition was assigned to the sequel Dishonored: it is understandable, because the game already looks phenomenal and cool. So the new city is called Cornaco, storyline can be completed in two ways: playing as Corvo Attano or as Emily Kaldwin.

The gameplay trailer blows the tower: the atmosphere of the original in a pleasant combination with fresh architecture and an original story. Emily has a bunch of powerful abilities, like hypnosis on people and dogs or mass techniques for a large number of opponents.

They promise well-developed chips from Corvo, as well as a skill development tree that can be managed in a more variable manner.

The release is scheduled for November 11 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. At the same time, a collector's edition with a canonical mask will appear on sale.

"Disgusting Men" is leading from E3 2016, which is now in full swing. Our conference report

Before the Bethesda conference, there were active rumors that the company will present Quake 5 at E3 2016. The sources of these rumors were not mistaken - the studio ID Software really busy working on a new part of Quake, the debut trailer of the new shooter, which opened the Bethesda show.

The new game has been named Quake Champions. The person who wrote the code for the original game came on stage and talked about the continuation of the multiplayer arena. According to him, the main element of Quake has always been the speed of movement and the rapid dynamics of what is happening. They promised to make the new game true to the roots of the series, including maintaining incredible dynamics and speed.

Quake Champions will challenge the most notorious esports players, but will also be of interest to ordinary players. According to an id Software representative, at the time of the conference they will limit themselves to showing the debut video, but over the next few months they will share all the details of the new project.

Among the platforms on which the game will appear, only personal computers were mentioned. According to the site, at the conference, the developers did not announce a version for consoles, but noted that they remain devoted to the PC even 20 years after the release of the very first part of Quake.

Just a year ago, we rejoiced wildly when id Software described their future in very correct words. doom. Guns, gore, rhythm - exactly what was expected from that game, and it was very nice to realize that the developers understand this.

Now, at QuakeCon 2016, they talk about the new part Quake, subtitled Champions. And again, the very words that are expected of them.

Key word: speed

As wild as the relaunched Doom was, it was still accused from time to time of the "doom-marine" running slower. It is clear why the pace has slowed down - in the early Doom and Quake it would be fundamentally impossible to aim on the gamepad, and new game yet adapted to all current platforms.

But Quake Champions will be exclusive to PC. And the very first word that sounded at the presentation was “speed”. Watch the gameplay video. Compare the novelty with any shooter with console roots. Yes, that's the pace Quake 2 and 3 were played at. And that's the pace Quake Champions will be played at.

This is the most classic arena multiplayer shooter. With weapons appearing on the map strictly according to the timing. With a complex and intricate level structure, where the advantage is the one who has studied all the corners and outlined all the routes in advance. With rocketjumps, finally - a jump on a rocket explosion here throws up a good seven floors. And there is jumping, and strafjumping. Almost all of the advanced movement techniques you learned fifteen years ago should be used in Quake Champions.

id, as the developers say, has many projects, but few people, so the main work on Champions is done in New York-Petersburg Saber Interactive. But this does not mean that the development was given to them at the mercy of the whole.

Now there are heroes here too

The main innovation regarding Quake 3 ( Quake 4 and Enemy Territory we don’t take it into account, they are good, but too ... different) that heroes and skills appeared. The division into classes here is not as rigid as in Overwatch, where each has one gun and a bunch of skills. In Champions, you use any weapon that you can find on the map, just in addition, each hero has a nice bonus that can help in battle and partly change the style of combat.

The heroes themselves are familiar to us, it's just that in Quake 3: Arena they were strictly decorative images, but here they gained their abilities. For example, Visor can from time to time highlight the silhouettes of enemies through walls, and Nyx (we assume that a relative of Mynx from the third part) becomes invisible and invulnerable for a few seconds, hiding from enemy fire.

In total, a dozen heroes are expected at the start. Then there will be more of them, although here, of course, there is a difficulty in maintaining a balance.

Ranger teleports short distances (remember the translocator from Unreal Tournament), the Scale Bearer accelerates and blows everyone in its path, tearing to shreds (like a bull in a bullfight or, if you like, the Juggernaut from the X-Men). The lizardman Skorlagg is slightly more survivable than the others, and can spit acid, leaving puddle traps. Familiar from the third part of Anarky is accelerating, newcomer Galina places strengthening or slowing down totems, and so on.

At the same time, many skills operate on the principle of "rock-paper-scissors". If the overclocked Scalebearer runs to Minx, and she suddenly disincarnates, he will simply run through and get shot in the back. But against Vaysor, the trick is useless: if he enlightens the surroundings, he will see the invisible. Skills are recharged in thirty to forty seconds, depending on the character, and the only way this is to speed up - collect bonuses in the form of an hourglass on the map.

Cannons - you've already seen them

Development lead Tim Willits specifically draws our attention to the fact that abilities are like another set of guns that you can experiment with. All heroes are geared towards combat - no "tanks" or healers.

As for weapons, here we get a wild combination of the arsenals of the first and third Quake. For the most part, however, this is a proven set of Q3: assault rifle, shotgun, lightning gun, railgun, glove with circular saws, rocket launcher. From the first part, only a nail gun was taken: it is more powerful than a machine gun, but the bullets do not reach the target instantly, you need to calculate the lead.

What fate befell the grenade launcher, plasma gun and, most importantly, the BFG, is not known. Or rather, the developers, of course, know, but do not say yet.

* * *

How Quake Champions will be distributed (for a fee? for free? with a subscription?) is not mentioned at id. They don't know yet. The game is definitely due out next year, and the developers are confident that they will be able to shake up the online competitive shooter genre. Things like lawbreakers suspiciously cheerfully striving for the same niche, but still, it was with Quake that esports began at one time.

And it would be time for the veteran to return to it.