This year's E3 gaming conference began with one of the industry's current heavy hitters, Bethesda, announcing two new games in a blatant "more smoke than fire" kind of way. Deep down, we knew why Quake Champions and the Prey reboot got such content-thin reveals back in June: because Bethesda had to save something for its giant, weekend-long QuakeCon festival.

That event kicked off in Grapevine, Texas, on Thursday with gameplay reveals for both games, though Quake Champions' 75-second video was more revealing. The upcoming Quake-branded online shooter from id Software was shown in what looks like a fully functional pre-alpha state. Champions' combat was shown from an apparent first-person, mid-combat perspective, along with a few floating-camera shots of at least three arenas that look like modern upgrades of the castle, sewer, and factory settings from its forebear, 1999's Quake III Arena.





id Software



The verticality is strong in this one, as the QC sequence's combatants take advantage of booster-jump pads and their own rocket jumps to bounce around large, well-decorated arenas. While some details—particularly a giant, chained eyeball—are rendered well and smothered in cool lighting effects, other parts of the reveal look less polished than id's other recent, major shooter, the Doom reboot from earlier this year. This seems intentional, as id has advertised support for 120 Hz monitors for the sake of twitchy, high-speed gameplay—and QC's reveal looks mighty fast, packed to the brim with running, bunny-hopping, and precise railgun kills. (Clearly, the squad working on QC wants to evoke your fondest Q3A memories, what with a combatant who looks a lot like the hoverboard-riding character Anarki from the game of old!)

We'll have to wait until "2017" (no month or season yet announced) to test QC's speed-to-quality ratio once its first open beta launches.

Meanwhile, Prey's "gameplay" reveal appears to contain all in-engine footage of the upcoming first-person shooter. The reveal uses cinematic editing and apparent cut-scene camera framing to look a little bit sweetened compared to how the game will play when it actually launches (which Bethesda says will happen "in 2017"). Unlike the Blade Runner-esque, futuristic bounty-hunting action of the canceled Prey 2, this take on Prey looks to hinge on slower gunplay, mysterious monsters, and psychological horror, should this debut trailer be telling the truth about what to expect.

Honestly, having seen a lengthy, behind-closed-doors sequence of pre-alpha Prey 2 gameplay, complete with a harrowing, leap-filled chase between giant, neon-tinged buildings, I'm surprised to see such a drastic turn in how this newer version will play. Then again, the Prey 2 version I saw may have been a smoke-and-mirrors trick to prop up a game that otherwise stunk. Them's the breaks with canceled video games, I suppose.

Both revealed games will have dedicated panels at this year's QuakeCon, which may include more gameplay reveal footage or at least more specific details. We'll keep our eyes and ears wide open for more information as QuakeCon frags along.

Listing image by id Software