E3 2021 round-up: Announcements from Bethesda, Square Enix and Warner Bros

Bethesda’s anticipated sci-fi RPG Starfield got a release date of November 11th, 2022. Although this is over a year off, having a solid date and some footage to watch makes it more concrete than ever.

We see an astronaut from a first-person perspective having lunch, walking through his base, and starting up his spaceship to take off. It’s a glimpse, but one that lets the imagination run wild. Starfield is set to be a PC and Xbox exclusive.

Master Chief is set to return in Halo Infinite coming in Holiday 2021. A trailer for the single-player campaign revealed a new AI character into the mix instead of Cortana which introduces an element of mystery in the story.

A separate look at the multiplayer showed that its free to play and features a grappling hook mechanic. After being delayed, it’s nice to see Halo Infinite coming along swimmingly.

Two more Microsoft sequels of note include Age of Empires IV and Forza Horizon V. Age of Empires IV is the first sequel in the series in over a decade. The trailer didn’t show anything too surprising, but real-time strategy fans wanting to play in historical settings should get their fill October 28th, 2021.

Age of Empires IV’s logo appears to show Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan, so maybe that’s a hint for the single-player campaigns?

Forza Horizon V is set in Mexico this time around with a release of November 9th, 2021. Graphics look better than ever, so it should be fun to drive around in another locale later this year.

Continuing their relationship with Marvel, Square Enix showed off a Guardians of the Galaxy single-player game coming October 26th, 2021. You play as Star-Lord, although other members of your team can help with special attacks.

It’s not meant to take place in the movie universe, but it takes inspiration from it including a selection of 1980s music. Square Enix is well known for their Final Fantasy series, so it was fun to see an announcement of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.

These individual releases of the first six games in the classic RPG saga are coming soon to Steam PC and mobile. Animations and tiny screenshots scrolled around during the trailer, but these appear to be the original versions and not mobile Steam ports that have previously been available - very curious as how these will be priced given the age of the games.

More surprising was Strange of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. A third-person action RPG in the vein of Dark Souls from Team Ninja, Stranger of Paradise takes place during the setting of the very first Final Fantasy game with a moody group of heroes. Action looked fast and fierce, and it’s set for a 2022 release date.

Warner Bros. went all in showing off Back 4 Blood. A new game from the creators of the acclaimed Left 4 Dead series, a unique 4v4 Swarm PvP mode was shown where players swap off between playing as either the Cleaners (the humans) or the Ridden (the zombies).

After a round, players swap the side they are playing on. Cleaners play from a first-person perspective and Ridden play from a third-person perspective.

Switching sides between rounds looks like a fun way to mix things up in this featured mode. Players can choose different characters which have different advantages and disadvantages.

Looks like a lot of variety of play! Back 4 Blood is set for an October 12th, 2021 release.