In the awkward and bizarre “Bethesdaland” format, Bethesda has presented their upcoming games for the remainder of 2017. The surprisingly short press conference failed to impress us, and many others with us, to the point that everything seemed a bit underwhelming. And here’s why.
From the moment Global Vice President of PR & Marketing Pete Hines welcomed us to the 2017 edition of Bethesda’s E3 press conference, anticipation was slowly rising. Would they finally reveal their mystery project? Rumour had it Bethesda was working on something new and exciting, after all. What about “The Elder Scrolls 6”? Would we finally get a sequel to 2011’s “Skyrim”? Would we be gasping for air after kick-ass presentations and trailers?
TLDR: We didn’t.
Bethesda’s choice to provide us with a virtual tour to their playground ‘where there’s something for everyone’ was a strange choice, as there was no room whatsoever for audience participation. This was a bad sign from the start: a silent audience is a bored audience, and E3 doesn’t need bored audiences. It needs audiences that go wild, scream out of excitement, join up for E3 rehab programmes, etc.
The press conference focused first on VR updates of popular games such as Doom and Fallout 4. Although promised as “full games”, the trailers did not really convince me. Why bother with creating VR versions of these games anyway? Albeit, being able to walk around in a post-apocalyptic world in Power Armour, or blasting the f*ck out of strange hellspawn might be fun, these VR editions are only interesting to the few who are affluent enough to own VR systems.
UPDATE: Apparently Skyrim VR was also announced during the Playstation Press Conference
After the trailers to these games, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Bethesda would address the cash cow which was already roaming the auditorium. Would the entire presentation be about updates, sequels, DLC, and derivatives of past successful games?
Sadly, yes.
The presentation continued by focusing on the cornerstones of Bethesda, namely expansive open worlds and player’s choice to be able to do whatever they want in fantastic worlds previously unknown to them. The follow-up to this statement was the announcement of a new expansion for “The Elder Scrolls Online”, “Morrowind”, which was already available. Way to go focusing on a game that is already available, Bethesda. Are you using E3 for commercials now?
It’s no secret that the Morrowind expansion of TESO has been heavily promoted across a variety of media channels. The audience was treated to a commercial slash first reaction video by fans of the MMORPG, which told us that the game was only going to get bigger with more cities (Imperial City, Orsinium) and guild (Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Shadows of the Hist), and a homestead, with later additions such as Horns of the Reach and the Dwemer settlement of “Clockwork City” soon following later this year. The gamers in the trailer proudly boasted that ‘this was what they’ve been wanting’. My thought: well, maybe we want new and original games, but who am I to decide about these things.
The next ‘big reveal’ was not exactly a game, but more of an in-house mod community accurately named “Creation Club”. This multi-platform environment (Xbox One, PS4, PC) will focus on adding official game content to already existing games such as Fallout 4 and Skyrim. The ‘club’ element basically refers to the fact that Bethesda Game Studios is going to work together with outside developers to provide micro-DLC to the gamers out there. Basically, “Nexus Mod” behind a paywall. What’s the goal of this? Prolonging the lifespan of both games? Remember that Fallout 4 and Skyrim are already a couple of years old.
Can someone hear the obnoxiously loud mooing mixed with the sound of coins dropping on the floor?
After the mini-sidestep to modding, Bethesda continued their luke-warm game announcements, this time focusing on their own “Hearthstone” clone, The Elder Scrolls Legends. In a trailer – what is it with all these trailers, Bethesda – it was revealed that their digital card game would get new content in the form of a Chaos Arena, Dark Brotherhood Story Content, In-Game Tournaments, and a Skyrim Expansion called “Heroes of Skyrim”. Yaay I guess? Come on, Bethesda, E3 is for big announcements, not for DLC and expansions.
Then the presentation took a turn. A poppy, upbeat song was playing, normally associated with Nintendo’s Switch gaming system. Could it be? A new game by Bethesda, specifically designed for Switch?
Nope! It’s just the announcement that “Skyrim” (released in 2011) will be coming to Nintendo Switch. Yes. A game that is already 6 years old, and which can be played on PC, XBOX One, and PS4, now also gets a release on that other gaming console. And what’s even cooler, you can play as Link from Zelda! Something which you could already do unofficially on all the other platforms thanks to a very eager modder with an unnatural fixation on Zelda. Whooptidoo, Bethesda, that’s exactly what we were waiting for: a game that was visually stunning a couple of years ago, and still is today thanks to a beautiful mod community, being released on yet another gaming system, just for the hell of it.
The cash cow is now squirting liquid dollar notes out of its udders. Or is it running dry?
Next up, a cinematic trailer announcing DLC (or is it an expansion) for Dishonored 2, named ”Death of the Outsider”, which promises to be ‘a story of revenge and the ultimate assassination’ of the sinister baddie that started all of the problems: the Outsider himself. I wonder what they might do after you’ve killed the being that gave you all these cool powers. Retire and grow tomatoes? Go whaling? Play backgammon all day? Who knows! Maybe there’s some DLC in that too!
The Dishonored 2 trailer was quickly followed by a new event for all those e-sports gamers out there. It was time to bring things back to the original PvP game, a game that was so perfect even I still vividly dream about it: Quake Champions, the new instalment to the old-school frag-fest that was Quake. It all looked and sounded very similar to the original games, to the point that I had the idea that this was made for the fans, as there is a multitude of online PvP shooters out there that focus on chaos and mayhem. It was ‘over 20 years in the making’, and the game is to be seen as the ‘return of the original sport’. Were we actually waiting for this one? Of course, I do not want to be overly critical of this, but what can I say about a trailer that gives me NO INFORMATION WHATSOEVER about the actual game, besides the inclusion of B.J. Blazkowicz as a new character?
The Evil Within 2 was announced, with a release date set for October 2017. Perhaps there is something to look forward to? Well, the original game received overall good reviews, but on delivery, it was not the Bethesda quality we were promised. Also, the trailer was ‘generic horror game trailer being generic, complete with jump scare clichés and plot twists that resemble cash cow horror movies (she didn’t die after all! Oh no!).
And lastly, we finally got something new and exciting: in a quirky live action trailer, we get introduced to a not so cute robot dog named “Liesel”. Could it be, after all of the sequels, expansions, DLC, and derivatives, we FINALLY got something worth considering as a ‘new game’?
Oh no wait, it’s actually a sequel too…
A blend of cinematics and gameplay footage introduced us to the next instalment in the Wolfenstein series, namely Wolfenstein 2: the new colossus, brandishing the return of Frau Irene – Face-Off – Engel, only actually remodelled by plastic surgery. What followed was a blend of story and action scenes, promising a bigger game, focusing this time on the revolution to take back the USA from the Nazis. I actually can be positive about this, it looks freaking cool!
The cash cow also hides nazi gold in its own private vault of Emmertaler Bank
In general, this press conference was a huge disappointment. It’s a shame that Bethesda did not announce one game that was not either a sequel, a part of an already existing franchise, DLC, or remastered/updated versions of previously-released games. Furthermore, it all seemed like this developer wants to get as much money out of their past successes as possible, focusing on ‘more of the same’ instead of ‘new and original’. What were the core ideas of Bethesda again? A focus on expansive open worlds and player’s choice? Well, sadly, they didn’t give us much choice than to continue down the same road.
I’m pretty sure Bethesda will deliver decent games the rest of the year, but I’m worried by their focus on ‘more of the same’ rather than ‘daring and innovative’.
