Coming in to this year’s E3, Bethesda’s conference was probably the one I was most curious about. What would they show? What would they say about Fallout 76? What does the future of Bethesda look like in the coming years? We know about Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 but with those games still years away what can we expect in the meantime? Did Bethesda step up and right the wrongs of last year? Well, keep reading because I’m not just gonna tell you in the first paragraph.

The Good

Fixing Fallout 76

When Fallout 76 was first announced I couldn’t have been more excited. The idea of playing a new Fallout game with my friends sounded amazing. As the game started being shown off more and more and members of the media were able to get their hands on, reception for the game wasn’t too high. The game just wasn’t Fallout. On top of the game not being what fans were hoping for, the game released broken. Between bugs and server crashes, the game was left unplayable for many. This year at E3, Bethesda didn’t run for their misstep, but instead faced it head on with free updates coming later this year.

With the addition of a Battle Royale mode and a free update coming later this year that adds things like dialogue trees and human NPC’s, Fallout 76 is finally shaping up to finally be the game that fans were hoping for when it launched last year.

Something New

One of my big complains about the Microsoft conference was that they didn’t show off anything new, even if was just a cinematic trailer. Well, I said Bethesda’s future was in question and they were more than happy to show everyone what new titles they have in store for fans down the road. From the creators of Evil Within 1 and 2 comes GhostWire: Tokyo, a game that puts players in charge of stopping some sort of paranormal monsters from causing the people of Tokyo to disappear. The trailer looked incredible and with the pedigree of the developers working on the game I have complete confidence that this is going to be a great game.

The other big new title that was shown was DEATHLOOP. Dishonored developer Arkane Studio’s game that pits two assassins against one another with one big catch. Every time one of the assassin’s kills the other, time starts all over again and the assassins find themselves right back where they started. While the trailer for DEATHLOOP looked great, there’s a lot left to the imagination for what this game could possibly be. With that said though, my excitement for this game is still high.

Bethesda’s Busy Year

On top of hopefully fixing Fallout 76 and announcing two brand new games, Bethesda also showed off two big titles they have coming out later this year: DOOM Eternal and Wolfenstein: YoungBlood.

DOOM Eternal looks like the same run and gun madness that players got from the last Doom game only this time things are turned up to 11. This game looks absolutely insane and I cannot wait to jump back in and see what surprises ID Software has for me. As for Youngblood, Wolfenstein is a series that I’ve dabbled with but have never been able to fall in love with, but with the announcement that Youngblood with offer a co-op mode, I think this might be the year that I finally jump on the Wolfenstein bandwagon.

The Bad

Gameplay… Please?

It would be very hypocritical of me to criticize Bethesda putting out cinematic trailers for games that may not be out for another year or two when I wished Xbox would have done the same thing. Don’t worry, that’s not what I’m going to do. Instead, I’m going to criticize the fact that Bethesda didn’t show off gameplay for games that are are already out. We saw gameplay for Fallout 76 and it was a great way to remind me what kind of game that was, and as someone who has been on the fence for Elder Scrolls Online for years now, it would have been great to be reminded what kind of game that is as well.

The Ugly

The press conference was going really great and then the words Free to Play Mobile Game was said and all of the oxygen left the room. I’m sure that Commander Keen will find an audience of younger players and hopefully for Bethesda become a big hit but when you’re holding a conference where Demons are being ripped apart and Nazis are being shot in half, I don’t know that showcasing a game like Commander Keen is really the best idea.

Overall Score: B+

I wasn’t expecting a lot from Bethesda and maybe that’s why I enjoyed their conference as much as I did, but that doesn’t change the fact that I thought they absolutely nailed their conference. Maybe the pacing was off a little bit during certain game trailers, but their showcase of great games not only coming out this year but for the next couple years more than made up for it.