The Worst: The Insidious March to Mobile Continues
Sorry, but mobile games just aren’t why we come to E3, and this year Bethesda devoted a sizable portion of their time on stage to their growing mobile push. Along with already-announced games like Blades and Legends, we had to endure a “big reveal” for the cutesy Commander Keen, a dreadful little kid-oriented phone game that’s sure to follow in the dubious footsteps of other micro transaction-focused titles and separate young people from their money with ruthless efficiency. And let’s not even get into the disservice this does to a classic PC IP. Look game companies, we get it, the wads of money you make on these apps is impossible to resist and you are a business after all — fine. Just don’t expect us to get hyped when you use the E3 stage as free ad time for your latest mobile cash-grab.
The Worst: Still No More on Starfield or Elder Scrolls VI
As in, nothing. Nada. Not even a vague teaser trailer for either title. For Elder Scrolls VI, we could have had a long slow zoom-in on a misty castle with some drum-heavy music. Maybe a raspy-voiced old man speaking a vague quote or two. Starfield might have shown us some wide-angle space scenes, nothing detailed — just anything to give us an idea of what we can expect. We genuinely expected, after a whole year since the last E3, to hear some little tidbits, but sadly we’ll have to wait even longer for anything, it seems. Our fingers will remained crossed for another year. Here, check out the same generic screen-grab we showed you last year, because thanks to Bethesda that’s all we’ve got to show you right now.
The Worst: No New Fallout Titles, Ports or Remasters
While it’s great to see Bethesda so committed to supporting Fallout 76, it would have been nice to at least hear mention of plans for the next installment of the Fallout single-player series. Now of course, nobody is expecting a Fallout 5 any time soon, but it wouldn’t be completely crazy to hear at least a hint about when and where the company plans to take the series next. Or, failing that, how about remasters of such classics as New Vegas or Fallout 3? Bringing Fallout 4 VR to more platforms would make sense. A Fallout 4 Switch port? Ok, that’s reaching. But if Bethesda has any such plans in mind, they gave away nothing at E3 2019. The fear that some fans had back when Fallout 76 was announced was that Bethesda might divert their resources and attention to it at the expense of the single-player titles. Let’s just hope that doesn’t turn out to be true.
That’s our take on the Bethesda E3 2019 Press Conference. What did you think? Were you there? Or did you watch it at home? Maybe on the toilet? Ok, on second thought we don’t want to know that part. But seriously, what were your best and worst moments? Tell us in the comments below!