E3 2019: Checkpoint Report Card – Bethesda

Photo by Christine Solis / Checkpoint XP

Bethesda is pretty new to the E3 press conferences realm as this year is only their 5th year. However, Bethesda does have notable franchises that are near and dear to fans' hearts such as Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls. Let's see how Checkpoint grades Bethesda's Showcase!

Go away, I’m playing the Fallout battle royale.

Grade: A+

In years past, I feel like Bethesda has alternating years. Two E3s ago we got the dreaded, cringey Bethesda-Land and then in 2018 we got the amazing announcements of Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls 6 title card and even at the time Blades seemed really cool. Regardless of how all of these turned out, the reception at the time was pretty great. So I didn’t expect a lot out of Bethesda this year, however, they showed a lot of really exciting stuff. There’s plenty here for current fans to salivate over, whether its Fallout 76, Rage 2, Elder Scrolls: Online or Doom. Any Bethesda fan has a great year to look forward too. They also showed Ghostwire Tokyo, something brand new that looks equal parts terrifying and amazing. We were also introduced to one of my new favorite industry personalities, Creative Director of Tango Gameworks, Ikumi Nakamura. Whom we must protect at ALL costs. All of this would’ve been enough for me to give Bethesda a decent score and call it a day. They are, after all, a Game Developer with a great pedigree. I’d never think they would stand toe to toe against the hardwaresoftware companies like Microsoft or Sony... but then Orion came across the screen. I don’t know that a lot of people quite get it yet. However, this was a big reason I’m not just bumping Bethesda’s score up, I’m also naming them my E3 winner. Developing tech that will help streaming (which is THE Future of gaming) that benefits both developers and the consumer is nuts! On top of that, this isn’t just something Bethesda benefits from. All of Microsoft's great tech announcements help out one person, Microsoft (and their consumers, sure). Bethesda has developed Orion to be used by anyone who wants to. Which means if it works and if it catches on, we all win.

Grade: A

This was supposed to be an off year for Bethesda. Fallout 76 was panned by the community (some of it deserved, most of it not). The next installment of Elder Scrolls was confirmed next gen. And Rage 2 has only been out for a month. I repeat, this was NOT supposed to be a good E3 from Bethesda. But they came out and somehow had a better keynote than last year. Yes, better. The have a litany of offerings that are free to play, announced human NPCs and dialogue trees being added to Fallout 76, announced Wolfenstein: Youngblood, announced the incredibly creepy Ghostwire: Tokyo (and gave us E3 2019 Meme #2: Ikumi Nakamura) and showed off gameplay for Doom Eternal. That alone would be a great show, but it was the reveal of Orion that stole the show for me. The platform agnostic app is specifically made to make streaming games more efficient and cost less bandwidth for both consumer and developer. Should this be adopted with any sort of scale it could be a complete windfall similar to the Unreal Engine for Epic. I’m shook. Bethesda wins E3 2019.

Grade: A

Wow. In a year where we got nothing on Elder Scrolls or Starfield, I still came away from the Bethesda conference very impressed. While I don’t really care about Fallout 76, or any of the mobile titles, there were a bunch of announcements that really spoke to me. The new horror game Ghostwire: Tokyo comes from the makers of The Evil Within, which means we can all look forward to our favorite YouTube Let’s Player tackling that soon. We also got a look at the new offerings from Wolfenstein, which were pretty much what you’d expect, and that’s a good thing. Deathloop looks amazing and I can’t wait to see more on that. I really liked how forward thinking Bethesda is with their concept around Orion, we’ll see how many studios actually adopt it. Finally. Doom. I’m not a huge fan of the Doom games, I didn’t grow up playing them. But damn, that was impressive as all hell. Great show Bethesda but we BETTER get something on Elder Scrolls 6 next year!

Grade: B+

Bethesda is only on their 5th E3 Showcase. I usually enjoy Bethesda with their themed Showcases. This year is the theme "Be Together." I am not into Wolfenstein, but with Wolfenstein Youngblood, I was impressed at what I saw. Co-op games usually get me as I want to be able to play with friends and the husband. Thus, "Deathloop" looks interesting as well. Seeing and playing two sides of a story will definitely be fun to play. I don't care much for the Fallout or Elder Scrolls franchises. I only have played Fallout Shelter casually and never did get caught up with the Skyrim faze. With Doom, that's another story. I have such positive vibes with Doom. When Doom came back in 2016, I joined the beta version and was welcomed warmly by the community. I made friends on the PlayStation Network, and didn't feel harassed for being a girl as I was scared with stories of women on FPS games. So yes! I'm excited for Doom Eternal! Overall, Bethesda keeps their themes and franchises together. This close knit game studios is doing right!

Grade: B+

Bethesda Showcase is solid this year. They take the top spot in Checkpoint's books! Nate has already got his first win with Nuclear Winter!

How did the other press conferences do? Check out our other E3 Report Cards:
E3 2019: Checkpoint Report Card – EA
E3 2019: Checkpoint Report Card – Microsoft Xbox

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Checkpoint Daily Show will continue Monday through Friday during E3 week, starting at 5:00 p.m. ET, at Twitch.tv/CheckpointXP.