We Talk Over the E3 2018 Bethesda Press Conference

The game demos were pretty good, but this was the worst presentation by a long shot. I don't think they had a single competent presenter up there. All the pauses, and the horrible attempts at humor, this felt like a pre-spencer xbox conference.

Jeff taking jabs at Bethesda's broken jank was the best part of this weak conference. The humor fell flat and too unnatural and most of their conference and games has this weird and unnecessary forced edginess. I guess I'm just getting more tired and uninterested with Bethesda as each year goes by. Andrew WK is a funny dude though.

better get jeff bakalar on the horn was a great quip, though

Given the choice to be upset about the demonstrable, impactful, and deleterious existence of Nazis in modern western society or some oft-referenced but never-cited, tiny proportion of radical progressives inappropriately labeling aspects of modern conservatism as fascism/Nazism, I think I'll go with the former. As far as I'm concerned going the other direction is nothing but obstructive pearl-clutching. The only people talking about punching Nazis (or actually punching Nazis) are doing so in reference to actual Nazis, for example, and even then the progressive left seems to be mostly divided on whether violence is ever OK or whether minority groups have the right to violently resist people espousing violent oppressive rhetoric.

If you're so much more worried about conservatives with political stances that are only racist in their net effect rather than in name being unfairly called Nazis than you are about the actual Nazis out there killing people and marching to the tune of literal Nazi rhetoric, to the point where someone saying "fuck Nazis" upsets you, then as far as I'm concerned you're part of the problem. You can spin my words around back on me to make it sound like another issue where there are two extreme sides of equal proportion and maliciousness and all the reasonable people are in the middle, but there are Nazis out there committing racially-motivated motor assaults and killing women in the name of Elliot Rodgers. When is the last time a non-literal-Nazi conservative was murdered or assaulted by a radical progressive, or the last time a radicalized progressive went on a murder/assault spree in the name of their politics? I swear that if the 9/11 attacks had been planned and executed by a conservative religious organization that originated in the American South half of Americans would be going on about how the other side is just as bad and we all need to tone down our condemnation so as to not offend moderate conservatives.

An entire disruptive conversation was just removed from this comments section. If your post is missing it's because it quoted something that was removed and leaving the second half of a conversation doesn't make sense.

Let's clean it up a bit please, folks.

Whatever, Andrew W.K. is dope and he's still partying since the early 2000's CAN YOU SAY THE SAME?

Most nazi leaders or notable nazis would have been dead by 1980. Now, I'm just really confused about the wolfenstein timeline.

These jags pop for every single mention of a game and can't muster more than a golf clap for Andrew WK partying? Fuck 'em!

Rage combat gave me some Bulletstorm vibes. I'm in.

"Why don't they make the whole convention center out of Kentia Hall?" - Ben's E3 stand-up routine warm-up for Todd Howard

They won the war and took over the world so presumably there were more nazis being born.

Also Hitler is no doubt a head on a mech.

I AM READY TO RAGE

This was straight up a solid conference.

I liked this show case, I hate Bethesda, but I think they showed off what they had well and had a good tone. If I think the company is trash and they lie about how functional their games are, yet I think they presented themselves well - that says something.

Rage 2 certainly seem to make 'Rage' as a property seem useful again. I think they misfired hard on teh first one, but this seem to have more of a balance and the Fury Road movies certainly game them more focused inspiration.

Doom 2 looked more ambitious in setting.

Prey is getting a few more tid-bits, which is nice support.

Star....whatever could end up being intesting.

TES VI and Fallout I don't care about because they ALWAYS make those games a buggy mess,

AAAHHHHHHH!!!

@toxicantidote said:

I gotta say, I'm pretty down on this conference. Rage 2 looks alright, I'll probably give that a try. I don't wanna come across as an angry fanboy, but Fallout 76 really bums me out. I get that people are excited to see them do something different with the series, but I was disappointed in 4, which didn't feel like Fallout at all to me, and this is taking that in an even further direction. It's frustrating to know that Bethesda seems unwilling to let anyone else work on Fallout again (cough, Obsidian, cough) as they continue to take it in a direction that I'm just not a fan of. A lot of people are, but it still bums me out. Couple that with just announcing logos for games, Elder Scrolls didn't even get a proper subtitle, and the conference just falls flat for me.

@njn: Well said!

Odd of Todd Howard to talk about having bugs in their games and then say "I read it on the Internet so it must be true".

I like the guy but that was annoying. That joke does not work when so many of their games seriously are full of problems. I am one of the people that had to play Skyrim on a PS3 and man...

How strange. I loved most of the game announcements and things shown, but the presentation was so awkward. All of the breaks for applause were bizarre. I know people disliked it, but I was 1000% down for that amusement park-themed trailer montage we got last year. Hey it works for Nintendo to just pre-record a video and show it, I thought it worked for Bethesda last year.

I'd really like a little more volume on the conference. It is hard to hear over the guys sometimes.

This is why I tune into E3 for those awkward moments and shocking jokes that fall flat. This presentation had that by the bucket load.

@njn: 'What impact of Nazi on modern western society? Nazis are a tiny minority that no one agrees with, how ever the people that go around calling everyone the disagree with Nazis have a noticeable impact, I've not heard of any Campuses being violently taken over by Nazis, nor any speakers being deplatformed by Nazis, nor Nazis making anyone lose their job.

The gunning down of republican congress men? A vast majority of the people attacked by Antifa, Evergreen state college ect...

Also telling how think that conservative Americans would be ok with 9/11 as long American Christians did it. Assuming broad unfounded negative stereotypes against people based on the group they belong to, I think there is a word for that.

Fuck Nazis, those that get offended by that phrase, and the conservative agenda in America.

Anyway, I hope Starfield isn't a long ways off... Hoping for a late 2019 release and that it'll be an excellent sci-fi game that Mass Effect isn't anymore.