Well, if at first you don't succeed, try try again, eh Bethesda? The Bethesda E3 conference--which started at midnight on the East Coast--delivered some downright exciting material, as well as some disturbing notes. Perhaps the most disturbing of these was the return of paid mods thanks to the arrival of Creation Club. That wouldn't be the only retread seen at the big Bethesdaland show, as Bethesda was even poised bring out several new titles.

Though specifics weren't exactly long at the presentation, and may well change before too much longer, the concept started out simple enough. Basically, modders--supported directly by corporate elements of Bethesda proper--will be able to bring new mods to a centralized site where users can download the mods in question...for credits. The credits will be purchased, which makes these paid mods. Of course, the good news here is that not all mods will be paid, but rather just some will.

Plenty of other material showed up, of course, including Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, which should be a real winner for fans, as well as more about the Nintendo Switch version of Skyrim, Fallout and Doom VR, and more.

As for the long-anticipated "under construction" areas that Bethesda pointed out, one proved a bit disappointing in a reveal of "The Evil Within 2." Having played "The Evil Within," I was a bit nonplussed. However, the good news was this one looked like a potentially significant improvement, which was welcome news. Better yet, it's got a fairly imminent release date, hitting October 13 of 2017. The second, a Wolfenstein sequel that was presented well, but left what amounted to more questions than answers.

For instance, the biggest question of the evening might well have been "Where is Todd Howard"? Tales of a middle school graduation ceremony fell flat, despite the accuracy. There was a shocking dearth of content from Bethesda Game Studios shown, and what was shown amounted to little more than retreads. Fallout 4 VR, Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch, and Creation Club, which looks like little more than a second attempt to foist paid mods on a community that roundly shouted them down the first time. Some even expressed the possibility that Bethesda was forced into the show by parent company Zenimax, though there's nothing of hard evidence to make that claim substantial.

This was, for want of a better term, a terrible showing for Bethesda. Sequels, expansions, rereleases of old titles; there was not so much as a whisper of new IP anywhere to be had here, and based on the comments sections seen after the 40 minute presentation, there are many unhappy campers looking to for refunds out of Bethesdaland.