The Elder Scrolls Online

[Venkman]

All links dead. From the screencaps of it though, that looks exactly like the demo from PAX East. Not surprising little in the way of style and UI has changed in the last few weeks

Just pick your fantasy MMO of choice, put its name into youtube, watch a video of someone playing it for a while and then you've basically seen it.

Don't need to, I played it. Not to repeat a few pages back, but it had a Morrowind look with a kinda-Skyrim/DDO action feel. It was generic in a early LoTRO way without even any of the more recent features like dynamic or scaling events, which weren't really on the scene until near 2010 anyway.

Between WoW and GW2, there were various attempts to figure out what WoW didn't do well for a large enough number of people to justify a AAA without needing to fight Blizzard. It feels like these guys figured "but it's set in the beloved ES world!!" as their main point of difference, and enough people are using Skyrim's success to continue that kool aid drinking, ignoring that some of the very things that made Skyrim successful aren't on the short list of launch features for ESO.

[Paelos]

We all kind of suspected it was going to be shit, but I'll be fair and say this really wasn't going to do it any favors either way. The setting was never going to carry the game if the combat wasn't true to the other games. That was the problem. Blizzard wouldn't have been able to make a game like Skyrim, set in Azeroth, and then released WoW with tab-target combat after the fact to the same acclaim. Hell, I doubt Blizzard could release WoW NOW to the same acclaim. It's a fool's errand to even try.

[Fabricated]

To be fair it has pretty good character customization for an MMO anymore, on par with other TES games.

After that though...uhhh...

[waffel]

Video also located here:
http://vimeo.com/64004925

[Lantyssa]

Looks something between Vanguard and Age of Conan. Quality is of course better than those but not nearly enough as one would expect both by an Elder Scrolls and a 2013 game. Very, very underwhelming. I must say, as much as I wasn't believing in this game, this is much less than the "very little" I was already expecting.

From the short bit I saw it looked like EQ with a few more polys.

Roommate: "Hey, come take a look at this."

Lantyssa: "That looks like EQ."

R: "EQ2?"

L: "No, EQ.  What is it?  Some indie project?"

R: "TESO."

Both: <nervous laughter>

[Hoax]

This one's up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vcvo1peVCY

Its funny how bad this looks.

[Draegan]

The font and colors remind me of Vanguard.

[Bunk]

It looked to me that the targeting was reticule based in first person, but as soon as he switched to third person he was able to kite backwards with his spells hitting the target automatically.

[Nija]

1080p downloadable version here: https://mega.co.nz/#!xMECgZCa!UHHVEUYqaWiZZRo4ifD18zDVi9Q7YCUy3XS00t-_GtA

[Paelos]

It looked to me that the targeting was reticule based in first person, but as soon as he switched to third person he was able to kite backwards with his spells hitting the target automatically.

That was exactly my thought as well. Which is true, is a terrifying departure from what they've promised, and what ES games were about.

[Mattemeo]

1080p downloadable version here: https://mega.co.nz/#!xMECgZCa!UHHVEUYqaWiZZRo4ifD18zDVi9Q7YCUy3XS00t-_GtA

Why anyone would want to download a 1080p video of a game that looks distinctly pre-HD is beyond me.

[Miasma]

The font and colors remind me of Vanguard.

I really hope those are placeholders while they work on the much better looking replacements.

[waffel]

It's impressive how hard they are working to take down the leaks. The game looks great, I'd be proud of it if I were them. 

[Paelos]

It's impressive how hard they are working to take down the leaks. The game looks great, I'd be proud of it if I were them. 

Case in point, Blizzard's lack of NDA in their beta process for WoW.

[shiznitz]

I really hope those are placeholders while they work on the much better looking replacements.

How many times has that sentence or some variant been written about a soon-to-be-released MMOG? And every single time the answer is those are not placeholders.

[Ginaz]

This feeding frenzy of fail is why NDAs exist.

[Phred]

This feeding frenzy of fail is why NDAs exist.

And the hyperbole isn't restricted to F13 though it sometimes seems like it. A couple of examples. I grabbed the HD version off a torrent site and whoever said it looks like Everquest might want to look into an eye exam or a new video card. Dispite being loaded with compression artifacts the graphics looks on a par with Rift imo.  If anyone wants to dispute that I will happily post an EQ1 screenshot and one from ESO for a real comparison.

Note: I don't plan to play this it does nothing for me but the frenzy of fail that pops up in this topic is retarded.

[Nija]

Why anyone would want to download a 1080p video of a game that looks distinctly pre-HD is beyond me.

In the era of 50 mbit internet connections and always on connections, why would you get anything less?

Besides, you can read all the text and get a feel for just how generic this game is. It should be renamed to The _______________________ Online and let people choose their own adventure as to what the IP and setting actually are.

[shiznitz]

Gameplay should trump visuals anyway. Someone will probably call me a retarded old fart for saying that but I will retort with "Minecraft, bitch!"

[Hoax]

Every single thing in that video looks like shit. Gameplay along with everything else, the whole nine yards looks like garbage.

The reason it reminds people of EQ1 is that the color of the player's name is I swear exactly the same as EQ1. That and it looks like ass. Not 1991 ass but pretty fucking horrible. Anyone defending the game after this needs to get their head examined.

[Mattemeo]

Gameplay should trump visuals anyway. Someone will probably call me a retarded old fart for saying that but I will retort with "Minecraft, bitch!"

I can't play a video. It hardly seems unfair to judge a game on its visual merits when that's really all you can judge it by at this point. And it looks pretty much like a game from 5 years ago. The textures are drab and muddy, the area showcased is derivative and lacks any sort of detail. The character animations are functional at best, but there doesn't seem to be anything rooting the characters to the ground, they just float and skim. They don't appear to interact with the environment - the ground chaff doesn't acknowledge their movement through it.

About the highest praise I can give the graphics is the water looks nice and the shadows are good. From what I can make of the gameplay, it's a generic MMO with FP reticule aiming that switches to auto-target in 3rd person (which understandably would worry PvPers) unless I'm misinterpreting things. Um. Yay? I'm going to go play with the furries in Wildstar. Carbine seem to know what 'fun' is.

Minecraft. That is also what fun is.

[Ingmar]

I'm going to go play with the furries

well there's a big surprise

[Merusk]

Everquest?  You folks need a reminder of what Everquest looked like.  Conan, maybe, with EQ2's terrible interface.   It's about where middle-high level games were 4-5  years ago, not 1999 or 2004.  They're certainly better than the champs online graphics, just with terrible player models.  

Oddly enough it's the first game I've seen where I wish there was *more* brown. Too much yellow makes it really hard on the eyes.

That said, gameplay is as I predicted.  Shocker!  Well.. what combat there was of it.  Shitloads of walking/ running around, just like an actual elder scrolls game!

[palmer_eldritch]

Don't want to white knight this game too much (after all they still haven't invited me to the beta despite telling me I had an excellent chance!!) but we also don't know if that video shows the game at anything like max settings or what sort of PC he was playing it on.

[Evildrider]

Don't want to white knight this game too much (after all they still haven't invited me to the beta despite telling me I had an excellent chance!!) but we also don't know if that video shows the game at anything like max settings or what sort of PC he was playing it on.

When he shows the option screens he's running on max.

[palmer_eldritch]

Don't want to white knight this game too much (after all they still haven't invited me to the beta despite telling me I had an excellent chance!!) but we also don't know if that video shows the game at anything like max settings or what sort of PC he was playing it on.

When he shows the option screens he's running on max.

Ah. Then it does look like shite.

[Lantyssa]

And I said "EQ with more polys".  Or as others have said, Vanguard.  Though Vanguard looked better the little I saw of it.

Considering I played neither, it was a snap comment.  Geezus.  I love how you guys can sperg out on an insulting comment.

[Phred]

I love how you guys can sperg out on an insulting comment.

But sperging out with the insulting comments is a ok right?

[Lakov_Sanite]

The very second I saw that cg opening with the 'pretty' elder scroll elves I knew it was going to be shit.  I'm just surprised no one else noticed it, game made by committe.

[Mattemeo]

I'm going to go play with the furries

well there's a big surprise

Says the guy who always makes bears.

[Numtini]

Looks like EQ2 to me. The uninspired EQ2 of launch, not the later stuff that actually looked good.

[Paelos]

I don't really care how it looks. The targeting is a lie!

[HaemishM]

Don't want to white knight this game too much (after all they still haven't invited me to the beta despite telling me I had an excellent chance!!) but we also don't know if that video shows the game at anything like max settings or what sort of PC he was playing it on.

When he shows the option screens he's running on max.

Ah. Then it does look like shite.

This. Not a 2013 game at all. I saw nothing in that video that would make me want to play this.

[Signe]

The Scandie with the beard was cute.

[Paelos]

The question is, how will they try to get the hypetrain rolling again?

Speaking of which, where's our little buddy Blackwulf? I figured he would enjoy this.