February 7th beta.

<snorts>...

 

*goes to work for a few hours, comes back - 1.5hr queue......

 

Gave up since RvR messes up with loading errors. It was fun for a few hours, and has potential. I took 5 keeps, and killed a lot of people. Overall if they put most of their budget toward RvR then this game can go places. The only worry I have at this point is RvR queue times and lag issues at release. I didn't notice and culling, and my fps didn't take to big of a hit. Roughly 30+ fps with 60-80ish people on the screen. It's going to be fun being number 1 NA! : D

 

Aye, i was on the fence before the beta but now i'm definitely into the "no" zone. It's like paying to play Rift, without the dynamic events... And feeling like a marathonian running everywhere for boring quests that don't give u crap at all (no loot, nothing).

I really don't see how they can keep their pop up. 2 months to release, no open beta, still NDA, nobody has seen end game content and i'm pretty sure RVR will just be sneaking archers gank fest (in 2 words).

Never lvled so slowly in a mmo so far. Didn't try RVR, wanted to do it today but the queue killed me. And if i wanna a pure RVR game i'll go for Camelot Unchained...

 

I found it no worse than the starter zone experience for any game, but it doesn't really sound like people are comparing it to other MMOs in such a fair and even-handed manner.

On the leveling speed issue.... I've actually been waiting for an MMO to come along that was willing to slow down leveling speed. Most games now-a-days might as well hand you a level capped character when you log in.

 

I think people wouldn't complain about the leveling speed so much if they enjoyed the leveling process.

 

If PvE wasn't terrible, people wouldn't care so much about it being slow...

 

Well the PvE/leveling experience will still appeal to a lot of people who are coming to this game specifically for it. It is nice that the combat feels like TES. I wouldn't even say TES has great combat in their games; a lot of what happens in TES is building up the action scenes through lulls in action and appealing to the sense of anticipation and calm before conflict. ZOS still did a good job of giving that feeling for all the minor differences. MMOs typically don't take this approach and rather focus on keeping you constantly busy with repetition and rotation, which only really gets boring if you notice it, which is where the 'keeping you busy' comes in. I definitely enjoy getting away from that normal MMO combat and look forward to getting to try this in group settings beyond 2 mans, which is all I've done so far in my various runs going 1-10.

 

To be honest, I think 95% of MMOs feel the same. Be it Korea or Western. You are going to target a mob (or not) and click some kind of attack button. This two step process is going to be what you proceed to do for the rest of all time in MMOs until we get VR. MMOs have felt the same since Ultima.

 

It shines a lot brighter in PvP than PvE.

What makes it great, is how it's different from other MMO's. The combat in a PvP setting is really good, but not so much in a PvE setting. The PvE is just so fucking bad that I hope people can look past it if they plan to PvP exclusively.

I assume you are talking about questing and leveling in PvE...? If not, can you please elaborate?

You need more RvR.. I'm concerned about hot much Vitamin R you're getting in your diet. : D

 

One (of many) reviews I felt was decent, and of course, the comments section is full of fun.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-elder-scrolls-online-trapped-between-worlds/1100-6417556/

 

That is a dam good review and it covered the one thing about the game that just kind of stays in the back of your mind the whole time playing it, your looking for that immersiveness of the single player morrowind, oblivion and skyrim in a traditional mmo environment. I think they did as good as a job could be done (minus all the bugged quests, login que's and loading screens issues that are typical of every beta and new game launch.

On the loading screen time lengths that someone had mentioned earlier... I was not having any issues on friday and saturday but on sunday mine were taking about 20 seconds at times. Not all the time though.

 

I was speaking about "TES," as in the series as a whole. The TES games have never been known for amazing action-based combat and it is not really the draw of the series/IP. It is more of a exploration and story series to people and when there is fun and challenging fights, it isn't really based around keeping you active and constantly hitting your attack keys to kill swarms of enemies.

To elaborate: A lot of MMOs litter the playmap with clusters of enemies. The enemies are largely weak opponents and their numbers are designed to give you little rest periods unless you decide to stop moving forward for a time. They don't really want to give you downtime because if you are busy in combat you aren't bored with their game. The TES series doesn't really work like that. They don't try to artificially keep you busy, but rely on you to find something to entertain yourself with. You spend a lot more time in these games wondering through empty areas than areas you are being hunted down by enemies, they like to rely more on exploration areas with puzzles or hidden items. You are more likely to find some awesome equip by looking in a chest buried down a large corridor than you are by slaying some strong enemy.

It is understandable that a lot of people will find this TES tactic boring, and the real response is... maybe the game isn't for you.

A lot of the PvE criticisms are based around people who don't like that they are walking across a small field without being attacked. Or that they don't feel they are getting enough quests. I would contend that this is more early/beginner area condition, but more than that I would contend that this is the norm within TES and ESO is a game that somewhat gets away from this TES habit when you level far enough. It doesn't try to make the game horde mode, but it definitely took an approach more MMO in nature by pitting you against more condensed hostiles and less open free-roam space per zone. The upside is that we have a lot of zones, so yay for that.

Well ZOS needs to invite me to a beta that isn't only weekend based. I work a lot of weekends and long hours.

 

Naaah, you can solo Doshia!

I dunno, when I read "dungeon" in relation to MMOs I think "an area that requires you to be grouped in order to progress," be they open or instanced. The first "dungeon" that meets that standard is rated for levels 12-15. The "public dungeons" that are accessible before that are meant for a duo or trio of people but can be done solo... though you'd probably die once or twice if you're playing a squishy character.



I feel it's kind of a shame Zenimax let so many people in on a weekend where it seems they purposefully let their servers get beat to Hell and back. The previous experiences I had playing in Cyrodiil were completely lag free, which was definitely not how it went down this weekend.

Also, I'm really happy this game wasn't even on my radar until I got to play it last year. I had no expectations so basically every positive thing I found just made the game look better and better, and that's from someone who Steam says has played 600 hours of Skyrim. (I haven't really, lol.) I was impressed with everything but animation quality (do the Elder Scrolls games have some kind of curse upon them stating every jumping animation has to make me wanna vomit?) and from what I hear Zenimax is playing a whole bunch of unseen cards close to their chests.

Now, unfortunately, I have high hopes for this game. _@:

 

Personally I'm getting a little annoyed at all these people getting PAID to do this kind of stuff for a living, but unwilling to spend enough time to get beyond level past 6 or 7. It is pretty lazy.

Also, I've expressed my fair share of skepticism for the subscription model in future MMOs, but I don't really think that is something that need be brought up in a gameplay impressions video. A lot of these media testers are using this chance to soapbox their preferred payment model. If ESO changed their payment model in a few months, it won't make the combat or leveling experience any better or worse.

Here are some videos I really enjoyed watching and agreed with in terms of content.








This guy gets a little soapboxy in regards to his preferred payment model, but still some good points and discussion otherwise. A little misinformation in this one that the game has a cash shop planned.
I do like the outlook presented to those who don't agree with the subscription though. That buying a game that you only play for a month or less is normal and a sub shouldn't scare you from getting it to try for a month or two. If you let your sub drop, you let your sub drop.

 

So i tried out all the other classes and starting areas, AD was by far the worst starting location as far as bugs and poor direction of quests.
I leveled to 10 MUCH faster in the EP starter area running a Sorc. Also, the EP starter areas were full of nodes for crafting, easily double the other areas. Overall, playing the other classes and in other areas, i felt better about the game. Still going to wait before any purchase.... im against any games that do subs now too....

 

Hm played AD as a wood elf, maybe that's why it was so freaking empty and boring as hell ? If they do another stress test i'll try in EP i guess.

In any case, not being able to lvl up with pvp and no instanced PVP is kinda a game killer for me.

Unless RVR gives u xp too and u could lvl up ONLY doing RVR and dodging that whole crap PVE experience ?

 

I completely disagree, as combat mods have made TES amazing. Yes, you can say... Well that combat wasn't like <Insert Failed Reason Here> at release, but TES is all about modding anyway. Skyrim combat is off the chain with mods, so was Oblivion. There's a lot of people who play TES to mess around with the combat, along with everything else in the game.

The problem is the PvE is bland and has no main direction. You just pick up quests and do them and move on without no real meaning or feel. The combat is decent, but can be linear at times. Mob placement is horrid both in lack of mobs and overcrowded mobs. Overall the PvE is just boring... Really boring!

No company wants to hear that their game isn't for majority of the player base... That's like saying I hope 51%+ of people doesn't like our product!

Ya, it's pretty dull and boring to just about everyone...