All Things Gaming
When Elder Scrolls: Skyrim first came out, I played the hell out of that game. While I had seen other ES games, Skyrim was my first. It was gorgeous, flexible, full of freedom and adventure. I remember thinking…”this would make a great MMO”. My dream for ESO was Skyrim with other players in it. In some ways, I got my dream, but it was all too shortsighted. (more…)
Sometimes you want to know how a skill is going to turn out before you pick it. Mostly, I mean the morph. Recently a friend of mine had tried out the Bow skill “Snipe”, which hits for high damage at long range but has a cast time of 3 seconds. He was entirely underwhelmed with how much other shots he lost in order to cast that attack. Now, I was still considering it – particularly for shooting players on top of keeps in PVP. However, there’s no way to know, in game, if that morph is going to make it any better. I was really hoping for a reduction of cast time or some such. So I browsed online for skill lists and mostly just found sites that had the main list that one can see in game as soon as they created the character. Finally, though, I found one that has a full list with a very clean approach as well. Continue after the break to see the link and a short review of the rest of that website. (more…)
I know some people like to play the game as it comes. As for me, I like to apply a little customization. Given my long history as a World of Warcraft player, there are definitely areas of ESO’s interface that are missing (mostly because of the addons I’m used to using in WoW). But, this game is brand new. It’s been out for 2 days or -3 days depending on how you look at it. Curse (my go to program for downloading and installing WoW addons) doesn’t have a set up for ESO yet. So how do we find these addons and install them? Follow after the break for a great site to find addons, installation instructions, and a couple ones that you might want to pick up now. (more…)
[read to the end for some tips on bugged quests]
The first day went mostly as one would expect. The downside of playing the beta is that the launch becomes a little bit less of a surprise. I created a Daggerfall Covenant Nightblade (as I had leveled most in beta). Of course, a large point of why I played in the beta was to identify what I’d like my “main” to be for the actual game, but it takes a little out of the new abilities. However, I was able to make a few different decisions regarding my talents and quest choices. Even as a Nightblade, which essentially the “rogue” character, I immediately went into archery in lieu of starting off with dual wielding and wasting skill points as I did in the beta. Once I hit level 14 or so, I’ll probably pick up another weapon and start using it a little to prepare for the weapon swap ability that comes at level 15. The swap skill also swaps all slotted skills so you can have two totally different builds for the different weapons.
The Good (more…)
I’m not going to lie. My hopes for ESO are incredibly high. I love the MMO concept; the persistent, massive world; the social environment inside a game, but I’m running out of something to play. I’m a long time World of Warcraft player and it’s a great game, but… Oh, it’s such a but. The game is old. And I don’t just mean that the graphics engine is primarily 10 years old (which, honestly does get to me occasionally). The game is tired. It’s worn out. We’re on episode two hundred and whatever of Dragon Ball Z and while we keep getting new bosses it’s all the same. The interface and features are the best – there’s no arguing that. No other MMO out there matches the quality-of-game improvements that have happened over the years. But you can only polish the same gem so much. It’s still the same. This is where WoW finds itself, it’s the most polished MMO (excluding graphics) but it’s lacking something new to drive interest. So, what else to turn to? TERA looks great but the only unique part (live action combat) feels more gimmicky than a feature. The Secret World has basically the coolest premise out there, but the simple -fun- of game play is so much lower. A friend of mine described Knights of the Old Republic game play as exactly like WoW from 5 years ago. But look… on the horizon is a game that promises to exceed all of them. (more…)
So, I haven’t and probably won’t end up playing much WoW this weekend, because, well. Elder Scrolls Online beta!! Not only am I playing it a bit, but also trying to make some handy youtube videos. For your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, but you can view them regardless), here are some of ESO Beta footage I’ve recorded and posted.
Here’s a video on all the character customization options. WoW players take note of what (more…)