Free week: Elder Scrolls Online

[Pixie]

Elder Scrolls Online is having a free play week from the 11th to 18th if you have an interest in checking out a really fantastic MMO that started off really badly...

If you like Elder Scrolls at all, it's worth a look. If you like MMOs, it's worth a look.

It's on PC, XB1, and PS4.

http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2017/04/10/join-the-eso-free-play-week

[Lego]

This game sucked so hard at release Trump wanted it to piss on him.


How has it changed?

[Pixie]

In every way. It's been 3 years of constant improvement. I can't give you a run-down of changes because everything has changed. It truly is a blend of MMO and Elder Scrolls now and feels like a TES game. Right down to stealing everything that isn't nailed down and running from city guards. Me, though, I'm having fun working my way up the ranks of the Dark Brotherhood. So much murder...

I've played a lot of MMOs - heck, I have 6 or 7 installed right now. This is still my favorite and the one I keep coming back to.

Like, it's free for the week? Just install it and check it out.

Plus, you know... Morrowind is coming. June 6. I still get hard nipples over the thought of opening a brand new PC game box with THAT title in THAT font... Nostalgia hits hard. Man, I can't wait.

[Lego]

So doing a minimum of poking around - this game is free to play? As in no monthly sub required?

[Pixie]

No sub required.

[nanenj]

FWIW, It doesn't seem super naggy about it's F2P nature either.

Now, even after saying that, I picked it up to look at with a few friends, but, it's not doing a lot to entice me or pull me in.  Now, of course, some of that can easily be blamed on me.  I'm very jaded by MMOs and easily see through most mechanics as 'time-sink' or some other bullshit, and very few games have elements in them dedicated to providing fun.   Somewhere along the way (in my opinion) MMOs became more about how much skinner box can they fit into boring ass tasks and how long can they con the player into doing them.   Especially when you're tackling any of these games solo.

Don't know what would finally entice me exactly, but, haven't found it yet.

That said, I did murderhobo my way through quite a number of things in ESO.   It's frankly just more convenient than bothering with anything else half the time.   I also did appreciate one guy that followed me around and begged me not to kill the NPCs as they hadn't done anything to me.

I simply replied with 'Lulz, phat lewts' and became everything I hate in the world.

....

[Pixie]

Started playing the Morrowind expansion today.

Dear god, it's just like someone loving moved every speck of geography from the original game and ported it to ESO. And starting up, on a boat, with that Morrowind theme music playing? I swooned. Then, off the boat, into Seyda Neen... and to the Census Office. And Seyda Neen was just as I remembered it. Right down to the lighthouse.

And the Silt strider is there in all its glory.

The mountain.

I'm on my way to meet with Vivec. I've helped out a Morag Tong assassin. I've cleared out the Andrano Ancestral Tomb. I've listened to the silt strider's weird howling call. I've summoned cliff racers to slay my enemies.

This... is a thing a beauty.

[Lego]

https://www.gog.com/game/the_elder_scrolls_iii_morrowind_goty_edition

[Pixie]

I don't get your point? Pretty sure everyone already owns the original.

Hard to believe that game is 15 years old now, though. Fuuuu---

[Lego]

No negative point mate, I just didn't know if you knew you could still get it easily in case you didn't already have it. It's how I own it is how I know

[Pixie]

Ah. Yeah, I have it on Steam. Wait til Summer Sale in June and it'll go for 50-75% off.

I have been fighting the nostalgia itch to reinstall it for quite some time. Hopefully ESO's version will keep me in check.

[Lego]

Dammit. Now I have to resist the urge to bootcamp just to play it

[TheMikrobe]

Goddamit! You shouldn't have made this thread.

I got curious and clicked through to the ESO website, then I clicked through the player guides, then I clicked on the store, then I clicked purchase and typed in my credit card, and now I'm 2% into downloading the game. Expecting to be lost in Tamriel very soon (or not very soon, since it looks like a massive set of files...).

Oh, and I had a look and I've got my original Morrowind discs sitting on my shelf and I've got a whole lot of plugins zipped up in a folder called "Playing", so I was really tempted to just load that up. Also got the same for Oblivion, although I couldn't get into that game properly. I never played Skyrim though...

[Pixie]

ESO is still my favorite MMO. And I've played a fair number of MMOs.

It's so good. <3

[TheMikrobe]

It's really fun so far. I started the character I'd been thinking of (Nord archer type) and slowly played through the starting prison area, poking at everything and getting a feel for it all. When I came out into the world I ran around the town for a while getting an intial idea of items, character progression etc. Then I spent some time fiddling with gameplay settings and remapping my keys, deleted the character to start again properly and found that gameplay settings and keybinds are character specific and aren't retained across the account! That made me furious, because in FPSs I prefer ESDF to WASD so have to remap all my left hand keys. Anyway, I eventually got going again with a few tweaks, played through the main quest line on Bleakrock Island and as many side quests as I could find. Once I got off the island, I said "See ya" to Captain Rana and walked out of town. Planning to walk right across the continent.

I'm really enjoying it so far, although it doesn't feel quite as open a world as I'd like. There are too many impassable cliffs forcing me to follow the roads and not take a shortcut through the wilderness.