The Elder Scrolls Online: The Dark Heart of Skyrim Announcement Cinematic

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The Elder Scrolls Online: The Dark Heart of Skyrim Announcement Cinematic

Check out the latest chapter in the Elder Scrolls Online story - Greymoor, as well as the year-long "Dark Heart of Skyrim" story in ESO's latest trailer.

Read the full story here

Cryomatrix

A bit underwhelming and shorter than prior. Are they bleeding money?

Greatsword

Might be, most of their commitment is already on their new, unannounced MMO/IP. Also: their trailers always make me sad. In their trailers, character animations look like in BDO. In the real game, they look like it's 2003.

Mackaveli44

@Greatsword - Yes they need to update their animations big time. For a game on their budget and how well it's doing, you think they'd improve them. I love the game but gotta be honest about the animation's. They're horrible.

foppotee

Heck, I no longer play ESO on a regular basis, but to me that was a damn good trailer. I thought it was well done & looked good.

Mazeneal

This is literally one of like 5 decent MMOS even in existance ATM....wtf is wrong with you all!?

Greatsword

Mazeneal said:

This is literally one of like 5 decent MMOS even in existance ATM....wtf is wrong with you all!?

Well that IS the tragedy (in first world problem terms of tragic).

If it was a crappy MMO, nobody would give a shit about its animations or whatnot. But the problem is, ESO is a fantastic MMO being held back by horrible combat and outdated animations.

I don't think the animations can be fixed, though. The bottleneck seems to be the engine, seeing how SWTOR (same engine) suffers from the same problem.

Iselin

Cryomatrix said:

A bit underwhelming and shorter than prior. Are they bleeding money?

Nah they're not bleeding money. This is the inevitable outcome of the "chapter" system as I've been telling you since the first Morrowind Chapter - when you all yelled at me for it

One big DLC per year and 3 minor ones has been their development cadence since 2015 when they went to optional sub. Just look at one of the very first DLCs that was made when they were focused on selling the optional sub + DLC model, Orsinium, and tell me that it isn't every bit as "chapterish" as the ones they later decided to carve out and call chapters. 

The only thing different about "chapters" is that they decided to charge extra for the big one of the 4 yearly DLCs and removed it from ESO+ access. They then created a hype machine specifically to promote this as almost-but-not-quite yearly expansions with the master Bethesda spin doctor, Hines, promoting it.

Many of you bought their spin when it was Morrowind because it was Morrowind, the most beloved TES game. You should have realized what was going on when you actually played that chapter and saw it for the lesser Morrowind it was.

But their chapter fanfare has gotten progressively lamer with each subsequent one. Surely you guys are clued in now... aren't you?

azonic69

Greatsword said:

Mazeneal said:

This is literally one of like 5 decent MMOS even in existance ATM....wtf is wrong with you all!?

I don't think the animations can be fixed, though. The bottleneck seems to be the engine, seeing how SWTOR (same engine) suffers from the same problem.

Why anyone dev chose to work with the Hero engine is beyond me.
It looks horrible, and plays even worse.

SlyLoK

Deyirn said:

Cryomatrix said:

A bit underwhelming and shorter than prior. Are they bleeding money?

I think they're bleeding players. The game has gotten so boring and casual that even casuals are bored with how casual it is. Why do they keep making those free weeks? Game price has dropped almost 3 or 4 times.



I got the game for $60, then I got the Morrowind chapter for $30, that's $90. Now you can buy the same amount of content I paid for $90 for like $10 or $20 tops.



Not only did they scammed original purchasers by reducing the price for new potential purchasers, but they also ruined the game making it into a casual trash you can play with your butt cheeks while asleep. This isn't the game me and many others paid for.



This expansion is their desperation to bring back players who remember the bombastic "epicness" of Skyrim - the most dumbed down single player TES game that introduced the casuals to the TES franchise.



The most important question is:



"After they milked the shit out of Skyrim even in ESO, what's to come next? What will they milk next?"



Black Marsh isn't in the game, Hammerfell isn't in the game and the rest are small, insignificant areas that I don't even get how they can be worthy of a chapter/expansion.



Seems like ESO will soon change. I'm suspecting it will go F2P or freemium, maybe something like LOTRO and the Crown Store will become P2W.

None of what you said made any sense. At all.

Belgaraath

Everyone's entitled to their opinions and as usual on this site there are a bunch of folks drinking jaded juice, but I couldn't disagree more with the underwhelming comment above and that post above from Skylok, but I hopped in for the first time in ages, and it looked pretty darn good to me, especially in comparison to all the other MMORPGs I've played through the years. Seems like a lot of options for everyone, have absolutely no idea what people are talking about with bad animations. They have improved a lot since release. If you don't like a good story for PVE which to me seemed very well executed with many changes since I last played and don't like PVP, then you should look elsewhere. The game to me seems to be aging well. I still wish there wasn't level scaling, but I understand why its there. I also wish they would open up just a couple of more skills, but that is offset to me at least by the fact that there are so many endless build combinations you can tinker with. I still would rather play a well executed single player every changing world like the Witcher 3, but for coop play and the every once in a while large grouping its a great game. Seems like there were players everywhere and folks were pretty friendly too. 

QuarterStack

Iselin said:

Cryomatrix said:

A bit underwhelming and shorter than prior. Are they bleeding money?

Nah they're not bleeding money. This is the inevitable outcome of the "chapter" system as I've been telling you since the first Morrowind Chapter - when you all yelled at me for it

One big DLC per year and 3 minor ones has been their development cadence since 2015 when they went to optional sub. Just look at one of the very first DLCs that was made when they were focused on selling the optional sub + DLC model, Orsinium, and tell me that it isn't every bit as "chapterish" as the ones they later decided to carve out and call chapters. 

The only thing different about "chapters" is that they decided to charge extra for the big one of the 4 yearly DLCs and removed it from ESO+ access. They then created a hype machine specifically to promote this as almost-but-not-quite yearly expansions with the master Bethesda spin doctor, Hines, promoting it.

Many of you bought their spin when it was Morrowind because it was Morrowind, the most beloved TES game. You should have realized what was going on when you actually played that chapter and saw it for the lesser Morrowind it was.

But their chapter fanfare has gotten progressively lamer with each subsequent one. Surely you guys are clued in now... aren't you?

Very fair assessment, I think.

Back with Orsinium, I really loved the story and the content. I really enjoyed the vanilla story. I enjoyed the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, and so on. 

Also, I felt like they had a pretty good balance between cash shop and in-game content. I'm not a fan of cash shops at the best of times, but ZOS seemed to be keeping it pretty tame, at first, so I just sorta dealt with it. Plus, the 1500 crowns for subbing made it a little less "obnoxious". 

However, thinking back now, I noticed that starting with Morrowind, the chapter and DLC content started becoming less engaging. My favorite parts of Morrowind - the only parts that stand out in my mind at all - are the Balmora storyline, and that huge world dungeon, Nchuleftength. Nothing else is memorable about it to me. The main story arc was anti-climactic and forgettable.

And everything since then has become even less memorable to me.

Over the same timeline, I noticed a steady increase in focus on the cash shop and lootboxes (crown crates... same difference). 

I've seen that pattern before in other MMOs and I know where it inevitably leads. No need to go through it again. So, I stopped playing ESO completely. Can't say I've missed it, either.

Elsweyr got me interested enough to check it out, but I quickly lost interest and stopped again.

This new announcement doesn't even raise an eyebrow. 

At least that's how I see it.

Quizar1973

Ok...This is my opinion......Sooo many people liked Skyrim...Hell it was the Game of the year when it came out....And the Animations for ESO are just like Skyrim....HAHA.....The game is just like the ES sreies of games except for the SKill trees....But other than that i don't see a diff....And i see the same people on here Praise the Skyrim Game Graphics and all and then turn around and say the graphics are shit in ESO...LMAO...I trully don't see the difference ..... As i said Skills and gameplay are different...But decent...

Gobstopper3D

I think ESO has a really good story and I enjoy the cinematics, but those is the only positive things I can say about it.

NorseGod

Gobstopper3D said:

I think ESO has a really good story and I enjoy the cinematics, but those is the only positive things I can say about it.

This. I'm a god playing solo. Turd playing in groups. lol

johnmacattitude

I'm always saddened by their trailers. Character animations in their trailers resemble those in BDO. They appear to be from 2003 in the genuine game.

KnightFalz

ESO continues to do well, making most of the critiques I see of it pale in the light of the game's ongoing success. It's not for everyone but is for many.