Sure, we had some fun with Skyrim getting Dawnguard and the house-building expansion that I can't quite remember the name of offhand, but still, for RPG fans, this year wasn't the best. That's why I was happy to spot a ten minute introductory video to The Elder Scrolls Online, which may well be the next best thing to news about Fallout 4.
The video in question gave us a better look at what's going to be going on in our next MMO-themed foray into Tamriel, the thought of which is downright exciting. But it didn't take long for things to get even more exciting, as not only was all of Tamriel opened up to users, but so too were "all the places you've been before". I expect, of course, that that's going to be not quite right--sure, maybe I'll go back to Vvardenfell and Balmora will be there, but the thieves' cave I first looted just outside of Seyda Neen may be stretching things a bit.
Naturally, the first response to the appearance of any new RPG is, can it stack up to World of Warcraft? In this case, I'd have to say yes. I played WoW a few years ago, so I admit my information is a bit old, but The Elder Scrolls Online looked to blow that clean out of the water. The graphics are light years beyond WoWs, the characters are familiar--especially for those who, like me, are actually sufficiently hungry to get back to Vvardenfell that we'd play a game that came out on the original Xbox--and everything about that video screamed "good time" in volumes sufficient to blow out an eardrum and get even me, who originally left WoW after it got to feeling too much like an unpaid part-time job, reaching for a credit card and preparing to pay a monthly fee.
Naturally, there's a good long way to go as yet before this one's ready for prime time, so we'll have to keep an eye on it carefully before it's all said, done, and of course, released. But if they can keep up what they already put up with the early videos, we could be in for a very big season indeed, capped off by this right here.
