Thursday, 22 May 2014

Impressions: Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online

Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online are the two latest triple-A MMO games that have been released, or in Wildstar's case, will soon be released.



This is a pretty exciting time as it means that once again there is competition in the MMO genre. It isn't the easiest thing to boot up a new MMO; but these two are promising contenders.

That said, I didn't think it was very smart of Zenimax to not only set the release price of the game so high, but also to include special editions that meant those who paid more money could have more advantages - a mount, increased experience gains, and an exclusive race. I thought the point of a pay-to-play subscription based game such as this was that you got all the content inclusive, and there were no 'premium rates', so to speak. This seems almost like a blatant money grab, as the people who will now be paying X amount a month, the same as everyone else, aren't all on the same level. I don't believe a whole new race is a cosmetic deal, which is what I wouldn't mind, e.g something that wouldn't really have much impact.

In Warcraft for example, you can buy mounts. But it doesn't mean you can use them earlier than anyone else, and there are still plenty of cool mounts you can get in-game. It's entirely optional. With this however, players might feel that the best option or most efficient option is the one that costs the most, as that effectively gives them more game to play. I'm not the only one who feels this way.


Wildstar at least, is looking up to be much more promising. Having played both in beta, I much prefer Wildstar. It's a little whackier, and it's stylised graphics have an appeal all of their own that won't become dated as quickly as ESO's will, and altogether seems more innovative. It might be, however, that my PC just couldn't handle ESO at it's intended settings (indeed it technically didn't even meet Wildstar's minimum requirements), and so I wasn't really able to make an accurate assessment of the games of the time.

Having seen ESO play on a quicker computer and having given it another go, I do like it and would buy it, but I still feel cheated by the pre-order system. I was almost certainly going to buy Wildstar a little while ago, but I haven't yet for whatever reason.

Wildstar, developed by Carbine, developed a series of videos in which they share information about the game's setting. It was the animation in these videos that drew me to the game.


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