Like I said, opinions. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. I can't fathom how anyone thinks this looks bad. Your PC must be a super computer playing games from 2025. I just don't get it. But oh well. I'm content with my "crappy" Skyrim.

Yup, still playing Skyrim on a PS3 with big LED TV too, looks amazing.

Exactly the same boat as you, big LED TV with the PS3, sound cranked right up though the amp and 5.1, just love it.

I played it as recently as last night (still have some things in Solstheim to finish off) and it looks crisp and incredibly detailed by comparison, but then I again remind myself that an MMO ( at least at this stage ) just can't look as slick as a single player game, especially Skyrim.

ESO looks childish? take a look at this http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/media/screenshots/ and see how ur opinion changes.

Compare that to http://www.cinemablend.com/images/gallery/s42184/Elder_Scrolls_Online_Screenshots_13361925013225.jpg.

That's screenshot is like 2 years old.

I think the screenshots on your flicker account are very impressive graphically. They look awesome.

If you don't mind my asking what are your PC system specs?

Screenshots that aren't 2 years old:

http://m.imgur.com/a/G9Trk

I wasn't by any means degrading Skyrim. I first played it on my PS3 and spent way too much time on it. Then I bought gaming machine and modded Skyrim. The difference is night and day ( I have over 600 hours of PC Skyrim). The game is awesome no matter how it looks. My point was that once you've played a modded Skyrim with 4k textures, higher rez meshes, more grass, lighting, ENB and all the bells and whistles, the vanilla version simply looks like crap (in comparison). No, ESO does not compare to a well-modded Skyrim, but it is better than vanilla for the reasons I stated above. At least everything is not brown or green.

Check my link below for screenshots from last weekends beta.

... and yet it still looks pretty darn good.

Certainly better and less cartoony than WS.

But this shot, just... Damn.

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t31/1980080_246666402179267_1285023470_o.jpg

My precious Stonefalls *sobs* hell I miss the game.

Game art like all art is a matter of taste; different people have difference preferences, as we can see in this discussion.

Personally, I really like the art style of ESO, and I prefer it to Skyrim... not saying it's better or worse technically, but the environments are a lot more varied, and I thought Skyrim tended to overdo the grime and the bumpmaps... to the point where a lot of surfaces looked a lot more pitted and pockmarked than was at all plausible.

It's also true though that as far as environments go, different zones in ESO have VERY different "feels" to them. Auridon (in the Summerset Isles) is pretty and colorful, with weird and fantastic rock formations around the coast and more fanciful architecture. Stonefalls in mainland Morrowind is mostly grim and hostile with black hardened lava and bright lava flows, but the local architecture features soaring spires... with some of both Argonian spherical mud huts and Vvardenfell-style shell-shaped Dunmer dwellings. Glenumbra is very Olde Englishe, pretty much a European medieval fantasy kingdom; pretty but to me by far the most boring of the lot

The vibe is different enough in all three that I wonder if they assigned the different zones to different artists.

So, when it comes to environmental art, I would check out the different areas and make your home in the one that appeals, if any

It's the damn raptor pet.

It looks like it came right out the circus. It needs to be captured and sent back to World of Warcraft.

Sitting there, peering at me with it's white eyes and blooming cyan body.

--

There is also more colour in this game. It's like they lifted the filter off skyrim and said, "Look, guys. Red, green and blue."

Yeah, I never cared for pets. The things looked stupid in SWTOR too.

Worse, they're useless.

I agree Srikandi. In beta 5 I started a toon in each Alliance up to level 8. The differences were striking and impressive. You hit the nail on the head about the "vibe".

A bit, but it's worlds ahead of WoW and it seems there really is only so much that you can do with MMO graphics.

Love the look. It's more cartoony than Oblivion or Skyrim, but not nearly the saturday morning, candy colored, rainbow brite, pixie playland that WoW and nearly every other MMO has become. Those games make me feel like I'm 10 years old.

ESO has a much darker look and feel and I really like it. They didn't go quite far enough with it in my opinion, but they couldn't make it so scary that the 10 year olds can't play it.

I do, however, long for an MMO that is just terrifying....like D&D or LOTR (not LOTRO - they just WoW'd that to pieces) or something; True fantasy with no candy coating AT ALL. ESO is the closest to that in any MMO I have played but they just didn't go far enough. I understand the reasoning though.

So yeah....I really like the look.

What game is that from?

Seriously? The Elder Scrolls Online. Taken from this weekend's beta.

Lol what an insult to Skyrim.

Tbh the depth in the visuals of ESO is nothing compared to Skyrim. Skyrim is prettier, well scaled and colors are more realistic. ESO is huge (literally, everything is scaled too big), colorfull and very clean looking.

That said, ESO is still good. I never liked the Wildstar/WoW type graphics. Started to play GW2 again - which I have always thought is beautifull and very well designed - and I am already missing ESO graphics. A tree suddenly seem rather flat.

Yeah, that is a limiter. To make the game available to the oldest, slowest computer there must be compromise. Lower number polygon counts and lower-rez textures.

I too would like to see an mmo really go to a true dark fantasy direction, gritty and realistic.

The only mmo i've seen so far that does anything like this is The secret world.

Although it's not fantasy, it's more horror h.p. lovecraft style.

It's common to make MMOs more cartoony. MMOs need to be simpler by nature for performance reasons and that leaves you usually with 2 options:

1. Go for hyper realism knowing it will look like a 5 year old game with photoref textures with a good chance that everything will look noisy too.

2. Or use a cartoony style that will look just fine in a simpler style.

That said, I do prefer the grittier world of Skyrim... the giant tree sized mushrooms in some of the TESO areas were just too cute and cliche, not in a good way. Overall however, the quality is solid.

If you want to compare Skyrim with TESO, both with full blown graphics, I have lots of panorama shots of both on www.pinterest dot com/strangefate1/

Check my screenshots all on max settings it looks stunning.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/119141968@N03/