I wonder that game they played?

Yes the game is not level scaled you can go places with enemies who will hit you in one hit, level scaling is an standard complain about Skyrim anyway.
However like most MMO like WOW you could go anyplace as long as you survived. You could go to the level 70 area in WOW as level 10, I did, no it was pointless but possible.

Now it might be one exception in ESO, the startup in Coldharbor has to be finished, pretty much as starting as Worgen in WOW.

you might need to finish one quest or quest chain to gain transport out of the starting area also, yes this is a bit hand holding.

I have not played any newer AAA MMO, quite possible they have quests who are at ESO level, no its not Oblivion style quests, but far from WOW.

But outside of the stating quests you do not need to finish quests to getting places, you might need to finish quest to move to the next in chain, but not to getting places.

Exploring is actively encouraged, unlike wow quest hubs are not linked you need to explore them and get close enough to questgiver.

Quests has various difficulty levels, some are very easy, others will be very hard to do at your level without help.

Note that the Ebonheart starting area has gotten critic as far worse than the others. Someone starting in other factions might get an better impression.

I really disappointed at PC gamer. Noone should review an MMO based on a few hours of playtime. MMORPGs change tremendously from early game to mid game and of course to endgame.

When I played Daggerfall, I was killed by a rat in the starting dungeon. Then I died again, then I ran for my life, then I thought 'screw exploration, I need to get out of here!'

When I played Skyrim, I was asked to bring a quest giver 10 bear pelts. Another one asked me to collect 20 graqes.

This is the Elder Scrolls experience, folks.

Of course you are breaking the NDA, but whatever. Apparently even mods do so these days *strong look at Talaran*.

So, I'm sorry you couldn't "make it happen", but I'd have to say that's only due to your own inaptitude.

And to prove your wrong, the first thing I'm going to do after launch when leaving Bal Foyen, is that I'm going to grab a group of friends, venture into Skyrim with them, find the biggest, meanest Mammoth, and kill it. With our rusty newbie gear. Just for you.

For a change PC gamer could hire someone that knows something about MMOs.

LoL journalism.

I found that outside the starter islands/areas I could 'explore at my own risk'. But just like with LOTRO and GW2 it was not a 'safe' thing to do. And neither should it be. One of the core experiences in an MMO (or any rpg for that matter) for me is having my ass handed to me and either coming back better equipped or coming back with friends and winning through.

One of the more fun bits of beta was dying in a dungeon and reincarnating in a city I hadn't been to yet. In the middle of things I couldn't deal with easily, if at all. That was a fun trip back to where I wanted to be.

Then Eso has very little elder scrolls experiance

I did some editing.

Really though tutorial area is a given; even DA2 had a tutorial area. Exploring and sticking your nose where large angry critters might object to having it stuck is also a given in an ES world. I didn't give any details of anything, really. And even though I died [yet again] the surprises were worth it. It did feel pretty much like an ES game to me.

ugh. That "it's an MMO LAWLS" excuse makes me sick. I'm out of this one.

That's an excellent example of just how drastically different gameplay is between Elder Scrolls titles.

I too remember being chased around by deadly rats in the first release.

I just watched almost all of the media vid reviews from the media beta weekend and these guys were the absolute farthest off in terms of a real comprehensive game review. All vids had pros & cons for which I can relate to some extent, but this vid isn't worth the grain of salt these guys try to poster it more than. I'd be more than happy to replace these two tools for PCGamer and regain some of the gaming world's respect that they lose everytime they open their mouth. I lost a lot of respect for PCGamer from this vid, not because these two had negative options, but because they offered no tangible justification or comprehension from a gamer's perspective.

Yup, 100% correct. The complaints are mostly from people who don't play any MMO's and they were literally expecting a single player game with multiplayer tacked on the side.

I'd pay a handsome price for something like that.

Make sure it is worth the cost, first. Most times that multiplayer is tacked on, one or the other aspect of the game suffers for it. If they pay a lot of attention to the multiplayer the single player isn't great, and the opposite is true as well.

I found some quests funnier then Skyrims. In skyrim it felt like you were the only thing active in whole world.
They qq by only playing starter island and there are some people qq about things that cannot be put in mmo, like collosion

I love how they said that the server population was lower this weekend and they weren't able to group up. Now people tell me that they don't have a congruent closed beta lol.

Anyway, it seems like these guys went in looking for a skyrim co-op game and instead figured out it was a mmo. Personally i don't understand how you could pick up a mmo to play and expect it to play like a single player game... anyway it is just as most of the whiners on another board this weekend, they admit they didn't lvl very far and didn't do much except quests. They didn't even delve into the crafting to get an understanding of it, sure on the top it looks like you can just make gear but there is so much more to it and the implications to your drops you get is incredible.

All and all these guys loaded in expecting to play skyrim and found out it wasn't an mmo, they admit to playing 5 hours or so and they didn't get past the starter island so really how can they comment on a game they have not even experienced to even mid lvls.... No idea

tbh,

i know many know this but ill throw it out in the air again.

many reviwers etc "professional" people who give previews and all that are more or less walking the "pay me" route. they expect either direct marketing money to their companies or just future investment in some form.

this trend is dangerous for us gamers (good example : Total War : Rome 2) high scores everywhere and total flop of a game. And to this date the Siege AI has not been fixed.

ESO in the other hand, i think many of those companies behind the previews and reviews give so so negative waves due to Zenimax etc not paying them enuff or at all.

this is how i see it.

It's too suspicious and I don't trust it. I haven't trusted the main stream video game media since the mass effect 3 debacle. How somebody like Andrew Reiner of Game Informer can give that game a 10/10 is beyond me. ME3 is easily the most overrated game of all time.

If you want a real review or preview, you're going to need to wait for Angry Joe to give his full impressions and reviews. At least that's who I'm going to use as a reference, Metacritic will be the next stop and I'll be reading the 6,7,8 reviews to get a more accurate opinion about the game. Youtube will also be another place to go to watch gameplay videos unless this studio is going to be stingy about that, which would be a huge mistake IMO.

Exactly! Not a fan of MMOS? don't play/buy it. That simple. Good thing they let you guys in on a BETA so you could NOTICE it was a MMO.

Yep exactly that... though somehow most people seem to forget that those games where riddled with these kind of quests... as of right now I have seen very very very few of those type (ie there was 1!!! which was destroy 4 traps in 40+? solved quests).

From where I am standing eso is a remarkable step FORWARD (even from all the other es games) in the quality of quests provided.

As for those """reviews""" they really should be honest and call them first-impressions-(cause-we-need-the-clicks-for- add-revenue-and-cant-do-a-proper-review-in-that-timeframe) articles

Its perfectly fine to not like the game after experiencing what the beta had to offer but to dismiss it after not even having the tutorial done... its like saying I dont like the intro video 1/10

Exactly. Try running to red mountain at level ten, and see how anything works for you in Morrowind. The level system that lets you beat the MQ at level 5 is pretty new to the elder scrolls, and I think not the best way to go about it.

You have to wonder if the authors of these negative reviews have ever played an mmo before. Hell, how can one even write a review that accurately depicts the state of the game when the game hasn't been experienced in it's entirety? It's like trying to write a review for a book after only reading the first chapter or writing a review for a movie after watching the opening scene and then leaving.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense would take the opinions and rendered judgements of these "authors" with a grain of salt and not as the "holy gospel" of ESO and it's state of affairs.