PAX East 2013 Day 2 - Elder Scrolls Online Impressions

Elder Scrolls Online Impressions (AKA Skyrim Online) - I waited in line the longest to play this when I could have gone home and played Skyrim to get the same impressions. That’s essentially when this game is. It was nice to have 30 PCs setup for us to play, but the real WOW factor was playing outside of the booth; A five minute cinematic showing off three of the playable classes that was released back in January.

One thing that looks different from Skyrim is the flexibility in the upgrade trees. Weapons and armor are not tied down to classes. For example I could give a warrior (or dragon knight as ESO calls it) some leather armor and a bow if I want, or I can give my wizard heavy gear and have him walk around like Bugs Bunny in a suit of armor. The choice is yours.

The only big question that has not been released yet is the pricing model. Will Elder Scrolls Online go free to play? Or will there be a subscription involved? We saw what happened to The Old Republic with their subscription model… but I bet Betheda will bet the farm that the Skyrim name will help them gain subscribers and try their hand at $19.99/month. Below is the cinematic playing at the booth.

Elder Scrolls Online does not have a release date yet, but it's due sometime in 2013.

Metro: Last Light Impressions – Difficult! Well I played Metro 2033 on PC and of course, everyone knows that playing an FPS on PC is much easier than playing on console. So I was forced to use a crappy Xbox controller to figure out how get through the demo. It made things difficult and sucked a lot of the fun out of this game, but it does look like an equally immersive experience much like Metro 2033.

I was a little disappointed with the level they decided to showcase. It seemed like players needed to sneak around a lot to avoid enemies and the objective was not really clear. I wish they choose a better map. Graphically, the game looked surprisingly similar to Metro 2033. I didn't see too  many changes or jaw dropping sequences. Slight engine tweaks and a new game shouldn't have caused a three year dev cycle right?

Metro Last Light will be released on PS3, 360 and PC on May 14, 2013.

Dead Island Riptide Impressions - Ugh, I thought  maybe I would have fresh outlook on this franchise considering how much I hated the first release. It worked for Borderlands, why not Dead Island? Because Dead Island has not really changed much. It's still ridiculously hard to kill zombies which takes a lot of fun out of the whole point of game; killing zombies. I understand they are trying to incorporate a leveling system here but I think there would be easier ways to do this with certain melee weapons and areas of the island. This just isn't my cup of tea and it was not a pleasant experience.  

Dead Island Riptide is due out on PS3, 360 and PC April 23.