There’s something perpetually Millennial about QuakeCon – as if id are still struggling with their difficult transition out of the ‘90s. Only there, for instance, would new footage of The Elder Scrolls Online be played in by Alien Ant Farm’s (still excellent) nu-metal cover of Smooth Criminal.
After that, though, it’s very much Bethesda’s show – as Zenimax Online demo what looks every bit a Bethesda game, through the eyes of its player character.
At 41 minutes in, you’ll find Bethesda marketing man Pete Hines failing his oral exam in False Modesty, and from 47:20 or so you’ll be watching a live demo of TEScO’s first-person perspective.
It looks… robust? A close imitation of Skyrim’s natural viewpoint that supports a workable version of its stealth, replete with eye-shaped visibility meter.
The sense of immediacy doesn’t quite seem to hold up once the going gets rough in close combat, but otherwise it seems pretty clear that this is how Bethesda should have announced their online Elder Scrolls – not with a round of colourfully WoW-like screenshots.
Yesterday, I was adamant that Everquest Next had made all other upcoming MMOs redundant. This morning, I watched an online Elder Scrolls played in first-person.
Fickle, that’s me. How about you?