'Elder Scrolls Online' Details Leak: Third Person Perspective Confirmed, Combat System Details

By Jacob Kleinman | May 04 2012 9:29 AM

After months of rumors and speculation, Zenimax Online Studios, has finally announced that Elder Scrolls Online, a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) will be released in 2013. Game Informer broke the news on Thursday, and promised more information in their print July issue, but videogame blog Dark Side of Gaming took it into their own hands to divulge a treasure trove of information regarding the new game, including details on gameplay, character choices and leveling, and game development. Follow the link to DSO's article to check out the first screen shots from Elder Scrolls Online.

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The tail end of E3 is approaching, but that doesn't mean there isn't more to be seen when it comes to the future of the video game industry. One of the most anticipated gaming titles to launch in the next year is ZeniMax/Bethesda's "The Elder Scrolls Online," which takes the acclaimed RPG series and brings it to the massive multiplayer online genre.

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According to DSO there are currently 250 people working on the Elder Scrolls Online, which started development in 2007. Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios, revealed to the blog that Elder Scrolls Online will be fully voice acted and will include a third-person perspective mode. The game will also use a hotbar to activate skills like many classic MMOs and will vissually resemble other current online multiplayer games, including Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Players will not be able to transform themselves into werewolves or vampires and there will be no flying mounts, player housing, non-playable character (NPC) romance or marriage, and no dragons in the upcoming game.

The Elder Scrolls Online needs to be comfortable for people who are coming in from typical massively multiplayer games that have the same control mechanisms, Howard said according to DSOGaming.com, but also has to appeal to Skyrim players.

This means that the game will use genre standards like classes and experience point based leveling up.

Zenimax Online will keep large areas of Tamriel inaccessible to players in order to save them for use as later expansion content. However, every major area will be represented and accessible to some extent. For example, Windhelm is fully implemented, while Winterhold and the mages' college will not be when the game launches.

There will be three player factions, and it will take around 120 hours to hit the game's level cap, with each faction leveling up to different content.

Elder Scrolls Online will feature raids and heroic mode for its dungeons, as well as high end public dungeons that anyone can access.

The combat system will not play out in real time. Instead it will be based on a stamina bar, allowing the player to sprint, block, interrupt or break incapacitating effects. Managing your own stamina and wearing down your opponent's will be central to gameplay.

No release day is set, but the game is scheduled for release on PC and Macintosh computers in 2013.

Video game fans were ecstatic to hear that one of the most popular games to come out recently will be transformed into an online multiplayer, and flooded Twitter with their messages.

The Elder Scrolls Online was just announced... this could be trouble for my social life..., tweeted @Gamerscast