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The start So anyone who didn’t live under a rock in late 2011, remembers the hype the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim caused when it released. It became one of the top sold games of late 2011 and early 2012. The music in the game went straight to the classic music hall of fame and it scored a lot of awards. It also opened the series up to a new audience. People who never played an Elder Scrolls game before. There were several games in the series which weren’t as popular as Skyrim, but nonetheless great games. The new fans asked for co-op, multiplayer, not knowing that the series had always been a single player game or did not know what could be wrong about a multi player version of those said games. The change But Zenimax looked at this from a different position, why couldn’t they at least try? The development process for what would be known as The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) started. The game this time not developed by Bethesda, but by Zenimax Online, divided the fanbase into two sides: The lovers The haters The lovers saw opportunity; the haters saw their favorite game series go to waste. I fell in the latter category. This couldn’t work I said to myself. The games are SP and they should always be. But on one faithful day, I had the chance to test one of the earliest versions of the game and it changed my views. The review Character creation and combat I played several betas of the game and my hopes went up with every beta. Finally last Sunday I played the early release after pre ordering my game. The game starts out simple, you are a sacrifice to Molag Ball, one of the deadric princes from the series. You wake up in a prison, in his realm, known as Coldharbour. Prisoners seem to be rioting outside, but before you start you create your character. All the races are there from the other games, the only one not available to the normal edition players is the Imperial race, this content is exclusively reserved for the Imperial edition buyers (collectors edtion.) Character creation is deep and detailed; I went with a Nord since I always play as Nord since Daggerfall. I could choose out of several classes: Dragonknight (warrior style class) Templar (speaks for itself) sorcerer (mage class) Nightblade (rogue class) This seems like a rather small number of classes, but in a minute I will explain why this all doesn’t matter that much. I went with dragonknight, because I feel more comfortable with a warrior role. But as soon as I could play, the game did something completely different than most MMO’s I played. It did not give me any armor or weapons at all. Weapons were found later on into the tutorial and armor was everything I could wear. As a dragon knight I could still be a mage or a rogue, the only things that defined my class were its core abilities. So after I claimed a sword and shield, it was time for combat. I could fight third or first person, but since I like the games for their first person perspective I went with that. Combat seemed easy at first: Left mouse button for attack, hold it for a heavy attack. Right mouse button for blocking and both of them to do a shield bash. Fairly simple, but as I continued into the depts of Coldhabour, enemies got smarter, no more dumb skeletons, but skilled deadric warriors, these guys could block, heavy attack, dodge and counter my blows as well. The game went from simple combat to tactical combat, oh he is doing heavy attack I should block and counter him or he is winding up a spell lets bash him with my shield and knock him down. The further I progressed into the game the more enemies became skilled. Some enemies jump over you and knock you down from behind, others break your block, all this makes combat feel alive and fluent. Did I mention that this is an MMO? (I did some sentences back, but I like being dramatic.) The whole game doesn’t feel like an MMO, it feels as an Elder Scrolls game, sure some things do feel like an MMO (all those other players), but with their own twist, other players can be interacted with, whispered to or helped and joining a group doesn’t mean sharing quests anymore. Join a group, you both have that quest? Great, you share goals now. A difficult boss, here comes another player helping you and you still finish the quest. The last example is quite defining, it doesn’t have to be in a group, that person doesn’t need to have that quest, the only thing he needs is the urge to help you and act on it. This defines the game in every way. You can do what you want, whenever you want. I have seen sorcerers wielding two handed axes, nightblades with heavy armor and dragonknights wielding spells and staffs. Talking about quests, every quest has a back story and influence on the world, a village could be burned down and you saved it, opening up shops for you. You could save a mage from goblins and later on you’ll find him in the mages guild thanking you and giving you a reward. This makes the game incredibly immersive. Your actions matter and that feels incredible in a MMO (did I mentioned this already?) Crafting Crafting is quite addicting. You can: Refine (turning raw materials into ingots for example) Create (creating armor, weapons etc) Deconstruct ( harvesting materials from items) Improve (improving items past their limit) Research (researching traits for improvement of weapon) Creating items is incredible; I’ll take an iron dagger as example: First I mined Iron nodes, after acquiring ten of those, I went to refine them into iron ingots. Now I have ten iron ingots I got to create, I select the iron dagger, which requires two ingots for a level one dagger, but I am level 10, so I increase the number of ingots to 8. I select racial motif, which requires other material, for the Nord motif its corundum. (For the sake of this review I’ll add a trait, which on level ten is quite impossible.) I add a trait to improve its speed and I created the dagger. But I am not quite satisfied yet, so let’s improve the dagger. I can see in the improvement tab, that I have 4 honing stones, every honing stone increases the chance of succeeding by 20% and lowers the chance of my dagger getting destroyed. I select four honing stones and press “R” to improve my item. I get to hear a hopeful sound and a blue glow around my dagger’s stats menu. I improved my dagger, making it do more damage. But wait traits are impossible to add on level ten!? Yes, see a trait research takes 6 hours in real life for weapons and can go up to 24 hours in real life for armor. Traits can only be researched by destroying an item with that trait, the upside being that trait research does not fail. Graphics The game stands out with its graphics from most MMO’s I play the game on ultra and I must say it looks amazing. It’s by far one of the most beautiful MMO’s out there, things like lighting are incredibly well done and makes sunrises, candy for your eyes. Things as rain and ash (volcanoes) change the world, rain makes your character wet, ash reduces your vision. The weather system is incredibly well done and snow, rain, storms, ash look amazing. The daytime system changes things as well, at night you are less likely to be spotted while sneaking. Final verdict The good incredible combat system Standard classes are thrown out the door (Be a dragonknight who stabs people with tiny knifes for all I care.) Amazing graphics. Immersive storytelling and every quest gives you a back story and a good reason to do the quest. A really addicting crafting system. Fun PVP ( I didn’t discuss it here, but it is definitely amazing) The bad Bugs can stop your quest progress sometimes, relogging usually works. Small dungeons could be full of other players, which makes some dungeons incredibly annoying. PVP has a strange respawn system, sometimes it takes at least 20 minutes to get back to the fight, because you spawn far away. The neutral The game is subscription based; this doesn’t bother me, but could be a downside for some people. It’s incredibly addicting, this isn’t good or bad, just my personal view. The game is incredibly well made and of the more fresh MMO’s out there. It takes standard MMO features and turns them upside down and then throws them away. The only MMO features I have seen which are standard is the mail system and the chat system. Even guilds function differently. I love the game and if you love the Elder Scrolls, I advise you to get this game, who are looking for a standard MMO will be dissapointed and people looking for a standard fanatasy game, should go play the lord of the rings online. The Elder Scrolls online is out now for PC and Mac and will be released on Xbox one and PS4 later this year. Images are from the courtesy of IGN and are not made or owned by me.

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Massive Multiplayer Idea For this idea i would think this would go well if its for a new gaming console because god help us if this was for the 360 because this would probably create a lag storm. Anyway what I would think for this type of game mode would be are... - 1-3 maps that are as big as Arma maps. (their like 64 square kilometers for the Newest one coming up and for smaller ones at that) - A capacity of 30 players EACH team. - Extremely oversized and armored vehicles like the Mammoth or the Elephant but can be destroyed by tanks or other means of explosives and a sort of dropship like a Pelican or anything new you guys are probably secretly working on. - Better combat, the combat in Halo 4 wasn't bad but wasn't great either it was to easy to be killed it seemed like so maybe thicker spartan armor or the elite armor would increase damage protection and the vehicle plating helps protect against tank shells or gauss cannon rounds. - A new drivable vehicle (to those who haven't played Halo Wars) the Rhino as a Support Tank that could probably wipe out a mammoth or elephant and tanks and Warthogs would be able to be transported Via pelican. - Npc squads like ODST's or Elite Drop Troops to Help when in infantry battles which would be a terrain not operable by vehicles but is for infantry. - (REQUIREMENT) Good network connection so people don't lag and make everyone mad - Only playable a few times a day so the servers don't overload and to reduce the chance of running into a whiney little kid because no one enjoys that period Comment on what you think of this or create you're own list of ideas for this type and post below.

Ever since H3: ODST, I have been wondering what it be like for Halo to have a MMORPG with the free roaming that H3: ODST had. I have a good idea for one.

I found out that there may be a halo RPG in the making, if there is I want to give 343 a little heads up about what we would want if they were making one; how it should play, what we would want out of it, and other things like that. What most people would want out of this a well made RPG that is close to an MMO. An FPS MMO RPG that plays somewhat like borderlands but alot more people

Halo Universe -An idea of a MMORPG based on Halo 4, and similar gameplay to DC Universe Online- This game is full of options and pathways that help create your character. This also does not involve a campaign, but Master Chief can help you along the way. In the character creation menu, you have many options on what your spartan will be. For example, grenadier, recon, soldier, etc. As you progress, you gain much more abilities and will eventually get to use all the classes. You start off as a recruit (training/tutorial) This part is basically explaining how to move, shoot, complete objectives, etc. After this part, you become a spartan. The game's main central hub is in the UNSC infinity. This can let you go into PvP (War Games), and Missions (Spartan Ops/Ideal way to rank up) Missions In the missions, you will get your orders from Captain Sarah Palmer. Missions vary from your class type and your rank. For example, neutralizing an enemy territory may be simple at first, but progressively gets harder as you rank up. This means more enemies, tougher enemies, and more damage. There is no difficulty in this game, but from starting the game to becoming max rank can be like going from easy difficulty to legendary difficulty. Players might be interested in it if there are almost an endless amount of missions, even/especially if you are max rank. Solo missions will reset your last objective if you die. If you are on co-op, your partner(s) will have to advance without you until they either die or complete the mission. Co-op missions will only reset your last objective if all the members in the squad have died. Missions will work in a following mini-storyline, just like Spartan Op Episodes, built in 3-5 Missions. This keeps the repeditivety low and a new experience every mission. You cannot repeat a mission, after you have either completed it or cashed in the reward. PvP In pvp, many games can still be played. Slayer, Dominion, V.I.P, King of the Hill, Infection, etc. This allows you to access commendations, and better armor. Player Your player's actions, skills, and looks all determine on how you play, and what you want to be. You can join squads (partys), fireteams (guilds) or rough it out solo. Many other players will have quests that you have, so it will be easy to complete quests when you see a fellow spartan trying to complete it. Quarters Your spartan has his/her own quarters (accessed through Infinity's Central Hub). Every player has their own private quarters, which players can invite their friends in personally. If a player gets a game invite through the dashboard, they will start the game in the quarters of the person that invited them, rather than your own. Your quarters are very important to gameplay. If you played too much missions or PvP in a row, your spartan will begin to slow down, not sprint, and miss shots constantly. You will need to sleep in your quarters to fully restore your stamina (access bed in your quarters, screen goes black for 2 seconds, you will wake up ready to go). Players are also granted movement abilities from start. They will get to choose from Jetpack or Sprint. These two are apart from armor abilites. The disadvantage that these give is that you cannot have both. Armory In your quarters, you will be able to change your character's appearance. This is called the Armory. Body appearance, and armor are seperate selections you can make. Like in DCUO, if you have armor that looks terrible, but gives amazing stats, you can use your own armor style instead of being obligated to wear something awful. Different armor will give different stats. You can also fully remove armor and just walk around with the black under armor. (If you use this in missions and/or PvP, you will have no shields or stats, but still have your weapons. Friends in your own quarters will not be able to sleep or customize their armor. You can also customize your loadouts through here. Currency Gaining Currency (Spartan Points; SP) can be either from PvP or missions. PvP will give a balanced amount of points depending on how good you play, while missions give you points on how many objectives you complete, solo or co-op. SP will allow players to buy armor that they want (regardless if its for stats or looks) instead of having to wait to unlock it. However, to keep the balance, most armor will be very expensive, and are more quicker to unlock in PvP rather than with SP. (This, of course depends on how far and dedicated you are on getting that armor). If you unlock armor through PvP, you will not be able to buy it anymore, and vice versa. This is simply because you already have it. With SP, players can also gain ordinances. They can begin a PvP match or mission with better weapons or boosts. For example, you can buy an ordinance that lets you spawn with a overshield after every time you die, or be able to gain SP or XP faster than normal. This also depends on the quantity you buy. Each ordinance will last you 1 mission or game, with the option to activate it before the game starts. Commendations Players gain commendations just like Halo: Reach and Halo 4 by completing repeditive feats. After completing commendation stages and masteries, players can gain XP and SP depending on the commendation and stage. Enemies Enemies are very common in Halo, and become much more intimidating in your spartan's future. You will be able to jump around melee'ing grunts in the face for a while, but as you progress, you'll eventually find yourself pinned down by a bunch of covenant cruisers. Missions will also get harder even as max rank, forcing you to join a squad or fireteam. There will actually be more missions done as a max rank than a progressing spartan. In missions enemies will drop weapons that will allow you to keep in storage in your armory in your quarters. Ranking System Mainly following the ranking system in Halo 3, ranks will be from 1-50. Every rank has its own correspondant name, from Recruit to 5 Star General. Also, again like Halo 3, different gametypes in War Games will also be from 1-50, and will ultimately rank up your overall rank. Your overall rank will only be shown through mission menus, service records, and leaderboards. Gameplay The game will run fairly similar to DCUO, but with Halo inspired familiarites. The HUD (Heads Up Display) will show: -Shields (Top Center) -Grenade Count/Type (Top Left) -Ammo (Top Right) -Player (Center) -Scoreboard {PvP} (Right Center) -Chat Bar (Left Center -Skill/XP bar (Bottom) Skill/XP bar Depending on your specilization, your skill will vary from many things. The skill bar works just like DCUO. For example, a standard skill would be headshot. Headshot gives a 25% damage increase on any enemies except for vehicles and hunters. This also insta-kills grunts and crawlers with a percision weapon equipped. Controls Standard controls wil go on the Xbox as follows: A - Jump B - Action/Enter Vehicle X - Shoot Y - Switch Weapons RB - Enemy Lock LB - Armor ability RT - Right Half of skills LT - Left Half of skills RS - Camera movement LS - Player/Menu movement RS (push) - Crouch LS (push) - Movement ability Back - Game Leaderboard {PvP} Back (hold) - Chat Start - Player Menu (Standard) Dpad - Menu movement Controls can be changed completely to your own liking and play style. Preset controls are not included, but players can save their own Preset controls (for players who share accounts/xbox) Chat System The chat system is standard like most MMORPGs. Like DCUO, the game will have a text chat system. The controls for the Chat Bar goes as shows: A - Open Keypad B - Close Chat Bar X - Change Text Output Y - N/A RB - Change message input (chat/game/system) LB - Change message input (chat/game/system) RT - Change Voice input (game/squad/fireteam) LT - Change Voice input (game/squad/fireteam) RS - N/A LS - N/A RS (push) - Scroll text chat LS (push) - N/A Back - Close Chat bar Back (hold) - Open Chat bar Start - Player Menu (Standard) Dpad - N/A Xbox party chat will override chat from in game, dampening sound depending on the Xbox Player preferences. The Change Text Output will allow players to change who will be able see your chat. That system follows as below: Speak - Players can only see your chat if they are right next to you. Shout - Players can only see your chat if they are near you or in the same room as you. (Can see anyone shouting when you are in the Infinity, but not in your quarters) Squad - Players can only see your chat if they are in your squad. (works anywhere) Fireteam - Players can only see your chat if they are in your fireteam. (works anywhere) Message - Can only be accessed by typing: /m gamertag . Players can only see your chat if you message them (works anywhere). Messaging players also lets you keep messaging that same person even after closing the chat bar (as long as you dont change chat). The chat bar will only update and appear every time you follow these above. The chat bar also disappears after 15 seconds of inactivity. My Personal Opinion This actually took me days to imagine, but after completing it, it sounds amazing (to me, of course). I don't know if this is terrible, but I've always wanted a MMORPG on the Xbox. Ive played the Phantasy Star Universe Demo and I enjoyed it. It was pretty sad when the servers were shut down. I don't know if this will be good because I really wish it can get as much support as a normal Halo FPS. I know it's not the same as good ol' Halo, but I hope it can even be remotely better than Halo Wars. That RTS game was isolated for not being a FPS, but I thought it was actually fun. Its also have been said that it's the best console RTS. I know 343 will not make this game, but with the slimmest glimmer of hope, I can only dream. Please make this a reality! If there is any issues, comments or concerns about this topic, please don't hesitate to say so. If you think that 343 will resent me for having an idea, don't bother to comment. I know there's barely a millionth of a percent chance that this will happen, but please give me strength in numbers! Thanks for reading this whole topic.