Console Thoughts

EnikSleestak · June 2015

As an MMO player since Asheron's Call days (still the best MMO, but I digress) I have a few thoughts to share on my first impressions of console MMO playing.

1) Fun - I am really enjoying your console version ZOS. Good job overall! It's great to finally emerge from my office after all of these years and be able to comfortably sit in my living room playing a top rate MMO. I signed up for ESO Plus on console also.
2) Graphics - Was no surprise. The graphics are fine, nice even, but no comparison to PC. No reason to go into this, but it is a consideration in deciding to go console that I have decided to live with. The upside would be not always having to keep my office PC upgraded enough to run NASA. My overall impression is that it is less vibrant in terms of colors and less sharp.
3) I suck - Dear sweet merciful hey-seuss I suck with a controller. Many deaths. I haven't dared play with my veteran in PvP and am struggling on some things mightily with my alt that I could breeze through with keyboard and mouse. I am not a console gamer and it shows right now; even though it seems like it may actually be more efficient to use a controller once muscle memory sets in from repetition. We shall see.
4) Communication - I turn off area chat. My nine year old was sitting next to me when I first logged in and was treated to some dillweed running by yelling sh!t that would make a sailor blush. I get what you're trying to do. I don't want to sit there with a keyboard and I like the emote/quickchat wheel (awesome time saver) and voice for groups/guild/pvp, but I have found myself wishing that I could communicate in zone by typing, even using an on-screen keyboard. Guilds, crafters and independent sellers are also sort of screwed. Anyhow, Iet's not beat this dead horse any more, pieces are starting to fly off and I'm wearing a white shirt.
5) Interface - I like it. In fact, I really like the grouping of inventory. I'm not a big fan of addons, but we really need some love for the console UI since they are not even a possibility.

thedarkdomino · June 2015

Generally speaking, my experience has been positive. I'm a veteran for MMO launches, and did not have any expectation that the servers would work at midnight on release. I basically hung out in my PS4 party chat and laughed with friends while we waited to get on.

I've got a desktop with a GTX 980, and maybe my eyes are going but I can't really tell the difference between PS4 ESO and PC ESO. The PC will always look better because you can enable heavy antialiasing and higher resolutions. All the shadows and reflections seem to be there on the PS4. Looks like Zenimax was also able to get quite a deal of grass on the PS4 version - it runs very smoothly. Daggerfall seems to have turned into a bit of a hub town for everyone and so the framerate definitely takes a dip when there are hundreds of people in their acting like idiots and attacking guards left and right. I rolled around with my friends for a good 6 hours last night and we encountered no framerate drops outside of Daggerfall... the game runs well, even with many characters on screen.

Voice-chat was a non-issue for me. My guildies and I are solely in a PS4 chat party when we play, so we don't hear any of the silliness going on in the public channels. From what we saw, most people don't seem to be using the chat channels at all. I rarely ever see anyone's mic icon light up. Even if it did, we wouldn't hear them. PS4 party chat is just more effective, and persists even if the person gets disconnected from ESO - which is why I'd recommend using it over the in-game chat.

The controller does take some getting used to. I got myself into a bit of trouble in-town a couple times, accidentally firing off skills at guards/npcs. It's fairly intuitive though. Left trigger is block, right trigger is swing. You've got your 4 assignable skills on the 4 buttons, then two on the shoulder buttons. I've got my layout exactly the way I want it, and I'm getting better with it every day. Overall no complaints. Their is a learning curve if you're not familiar with a controller.

Overall I feel like this game translates better on PS4 than it does on PC. It just seems to flow better for me. Maybe it's that the console platform let's more of my friends actually play with me than I ever knew on PC. When I fire up ESO on console, I'm able to get 4+ people in no time, whereas the PC I always feel like I'm alone trying to beg and plead with strangers to party up. The entire process just feels more streamlined and awesome, and I gotta give props to Zenimax for replicating the ESO experience on consoles.

Ojustaboo · June 2015

I like most of my console experience and was pleasantly surprised how well the controller worked after being used to the PC with my 12 button mouse and G13 game pad.

Like the op, I die all over the place, couldn't even kill 3 wasps in crag on my VR14

But that's just a learning curve, I've started a new character anyway.

Like the op, area chat has to go off due to language going through my sound system in the living room.

Am enjoying it so far, am taking a much more laid back approach (still playing a couple of hrs every night on pc with my guild for pvp etc)

I think it translates to consoles reasonably well, my main doubt being pvp due to the communication currently available. Some sort of faction chat just for PvP I think is going to be needed, even if it's something along the lines of a chat group just for group leaders. But I will go in with an open mind.

Once the lag is sorted out and in game communication is improved, it should be a really great game.