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[This Elder Scrolls Online post/travel brochure brought to you by Got Your Soul Industries, a subsidiary of Molag Bal, the daedric trickster god.]

COME TO PLEASANTLY BREEZY COLDHARBOUR. Bring your kids! Bring your significant other! Bring your brittle, tenuously tethered soul… wimsuit! Bring your swimsuit. Yes. You thought Skyrim was Tamriel’s number one destination for snow-coated outdoor fun? YOU THOUGHT WRONG AND YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT. Um, we mean, clearly you haven’t traveled to other planes of existence. You should be more adventurous. Plus, for you native Morrowindians, our trees are all snaky and weird, and you’re in no very little danger of being shouted off a cliff by some crazed dragon hunter. So come join us in Coldharbour, whether you want to ski, snowboard, or have front row seats for the coming End Of Days. We promise, we don’t bite. (Disclaimer: except for Xzanlthor’phlaranx, Dreugh lord of a thousand pointy mouths. He has been known to bite occasionally.)

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Daedric Prince Molag Bal, is the Cobra Commander of Tamriel, always trying to enslave the souls of the world to his will, always going about it the wrong way. He's the god of schemes, after all — not the god of carefully crafted plans. For instance, there's an ancient prophecy in the Elder Scrolls that says Molag Bal's plans will be thwarted by the Soulless One. One would think that removing souls from people would be off the menu at that point, but no. One can't help but wonder what other wacky schemes Molag Bal has hatched in the past. "Lure souls to a petting zoo? But Sire, you're allergic to wool!" Oh that Molag Bal. Find out more about Molag Bal's Elder Scrolls Online schemes and his plan to merge Tamriel with his home of Coldharbour over at the Bethesda Blog.

Bethesda announced this morning The Elder Scrolls Online will be playable at this year's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany.

Gamescom, the world's largest video game convention, will be open to the public from August 22-25. Tickets for the show are available now. Just be painfully aware of the crowds if you're planning to attend.

For an impressive amount of detail on The Elder Scrolls Online, head on over to our sister-site Massively.

A 20-minute chunk of gameplay from The Elder Scrolls Online MMO leaked overnight, and was quickly taken down from YouTube on ZeniMax Media's orders. PCGamer, however, has the clip if you want to see it. Early verdicts are not good.

I recently ventured to Zenimax Online’s mighty fortress in the fantastical kingdom of Baltimore, and I was very good. I only spent 40 percent of the time incessantly quoting The Wire. When not explaining to random passers-by why you best not miss when you come at the king, I even played some videogames! Specifically, The Elder Scrolls Online, because Zenimax kinda makes that and stuff. I did, however, come away with quite a sizable list of concerns, as this one’s DNA struck me as decidedly more MMO than TES. But a promising-looking first-person mode suggests Zenimax is paying attention to the wishes of the fantasy titan’s truly colossal fanbase, so I decided to air my grievances directly. Click past the break for lead gameplay designer Nick Konkle’s responses to Zenimax’s almost comically abrupt turnaround on first-person, TESO’s ability (or lack thereof) to replicate the moments of AI-driven randomness TES players so love, PvP’s potential for maniacal politicking, the open class system, and – of course, most importantly – mudcrabs. Mudcrabs, mudcrabs, and more mudcrabs.

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For me, going hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online yielded a dishearteningly un-Elder-Scrolls-y experience in places. Admittedly, however, it was only the first few hours, and – even in rooms so quiet that everyone angrily shushes mice for skittering by – MMOs don’t generally demo well. With those things in mind, I aired some of my grievances to the game’s developers – the full results of which you’ll see very, very soon. For now, though, here’s the big one: Why does everything feel so rigid? Where’s the organic madness, the giants playing continental golf-hockey with wolves, pelting me with pelts while I fearlessly press on in a single cardinal direction, constantly stumbling into random adventure? Why not replicate that openness with actual, you know, people instead of NPCs? As part of a group interview, creative director Paul Sage explained the rather large gulf between the two experiences.

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The Elder Scrolls is kind of an odd series, when you think about it. As players, we expect that we should be able to fly careening off-rails from the get-go, ignoring whatever fantasy story domino chain the writers have conjured up in favor of venturing off into any three-eyed gorilla murder cave we please. “*crag* being the hero,” we say. “I’m gonna punch horses until an army of hooved hellions chases me across the countryside.” But the very fact that Bethesda’s games actually allow for that is a key reason many of us love them so much. So then, with TES charging into MMO territory under Zenimax Online’s steady whip, can it hope to adapt the elements that keep the series from simply blending in with a suffocatingly samey fantasy pack? I ventured to Zenimax’s frigid Baltimorian lair and went hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online to find out.

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We’ve got acres of Elder Scrolls Online due to hit you in the face (n.b. this is an analogy for ‘reading words on a screen’ – RPS solemnly pledges not to hit any of its readers in the face) later today and tomorrow, as Nathan’s just got back from playing it, but lest it be drowned out by wordsplosion, it’s worth stating THE BIG LOUD NOISY HEADLINE on its own too. Which is that Bethesda have reinstated an Elder Scrolls-traditional first-person mode into their MMO. The internet got pretty internetty when the game was initially revealed to be lacking this TES mainstay, but now it’s back in there, visible hands and all.(more…)

I can’t say I’m particularly shocked by this news, but that doesn’t mean I’m not tremendously disappointed by it. In another entry on a snaking tapestry of departures from what makes Elder Scrolls, well, Elder Scrolls, TES Online won’t be doing your virtual eyeballs any favors. Yes, there will be a first-person viewpoint, but don’t expect any bells or whistles – or arms, legs, and torsos, for that matter. In fact, adventuring in first-person – taking in the sights and breathing in the chitinous wafts of a nearby Silt Strider – will put you at a distinct disadvantage.

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At least this game learned one thing from World of Warcraft. Namely, pretty-looking all-CG trailers that don't even remotely resemble the actual game. Marketing!

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SWTOR got it wrong – oh so very wrong – but here we are once again, looking at a mega-bucks MMO that could make World of Warcraft wriggle around uncomfortably, like it’s wearing underwear a size too small. Like it or not, Skyrim is a game which crossed to The Other Side, that strange and terrifying world of people who play games but don’t follow gaming. Y’know, Normals. As such, Bethesda’s upcoming massively multiplayer monster-stabber TESO has at least a chance at a very big audience, not purely the MMO-educated. We shall see!

Today’s big news, though, is that Bethesda have opened up beta sign-ups for TESO, and they have a fancy-pants new trailer too.(more…)

I have about as much interest in Elder Scrolls’ lore as I do in high definition photographs of infected hangnails. I’ve been playing the series since the release of Daggerfall but I’ve managed to absorb absolutely nothing about any ongoing plot or fantastic history. All that is about to change. The latest video promotion for The Elder Scrolls Online is hosted by ‘Loremaster Lawrence Schick’, who not only has an excellent job title and name, but also boasts superior facial foliage and a voice that is both wise and soothing. It is now one of my life’s ambitions to have Lawrence read The Silmarillion to me as a bedtime story.

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So it's an MMO, then? Okay. Good to know.

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You want to go out on a date with The Elder Scrolls Online? Not until you’ve been formerly introduced. Which you can be below as Bethesda people talk you through the online version of their long-running series. With an awful lot of footage.

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Hello there, The Elder Scrolls Online. Sort-of-a-long-time, no see. You’re looking quite… hm. Well, you’re looking significantly less like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning than the last time we saw you. I’m serious, though. I could swear that a couple of your most recent mythical e-runes – hewn from the Internet’s holy ore – come straight from Skyrim. And another one even looks a bit like Morrowind. Sometimes. From the correct angle. When my glasses are in space. Yes, it’s dim praise, but the latest screenshot batch does, I think, show some fairly significant improvement. At least, environmentally speaking.

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#bethesda Rich Vogel, a longtime game designer who most recently served as executive producer on BioWare's online RPG The Old Republic, is joining Bethesda, the publisher behind games like Skyrim and the upcoming Dishonored. More »

#theelderscrolls About a month ago, on the top floor of a seven-story hotel whose elevators were temporarily out of service, I saw the massively multiplayer online version of The Elder Scrolls. (You know, the Skyrim series.) More »

Despite its hefty name recognition, The Elder Scrolls Online has a tough row to hoe. It's a brand new massively multiplayer RPG trying to join a market dominated by titans like World of Warcraft. And, unlike competitors such as Star Wars: The Old Republic or the upcoming The Secret World, it can't use a unique setting as a primary distinction to set it apart from WoW.

Just like WoW, Elder Scrolls Online has everything from orcs to dwarves and pastoral beauty to snow-covered wastes. So let's talk about a couple of actual differences, namely ESO's combat, reward systems and cooperative "synergy" skills.

If you’ve only got 15 minutes to wow a crowd, it stands to reason that you’d unload your biggest guns until even the most ardent doubters would have no choice but to fly a white flag with your face on it. Elder Scrolls Online‘s E3 presentation, then, was worrisome. The action-based combat looked hollow and unconvincing, and we spent the bulk of our time watching a perplexingly un-Elder-Scrolls-like quest chain involving ghosts, time travel, and “collect X amount of Y item” prompts unfold. Meanwhile, the potentially unique three-way factional PvP battles got a chaotic 45-second flyby video that looked like what’d happen if an upturned anthill learned magic.

But then, let’s face it: even at their best, MMOs don’t demo well. That in mind, I attempted to get a clearer picture from creative director Paul Sage. So then, what exactly sets TESO apart from a legion of increasingly same-y looking online worlds? Can we mix and match classes as we see fit? Can we slaughter random NPCs? Does TESO stand a chance in a hostile MMO landscape that’s even chewed up SWTOR? And, most importantly, will there be books? It’s all after the break.

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#theelderscrolls I'm about as excited for Elder Scrolls Online as I am a routine appointment to get my teeth knocked out. Still, I am not everyone! if you simply cannot wait for the chance to play yet another MMO that's built just like all the other MMOs, check out these screenshots. More »

After witnessing an E3 demonstration of The Elder Scrolls Online (more on that soon!), we took a moment to chat with its lead gameplay designer, Nick Konkle, about the visual design, combat, social features and cooperative reward system. Also, about how a warrior can turn a mage's flame vortex into a shower of fireballs.

The game's creative director discusses the importance of player freedom in Elder Scrolls Online.

The good news: On the way to see the Elder Scrolls Online, we spotted an actual, real-life Elder Scroll. The bad news: We may have opened a portal to Oblivion and cursed all of humanity (and E3 2012 in particular) for all of eternity. The unexpected extra good news: A Daedroth just ate Ubisoft's press conference planning committee.

And the Year or the Bow rages on.

Grumble grumble I’m not entirely sure this is worth a post grumble grumble. It’s a CGI-only, bizarrely slo-mo and semi-silent glimpse of the main factions in Bethesda’s confusingly non-Elder Scrollsy The Elder Scrolls Online. I’m interested in the game even if I’m currently bewildered by how little it sounds like its singleplayer parent, but this trailer is about as illuminating as a conversation with a Scientologist.(more…)

#theelderscrollsonline It's a sad state of affairs when you're not even feeling a game's cinematic trailer, but then, that's about par for the course with me and The Elder Scrolls Online. The game itself just doesn't look, or sound like an Elder Scrolls title. And neither does this trailer. More »

The Elder Scrolls Online's Game Director stops by the All Access Live show to share a fly-through of the MMO's environments and elaborates on the key gameplay elements.

According to The Elder Scrolls Online game director Matt Firor, the series’ online spin won’t be quite as social as expected. At least, not completely. “We have a whole part of the game that’s 100% solo, and that’s the main story,” he explains to an invisible interviewer in this Game Informer video. “Everything you do is solo and the world reacts to you that way.”

Isn’t it about time we just admitted this isn’t actually a good thing?

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