The Elder Scrolls Online has received a lot of attention from many sources. GameInformer, Kotaku and even receiving an award from TenTonHammer for the best new concept. TTH could not of chosen a better game in development to give the award to. ZeniMax Online Studios, led by popular game developer Matt Firor known for his hard work and contribution to Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, has been developing and putting hard work into the game for over 5 years. No game has been in work this long and didn't shock the gaming community when it launched. Here it why TESO will become a hit when it launches:

1. The Series Popularity

If you consider yourself a gamer and you haven't heard of The Elder Scrolls then you should reconsider how you label yourself. Bethesda Game Studios is the team behind bringing us our favorite open-world action RPG and they are still pushing out new games to this day. The first installment of the series we seen was TES: Arena which launched in 1996 for DOS PC systems. Okay so maybe you haven't been gaming that far back or you were still learning how to ride a bike but Arena was just the beginning of a series that would shortly become widely known. Following Arena we were blessed with Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and probably the most known and popular Skyrim. Skyrim is the latest of the series that launched on November 11, 2011. The game was an instant success and quickly grabbed the attention of all gamers around the world. Selling over 10 million copies and receiving numerous game of the year awards from places such as G4TV and the Spike Video Game Awards, Skyrim has earned its spot as one of the best video games ever and we applaud Bethesda for pulling it off. It has even earned a spot in the internet meme world.. Fus Ro Dah!

2. Real Time Combat

The Elder Scrolls Online is one of the first MMORPGs to introduce real time combat. For those of you that don't know what real time means let me give you an example. The main competitor of TESO, World of Warcraft, has a different type of combat system. If you wish to perform a normal swing in WoW you press €1€. If you want to perform a more powerful swing you press €2€. By being able to press keys that perform the ability regardless of the time frame it would take your character to gather up his strength to unleash a mightier swing would declare the game as not taking place in real time. Unlike WoW, TESO is bringing a more realistic approach to combat that the series is known for. So if you want to perform a mighty swing, you better give your hero enough to cock his sword back and not get bashed with a shield while doing so.

€Our whole real-time combat system of blocking and dodging is all pretty much new. And the fact that it's based on health, stamina and magicka€"you have to maintain your stamina bar to block and it's all real-time€"gives it a completely different feel from any MMO.€ - Matt Firor

3. All of Tamriel is Explorable

If you have played previous games in the series then you will be familiar with the locations that you set forth to in TESO. The game takes place in Tamriel, all of Tamriel! That includes all the well known locations such as the snowy mountains of Skyrim all the way to the dark and gloomy swamps of Black Marsh. Don't get discouraged and say to yourself you have been there once and you don't want to see the same thing twice because the game is set to take place 1,000 years before the events played through in Skyrim. 1,000 years is a long time and much of the world will appear different. Cyrodiil will be much different then what we explored in Oblivion because according to the lore it was a jungle before transformed by Tiber Septim. So put your light armor on and find a reliable horse because there will be plenty of ground to cover!

4. Full Voice Acting

Voice acting has become very popular in this generation of video games. Most new games that come out have a full cast of voice actors who give the game emotion and feeling through the power of their voice. The old text bubbles has become a thing of the past (now kids have one less reason to learn how to read). A game that has been most notable for having full voice acting is Bioware's MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. The fans were excited about not having to read their way through pages and pages of emotionless text and it contributed to the games (short) success. SWTOR did not do as well as it could for other reasons such as the terrible, buggy and very choppy HeroEngine used. Thank god it was only a rumor that TESO was going to be built on the HeroEngine because it would of fell down the same hole that Star Wars is begging for subscribers in. Hopefully they won't hire Nolan North for any voices because he is already in every video game! Not kidding check this never ending list out here, you might be surprised.

5. PvP

So if you don't know by now there will be three factions in The Elder Scrolls Online: the Daggerfall Covenant, Aldmeri Dominion and Ebonheart Pact. Each faction will be composed of three races making that a total of nine playable races. From the information the has been released so far it seems like ZeniMax is focusing a lot of PvP. PvP has never been seen in the series and will be totally new. Not all is known about how exactly PvP will be but we do know what to expect and that is massive battles against other players to seize and control different towns and territories. Right now I know all you WoW fans are thinking of fighting for control of Tol Barad to get your daily quests done but there is one thing you are forgetting that will make TESO unique and better than the rest. There is a total of three factions! In most games you get the typical good side and the bad side versus each other. Having a third faction is like giving Canada weapons of mass destruction, who knows what would happen. Maybe its just me but the idea of taking place in huge battles to siege castles, conquer cities, and even crown members of your faction King sounds amazing!

If you had your doubts about The Elder Scrolls Online before they are gone now! So many critics have been tough on the game after seeing so little. It is disappointing that that anyone would doubt ZeniMax and the series. A lot of the negativity is based on the art design and characters models that they chose to use. Instead of bashing TESO, they need to understand that it is impossible to match the graphics and quality of Skyrim and expect the game to be able to handle large-scale battles of hundreds of players. Keep your ears and eyes open, because there is still a lot to learn!