Vibrant and saturated colors are a part of a cartoon style, another one being exaggerated / simplified proportions. It's not that cartoony, but it's still way more cartoony than the TES 3, 4 and 5. Just look at the size of those hands and how large is this dwemer greatsword.
Im not completely against it, Im fine with simplified graphics, but I think that it would be better if the proportions were more on the realisitc side of the balance.

The armor and weapons have a 'fantasy' style, but they aren't nearly as ridiculous as some games out there. I think they fit nicely with the TES series. Curved building walls? Are you talking about the concept art or screenshots? I suggest waiting to see a gameplay vid before you say the walls in the game are curved.

bunch of graphic [censored]s in here.

Why can't it look more like http://www.mortalonline.com/screenshots?

Honestly, several years ago, if someone showed me screenshots of Mortal Online and TESO side by side and said "guess the TES MMO" i'd put a lot of money on it being Mortal Online.

Umm.. are you joking? Those screenshots have characters that look like mannequins, and bland, lifeless environments.

It also look a lot like Oblivion and Skyrim, wich are actually TES games. Indeed they aren't the best graphics ever and they would need to be updated to fit the tone of the game, but it's still more fitting than the graphics displayed in GI's screenshots.

If you think those environments look bland, you must hate Morrowind.

It sure as hell looks a lot closer to the main TES series than TES:Online does. Also, it's first-person.

TES:Online looks closer to KOA:Reckoning than it does to TES.

We are going to have to agree to disagree. ZOS is moving the franchise in the right direction, if you ask me; I like the look of the TESO screenshots more. I also like 3rd person play in an RPG more, and I feel like TES has gone downhill ever since Todd Howard took over (basically after Daggerfall) - I guess you can't please everyone, right?

In that case that's your opinion, just not say that's it's not cartoony when it is. Then, if you prefer Dagerfall over the last games and the cartoony style, it's your tastes indeed.

ironic, considering Daggerfall was exclusively first-person and had some of the blandest environments in the series.

If you like cartoony third-person RPGs, there are plenty of them out there. Stop trying to corrupt one of the few franchises out there that go for a more realistic look, as well as first-person.

Mhhh...Comic Again? I want the Style of Morrowind and Skyrim!

I've seen cartoony; I know cartoony; I hate cartoony. TESO is absolutely not cartoony. WOW and TERA are cartoony and look like crap. LOTRO, SWTOR, and TESO have a similar style and none of them are cartoony imo and that is all that matters to me. Sure, the screenshots look a bit clean and colorful and not as gritty as Skyrim but we have only seen a few so far. I think the screenshot look fine so far and are what I expected. God I just wish we had first-person pesrspective.

Seriously? You are going to focus on the graphics of a game made in the 90's when someone says it was a good game? I'm talking about how they have slowly been weeding the RPG elements out of the series, every since Daggerfall. I'm talking about how the game is being made more and more simple so that it runs better on consoles. At least we know this MMO will be complex and interesting and put a lot of the RPG back into TES. And one more time: The graphics shown in the screenshots that were leaked were not 'cartoony.' They were vibrant and full of life. The characters were proportionally built and the weapons and armor were not goofy to some extreme. Cartoony = WOW.

I'm pretty sure the Hero Engine can pull off Dragon Age Origins level of graphics, and they would not be taxing today's hardware. It's definetly a matter of art direction.

http://na.llnet.bioware.cdn.ea.com/u/f/eagames/bioware/dragonage/assets/images/addon/screens/witch_hunt003.jpg

At least the Amalur MMO coming out, Copernicus, is using Unreal Engine 3 and not the Hero Engine.

It's a well established formula by Blizzard. Every big corportion wants a piece of WoW cake i.e. a piece of it's fanbase.

Wow, Mortal Online looks so much better. Sure, the draw distance on trees could be a lot better, but if they implemented an LOD system like Skyrim's we'd be set. That's the art style TESO should be aiming for. Not copying the bright and vibrant WoW/SWTOR/Amalur art style.

Honestly, Blackwulf12, it's fine if you approve of that art style. But if you're saying you like it, prefer third person combat to first person, and have disliked TES titles after Daggerfall, then there's a good reason you aren't understanding the hatred for this game. That's fine, but you have to recognize that this art style is nothing like the established TES art style, regardless of whether you approve of the new direction.

It would, however, be perfect for all the gamers who slap http://i.imgur.com/dZRkK.png

It's not Blizzard's formula now, they're going off of Guild Wars 2's direction more so than Warcraft's.

UE3 or CE3 they both are miles superrior to HeroEngine but some big companies still prefer it i guess it's some politic question here... or maybe a simple greedyness.