19127 réponses à ce sujet

[Cobwebmaster]

Can't fault that logic.  Too bad, really. 

 

On that note, could I humbly ask that y'all please find something other than Skyrim to talk about? 

 

 

Well you have to speak as you find. I found different, but that's what gaming is about finding something (or not) that rings all (or most) of your bells. If DAI rings yours that's fine. It only rings about a third of mine but hey if you get what you are looking for out of it that's ok by me. As for Skyrim I love it and maybe Oblivion a little more, but the only reason I use Skyrim as a comparison here is because that game does have an open world that works. While there is no real in depth RP with most NPCs there are a large number of in context one liners that vary by hold (or satrap) that vary depending on political allegiance. It is a game that retains my attention throughout as too much Rp with too many can be as off putting as not enough. I find Skyrim attractive as a replayble game even without the mods. Wish I could say the same about DAI

Core quest completion in both games is given as an option. If you want to just do the core quest (and dependant ones) then you run the risk of not getting  greater enjoyment from the overall experience. On that basis I always "adventure". In Skyrim I found the experience rewarding, In DAI I didn't and as a single player found it particularly tedious and repetitive  from large uninhabited areas explored from Skyhold. Add that to the big area load times and niggly graphics issues with my card even my PC starts whingeing 

[Cobwebmaster]

She did not say that!

 She?

Drow attitudes towards torture and pain are/were well recognised

[Innsmouth Dweller]

It is because Skyrim is such a milestone in the RPG genre. It redefined RPG as we know it. It so redefined the definition of RPG that its unavoidable for every RPG coming out after it has to be like it. After these thoughts nestled themselves inside the mind of Mr. Darrah and creation of this excuse of a DA game and all the 600+ pages of "discussion" all that remains is showing off of the favourite mods from Skyrim the spiritual godfather and inspiration of the current and upcoming DA titles.

Skyrim redefined RPG?! roflmao! streamlining. Bethesda did their open-world for... i don't even know how long. why Morrowind didn't click with massive audience? why Oblivion didn't? why Fallout 3 didn't?

i don't know, but something tells me the rise of digital distribution helped its success a lot... and the modding scene which keeps the game alive... maybe it was the dragons?... cuz, i'm pretty sure it wasn't PR or marketing (shady or not).

Skyrim Fallout 3 defined open world FPS... Explorers(?) with leveling up, lasers swords and less than few quests in this beautiful yet empty space procedural fetch quests.

 

dunno about game developement in BW and why they did what they did. but i don't think Bethesda will suddenly change their style and start creating interactive, Telltale-like novels (assuming those are 'doing well'). more likely they again improve upon their own concept and add some depth. i personally hope for them to take a hint from Obsidian's mod (F:NV)

[Jadebaby]

I really wish this game was crap, then i'd stop coming back to these shitty forums to see if the damn game is playable yet.

 

#Biowastingmytime!

[Errationatus]

Oh, come now. I use mods to ensure I have fun with the game.... mods that help me avoid the grinding. Besides, this game shows me it's alive when compared to DAI.  An UnFun game makes any other working game better.  DAI, for many is UnFun, especially when I was given the impression by ML & Co, that it would be better that DAO+DA2 by retaining the best of the old and adding improvements.... Ha!

 

So, to me, Skyrim is better in many ways. DAI is better in the voice acting department. I'd say even in the graphics department but DAI is worse in companion pathing. But far worse in the modding capability.  I'm not going to discuss tactics, camera, UI, inventory, KB&M, key bindings ... etc.

 

I'm sure you can come up with a few Skyrim is better than DAI features, if you work hard  at it..

 

"I use mods to ensure I have fun with it" - what were you doing with it before the mods?  Are you saying it was fun before you modded the crap out of it?

 

As to better features...  nope.  Unmodded, the combat is crap.  The UI is crap.  'Arrow to the knee' a million times over.  Chased to the edge of the world if you inadvertently kill a chicken.  Everyone is orange if they aren't grey.  No one looks like they bathe.  Ever.  The storyline is insipidly stupid and the ending about as exciting as DA:I's and the side quests are dull and uninspired.  A guy with eighty pounds of armor sneaks up and picks a pocket in a busy marketplace and no one notices him crab-walking by.  Sure.  Immersion.  Woo-hoo.  "Look out!  Here comes an incredibly stiff dragon!  Never mind, it's glitched and hurtled away over that mountain for no particular reason.  Hoorah for Dova the Explorer!"

 

Nah.

 

I've played (and modded) Skyrim (or else I wouldn't criticize it), and frankly, I'm thinking a lot of folks have the same nostalgia glasses on for that game as they do for DA:O.  The game we were sold - the immensely buggy pile of bullpuckey it was on release, and not the heavily, heavily modified versions that are enabled after (and what people are actually talking about, incidentally) - that was not a good game.  That it required a dragon-crap-sized load of mods to be worth the playing does not speak highly of it.  Modded to crap it might be a decent game.  But - putting racing stripes and a slightly larger motor on a lawnmower and having a supermodel with actual boob physics to drive it doesn't make it a showroom-worthy Bugatti.  It's still just a pretty, slightly faster lawnmower with a top-heavy tart on it. 

 

Anything that alters it so fundamentally is a different game.  That game is superior, sure.  But it ain't Skyrim.

 

Skyrim is better for many because you've all changed it from what it was into something you liked.  That says to me that Skyrim on its own wasn't that great.  You had to go and find pounds of lipstick to slather on the Dovapig before it was worth the dancin' with.

 

Sorry.  Still not points in its favour.  Not to me, at any rate.  Sixty bucks for something I have to spend days and days altering myself for it to eventually be worth my time?  I must be the only person who sees the problem with this.  IMO it enables devs to be even lazier.  The fans fix it.  The fans create content.  The fans, the fans, the fans.  Not the people being paid to do it.  The fans.  The devs sit back and travel the path of least resistance and the fans fix it and the devs get the accolades they do not deserve.  The next game gets slapped together and this parasitic roundabout keeps going and going.

 

Still, crapping out this mess of a Dragon Age game and ass-draggingly-trudging belatedly in a half-hearted attempt to make it playable six months from now does show a kind of integrity, even if they too are trying to rope the fans into help fix it.

 

Still doesn't make Skyrim a better game.

[Errationatus]

Well you have to speak as you find. I found different, but that's what gaming is about finding something (or not) that rings all (or most) of your bells. If DAI rings yours that's fine. It only rings about a third of mine but hey if you get what you are looking for out of it that's ok by me. As for Skyrim I love it and maybe Oblivion a little more, but the only reason I use Skyrim as a comparison here is because that game does have an open world that works. While there is no real in depth RP with most NPCs there are a large number of in context one liners that vary by hold (or satrap) that vary depending on political allegiance. It is a game that retains my attention throughout as too much Rp with too many can be as off putting as not enough. I find Skyrim attractive as a replayble game even without the mods. Wish I could say the same about DAI

Core quest completion in both games is given as an option. If you want to just do the core quest (and dependant ones) then you run the risk of not getting  greater enjoyment from the overall experience. On that basis I always "adventure". In Skyrim I found the experience rewarding, In DAI I didn't and as a single player found it particularly tedious and repetitive  from large uninhabited areas explored from Skyhold. Add that to the big area load times and niggly graphics issues with my card even my PC starts whingeing 

 

I guess it might be a generational difference.  I expect something with a story to have an actual story - and not have the story (your 'core quest', which by implication is supposed to be the whole reason for the game. I would think. I would hope.) be something optional.

 

That would be like if Star Wars hyped up the adventures of Luke Skywalker and then showed him driving his landspeeder all across Tatooine for two hours.  Occasionally he gets out and points out a sarlacc or sandpeople tracks.  Every once in a while he shoots a womp-rat (or by Skyrim standards, fifty womp-rats chase him for the entire time).

 

Would you really lay out forty bucks to see that?  Why would you pay sixty to do that for days on end?  Personally, I just can't see the appeal.

[Amplitudelol]

Skyrim redefined RPG?! roflmao! streamlining. Bethesda did their open-world for... i don't even know how long. why Morrowind didn't click with massive audience? why Oblivion didn't? why Fallout 3 didn't?

i don't know, but something tells me the rise of digital distribution helped its success a lot... and the modding scene which keeps the game alive... maybe it was the dragons?... cuz, i'm pretty sure it wasn't PR or marketing (shady or not).

Skyrim Fallout 3 defined open world FPS... Explorers(?) with leveling up, lasers swords and less than few quests in this beautiful yet empty space procedural fetch quests.

 

dunno about game developement in BW and why they did what they did. but i don't think Bethesda will suddenly change their style and start creating interactive, Telltale-like novels (assuming those are 'doing well'). more likely they improve upon their concept and add some depth. i personally hope for them to take a hint from Obsidian's mod (F:NV)

 

There is still a lof of negativity around here! Ok, i need to set the mood, and redirect hate where it belongs:

 

Mr. Darrah:

"There’s a custom HUD for PC, and the inventory and the crafting are definitely places where we’ve tried to make sure the PC experience is designed PC-first. So it’s definitely been on our mind the whole time."

 

"We’re expecting you to understand more complicated gameplay systems." (8 spells, and mmo fetch system he means)

 

 

And yeah, its the dragons. Regardless of the dragon fights being the most pathetic combat experience in Elder Scrolls and 1% of the game being really about dragons. But noones complains when you can add modes and kill dragons in bikinis i guess.

[Elhanan]

My personal experience with DAO is 20+ campaigns, only a few mods at most (eg; Extra Dog Slot, Respec, Bash Lock, and one that added the lost Elven boots). The base game was great; mods helped to enhance the experience.

In Skyrim, 70+ hrs in 3rd person, 700+ hrs with only a single mod (ie; No More Blocky Faces), and then got into modding via Gopher's help and currently have 2800+ hrs. But I still use mods to enhance the current game; not change it into something else.

Am hoping it will be this way for DAI; mods will be added at some point to enhance what I already like, and help eliminate those things I wish to restrict (eg; add different PJ's, Auto-Harvest). But for now, I am content with the content.

[Errationatus]

It is because Skyrim is such a milestone in the RPG genre. It redefined RPG as we know it. It so redefined the definition of RPG that its unavoidable for every RPG coming out after it has to be like it. After these thoughts nestled themselves inside the mind of Mr. Darrah and creation of this excuse of a DA game and all the 600+ pages of "discussion" all that remains is showing off of the favourite mods from Skyrim the spiritual godfather and inspiration of the current and upcoming DA titles.

 

Popularity does not mean 'better' and never has, despite seeming majority opinion.  It defined nothing but boredom that I ever saw.

 

As "inspiration of the current and upcoming DA titles" that is both a dire and truly sad prediction for this franchise and I hope you're wrong but doubt you are.

 

Too bad, really.

[Innsmouth Dweller]

@Amplitudelol

hey, there's no negativity here, we're just exchanging opinions. if i was picking at you, i'd use comic sans 

[Jadebaby]

"I use mods to ensure I have fun with it" - what were you doing with it before the mods?  Are you saying it was fun before you modded the crap out of it?

 

As to better features...  nope.  Unmodded, the combat is crap.  The UI is crap.  'Arrow to the knee' a million times over.  Chased to the edge of the world if you inadvertently kill a chicken.  Everyone is orange if they aren't grey.  No one looks like they bathe.  Ever.  The storyline is insipidly stupid and the ending about as exciting as DA:I's and the side quests are dull and uninspired.  A guy with eighty pounds of armor sneaks up and picks a pocket in a busy marketplace and no one notices him crab-walking by.  Sure.  Immersion.  Woo-hoo.  "Look out!  Here comes an incredibly stiff dragon!  Never mind, it's glitched and hurtled away over that mountain for no particular reason.  Hoorah for Dova the Explorer!"

 

Nah.

 

I've played (and modded) Skyrim (or else I wouldn't criticize it), and frankly, I'm thinking a lot of folks have the same nostalgia glasses on for that game as they do for DA:O.  The game we were sold - the immensely buggy pile of bullpuckey it was on release, and not the heavily, heavily modified versions that are enabled after (and what people are actually talking about, incidentally) - that was not a good game.  That it required a dragon-crap-sized load of mods to be worth the playing does not speak highly of it.  Modded to crap it might be a decent game.  But - putting racing stripes and a slightly larger motor on a lawnmower and having a supermodel with actual boob physics to drive it doesn't make it a showroom-worthy Bugatti.  It's still just a pretty, slightly faster lawnmower with a top-heavy tart on it. 

 

Anything that alters it so fundamentally is a different game.  That game is superior, sure.  But it ain't Skyrim.

 

Skyrim is better for many because you've all changed it from what it was into something you liked.  That says to me that Skyrim on its own wasn't that great.  You had to go and find pounds of lipstick to slather on the Dovapig before it was worth the dancin' with.

 

Sorry.  Still not points in its favour.  Not to me, at any rate.  Sixty bucks for something I have to spend days and days altering myself for it to eventually be worth my time?  I must be the only person who sees the problem with this.  IMO it enables devs to be even lazier.  The fans fix it.  The fans create content.  The fans, the fans, the fans.  Not the people being paid to do it.  The fans.  The devs sit back and travel the path of least resistance and the fans fix it and the devs get the accolades they do not deserve.  The next game gets slapped together and this parasitic roundabout keeps going and going.

 

Still, crapping out this mess of a Dragon Age game and ass-draggingly-trudging belatedly in a half-hearted attempt to make it playable six months from now does show a kind of integrity, even if they too are trying to rope the fans into help fix it.

 

Still doesn't make Skyrim a better game.

 

Oh how I love your analogies. Yet it's still opinion. After all, the game did sell very well on consoles as well which lends to the fact that Skyrim (bethesda's version) can stand on it's own merits. Mods (for me) are just a way to further enhance the stock game in order to keep it looking more and more beautiful to contend with the steep trend of graphics these days. Sure I had a better time playing Skyrim on PC, but my first playthrough was on Xbox 360 and clocking up 500 hours in one playthrough without a single mod I guess makes me disagree with you on almost all accounts.

[CatatonicMan]

Anything that alters it so fundamentally is a different game. That game is superior, sure. But it ain't Skyrim.

You're getting into "Ship of Theseus" levels of philosophy here.

[Errationatus]

Oh how I love your analogies. Yet it's still opinion. After all, the game did sell very well on consoles as well which lends to the fact that Skyrim (bethesda's version) can stand on it's own merits. Mods (for me) are just a way to further enhance the stock game in order to keep it looking more and more beautiful to contend with the steep trend of graphics these days. Sure I had a better time playing Skyrim on PC, but my first playthrough was on Xbox 360 and clocking up 500 hours in one playthrough without a single mod I guess makes me disagree with you on almost all accounts.

 

I'm glad you like my analogies.  Unless you're being sarcastic.  In that case: .

 

Of course it's only my opinion.  I hope I've made that plain.  In no way am I crapping on the folks with the talents to make mods.  Some of the mods for Skyrim are frankly incredible.  Also, glad your got your money's worth first time round.  I am fully aware that mods can keep a game alive.  I've expounded the mods and community for Unreal Tournament any number of times and it has an absolute barebones of a story behind its mayhem.  It's all a hundred times more energetic and fun than Skyrim or DAI or any RPG for that matter.  But it's meant to be simple.

 

I think, in the end, is that all I'm asking for is less open space and wandering and more actual content. The novelty wears off really fast - hence the million mods. The other reason I'm vaguely opposed is because devs are pushing the open empty spaces as content.

 

*Shrug* Different standards, I guess.

[Errationatus]

You're getting into "Ship of Theseus" levels of philosophy here.

 

I don't think I am, actually.

 

That's the 'if something has all its parts replaced with identical parts is it the same object?' puzzler, if I'm not mistaken.

 

That's not so hard to answer, really.  It's 'no, no it isn't'. 

 

The object looks the same, it may even function the same, but it is not the same particular object as previously.  Here's how you know the answer's 'no' -   you've got your G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip and cool scar and I have mine.  They all for all intents and purposes identical.

 

Are they the same object or the same kind of object?

 

A game out of the box the way the devs intended is the same for everyone.  Add five hundred mods that fundamentally change the way the game looks, plays and is experienced and that changes the game completely.  It is no longer the same game and not the game as intended.

 

Not the same thing.

[DisturbedJim83]

Can't fault that logic.  Too bad, really. 

 

On that note, could I humbly ask that y'all please find something other than Skyrim to talk about? 

 

(Disclaimer - solely in my opinion)

 

It's not remotely superior to DA:I. It's not even better than DA:II.  I've had more interesting experiences on the toilet.  Skyrim was and is a horrible game.  It's not even a game.  A game gives you action and excitement and really wild things. Skyrim does none of this. It's a timesink on a level DA:I can only dream of. 

 

How much time collectively has been spent harvesting butterflies and moss, chopping wood and scraping leather all to level up for a 'story' that's barely five hours long if played without all the d!cking about?  Spend fifty hours becoming a thief, another fifty becoming a werewolf, or a vampire and...  it has precisely nothing to do with why dragons are back, etc, etc.  Even Max-Exorcist-Von Sydow couldn't save this stinker.  In collective man-hours alone...  *shakes head*  boggles the mind what could have been accomplished otherwise.  Nevermind.

 

Jump through thirty hoops so the water looks 'realistic' and the clouds scud over like for reals.  'Real' breast physics (no one sees how fundamentally pathetic that is? That's anime-level stupid.)!  Five thousand sad reiterations on bikini armor.  The last one I saw was some lace body suit.  I think it had a clasp that gave something like 200 armor or some crap to 'justify' it.  Yeah.  I rolled my eyes so hard on that it could actually be heard in another room.

 

Pretty and boring is not better than just boring. People should have been angry over Skyrim.  The ability of an idiot to gleefully put a bucket over the idiot head of an idiot NPC and then steal all his idiot cheese before going out and idiotically chopping idiot wood for an hour was not a triumph of anything. Yes, it was vaguely cool to have the ability to do that if one wanted to.  But why would you want to?  We invented chainsaws for a reason.  If you have to chop cords and cords of wood by hand for really real, you can bet there's no stinkin' nostalgia to it in this sad simulator.  Trust me on this.

 

Any game that requires five hundred mods before it's remotely playable is not a good game and wasn't from the beginning.  Needing that many mods to make it doable is not a point in its favour. 

 

Oh, for...!  even I just spent a wall of text talking about this stupid black hole of a 'game'.

 

Honestly, if Skyrim is the best alternative to Dragon Age, there's no bloody hope for this genre of games at all.

 

I need a whiskey aspirin...

 The thing is it don't require 500 mods honestly you could install less than 5 and its instantly better than DAI. Sky UI, Cabals Book of Silence,Falskar Skyfalls and Skymills and Wet and Cold.

 

Sure the "Glorified Bikini" are 10 a dozen but there are also loads of realistic armour mods the point is that due to the modability the lack of story doesn't matter because you can make it your own game by tailoring it to your preferences making it as challenging or easy,realistic or as fantasy as you like.Bethesda didn't whip out the "oh but its complicated and there may be licensing issues BS" that EA did they just released the toolkit and let the community have at it and because the best mods tend to require the DLC they soid alot of Dragonborn and Dawnguard/Hearthfire, people are still buying "The Ultimate Edition".

 

So yes Skyrim is "better" because us PC users didn't have the stupid limitations of those outdated worthless consoles imposed on us like Bioware has with DAI and Bioware has still not provided a real answer as to why us PC Gamers are forced to the consoles dumb limitation of only being able to map 8 abilities to a hotbar or why we can't switch weapons during battle like we could in DAO and DA2 or why we no longer have control over our characters stats.

 

At this rate DA2 is a better "PC CRPG" than DAI and that's saying something about how bad DAI is I honestly rather take my £55 spent on DAI back and spend it on another ship in Star Citizen because at least CIG doesn't cater to the lowest common denominator because they recognise the superiority of PC. 

[Jadebaby]

I'm glad you like my analogies.  Unless you're being sarcastic.  In that case: .

 

Of course it's only my opinion.  I hope I've made that plain.  In no way am I crapping on the folks with the talents to make mods.  Some of the mods for Skyrim are frankly incredible.  Also, glad your got your money's worth first time round.  I am fully aware that mods can keep a game alive.  I've expounded the mods and community for Unreal Tournament any number of times and it has an absolute barebones of a story behind its mayhem.  It's all a hundred times more energetic and fun than Skyrim or DAI or any RPG for that matter.  But it's meant to be simple.

 

I think, in the end, is that all I'm asking for is less open space and wandering and more actual content. The novelty wears off really fast - hence the million mods. The other reason I'm vaguely opposed is because devs are pushing the open empty spaces as content.

 

*Shrug* Different standards, I guess.

 

I get your point now, and I do agree with you to a degree. In my experiences with each game Dragon Age always felt more plain than any Besthesda game, sure Bethesda's spaces are vastly bigger. But it's supposed to be, and it's supposed to have an element of abandonment because in that sense it creates immersion that you're in these worlds. But to further explore the idea you have to define what content truly means, because hidden all around Skyrim are caves/dungeons/lairs/temples/tombs that may or may not have anything to do with a specific quest but can be explored and looted all the same. That in itself some people would consider great content.  Nevertheless Comparing UT to any RPG is like comparing Hockey to Lawn Bowls.

[Dinkledorf]

Might want to look at the very bottom of keybindings. (assuming you are on patch 5)

Am not, still on Patch 2.  From my understanding of the Mouse Look feature, it requires toggling to enable/disable.  I guess that's better than nothing but not what I was hoping for when I heard them adding this feature.  My game is running very well hence my hesitation to patch up.  I am hoping Patch 6 provides enough motivation to make the leap.

 

Thanks though!

[DisturbedJim83]

I'm glad you like my analogies.  Unless you're being sarcastic.  In that case: .

 

Of course it's only my opinion.  I hope I've made that plain.  In no way am I crapping on the folks with the talents to make mods.  Some of the mods for Skyrim are frankly incredible.  Also, glad your got your money's worth first time round.  I am fully aware that mods can keep a game alive.  I've expounded the mods and community for Unreal Tournament any number of times and it has an absolute barebones of a story behind its mayhem.  It's all a hundred times more energetic and fun than Skyrim or DAI or any RPG for that matter.  But it's meant to be simple.

 

I think, in the end, is that all I'm asking for is less open space and wandering and more actual content. The novelty wears off really fast - hence the million mods. The other reason I'm vaguely opposed is because devs are pushing the open empty spaces as content.

 

*Shrug* Different standards, I guess.

I think the key difference is Skyrim doesn't pretend to be story driven its very open in that it has a "main quest " inside a very open sandbox 

 

DAI on the other hand both pretends and claims to be some "100hr+ Epic" when the reality is that if you take away all the imposed time limits (and "grind Inquisition points") on War Table missions then what you have is maybe 30hrs of story/quest content and 80hrs of pointless, mindless fluff filler drivel no different from the radial quests in Skyrim that you pick up from the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood they just replaced the "kill generic NPC X" with collect 100 elfroot/blood lotus/siverite for "random meaningless NPC Y" 

[Dinkledorf]

Popularity does not mean 'better' and never has, despite seeming majority opinion.  It defined nothing but boredom that I ever saw.

 

As "inspiration of the current and upcoming DA titles" that is both a dire and truly sad prediction for this franchise and I hope you're wrong but doubt you are.

 

Too bad, really.

Yep, unfortunately, for business "popularity" > "better".

[Errationatus]

I get your point now, and I do agree with you to a degree. In my experiences with each game Dragon Age always felt more plain than any Besthesda game, sure Bethesda's spaces are vastly bigger. But it's supposed to be, and it's supposed to have an element of abandonment because in that sense it creates immersion that you're in these worlds. But to further explore the idea you have to define what content truly means, because hidden all around Skyrim are caves/dungeons/lairs/temples/tombs that may or may not have anything to do with a specific quest but can be explored and looted all the same. That in itself some people would consider great content.  Nevertheless Comparing UT to any RPG is like comparing Hockey to Lawn Bowls.

 

If we're going just by content and moddability (not genres), they are roughly the same.  Mods change the out-of-the-box experience.  I am also not - and I'd like to make this clear if I haven't up to now - not lambasting modders or those who mod their games to suit themselves.  I'm as guilty as anyone of that. My gripe is this emptiness in placeof/for content thing.

 

Again, I've played Skyrim.  I've been in many of those (fundamentally identical) caves/dungeons/lairs/temples/tombs and frankly didn't think the majority worth the trudge.  Walk in cave.  Ah!  Draugr!  Walk ten feet. Two more Draugr!  Walk twenty feet.  A helmet I already have. Argh. Oh. No. Three more Draugrs. Oh, look a sword I already have five of.  Who lit all these torches, anyway?  Why am I following this immensely unfunny dog?

 

Results vary, of course.  Unfortunately I wasn't immersed.  I was bored.  If I wanted to wander aimlessly I'd go to the mall.  On the bright side, I wouldn't likely have a wolfpack and three bears every twenty feet following me there.

 

Dragon Age - unlike Skyrim - is primarily character driven.  This is a good thing - provided of course these great characters have things to do worthy of them.  That doesn't always happen, unfortunately.  I like DA because those characters tend to be good, less so for the silly storylines they are sometimes trapped in.  The points I do give Biowere is that they, in a sea of empty timesinks and pointless explosions and teabagging jackovs, actually try to give us something to invest in.  They fail only in the mechanics of the execution, not the attempt.

 

I don't hate Skyrim.  I just honestly don't see the appeal (past the modding and boobies) and haven't yet seen a cogent argument for why it is/should be so apparently appealing.  I'm open to being convinced, but it hasn't happened yet.

 

I'm also noticing I've joined in the immense off-topicness of the thread now.  I'm hoping it's at least ironic, but it probably isn't.

[Errationatus]

I think the key difference is Skyrim doesn't pretend to be story driven its very open in that it has a "main quest " inside a very open sandbox 

 

DAI on the other hand both pretends and claims to be some "100hr+ Epic" when the reality is that if you take away all the imposed time limits (and "grind Inquisition points") on War Table missions then what you have is maybe 30hrs of story/quest content and 80hrs of pointless, mindless fluff filler drivel no different from the radial quests in Skyrim that you pick up from the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood they just replaced the "kill generic NPC X" with collect 100 elfroot/blood lotus/siverite for "random meaningless NPC Y" 

 

How does your 'key difference' make Skyrim a better game?  IMO, the fact it lacks any substantial and/or coherent story is a detractor, not a plus.

 

As to DA:I being a pointless timesink for the most part (which I've railed against - rather eloquently and handsomely too, I might add), just remember that this thing was meant to emulate Skyrim - which is not a point in favour of either game.

 

Still waiting to be convinced as to Skyrim's superiority...

[Errationatus]

Yep, unfortunately, for business "popularity" > "better".

 

Explains religion, politics and the current situation on both TV, movies and in the publishing industry lately too. Lowest common denominator is king.

 

Sad state of affairs.  Nothing remotely new, so the sad slops on...

 

Not easy being an elitist snob in this day and age, dammit.

[Dinkledorf]

But why would we want to convince you otherwise Errationatus (well speaking for myself anyway)?  If you don't like, you don't, it is what it is.  I share your opinion to a certain point.  I guess I just find times when wandering more or less aimlessly in a fantasy world is appealing.  Ironically, DAI has a lot of that and I don't like it as much as Skyrim, <shrugs>, not sure why really since conceptually they are the same.  

 

One reason is likely that Skyrim does offer a plethora of actually "playable" internal environments whereas DAI does not (not considering walking into a farmhouse and reading some random piece of paper as "playable").  It may not be super duper content based but it does provide a break.

[KilrB]

They need to add a mini-game to DA:I ...

 

When we gather around the "war table", instead of sending minions on boring/useless errands we need an option to play Hackmaster, Space Hack, or Cattlepunk.

 

Hell, maybe even Risk, checkers, cards ... something with a little excitement.

 

We could invite the villains over for game-night and pretend we're the Knights of the Dinner Table and they're The Black Hand's ...

 

That ought to liven' it up a little, or at least mitigate the bore-fest with a little humor.

[DisturbedJim83]

How does your 'key difference' make Skyrim a better game?  IMO, the fact it lacks any substantial and/or coherent story is a detractor, not a plus.

 

As to DA:I being a pointless timesink for the most part (which I've railed against - rather eloquently and handsomely too, I might add), just remember that this thing was meant to emulate Skyrim - which is not a point in favour of either game.

 

Still waiting to be convinced as to Skyrim's superiority...

 

The reason its better is threefold :

 

1) It was never marketed as anything other than what it was unlike DAI

2) They released the toolkit without excuses or BS allowing us to add "filler" unlike DAI

3) They didn't shoehorn some MP crap into the game resulting in the core mechanics of the SP game being compromised unlike DAI

 

and that's the point really with Skyrim I have the option to make it "better" and all it takes is 5 minutes and a few clicks and voila I have a good PC RPG,but with DAI I am denied even the option to improve the game because of EA's greed and pointless desire to appeal to the lowest common denominator.EA simply does not want us to mod the game because they know that the community can fix for free what they could charge us $15 for.