Risen was pretty bugged on the Xbox 360 and a poor port too. That put me off purchasing Risen 2 (also along with the fact that the combat system was broken and could be exploited in Risen 1 and the combat in Risen 2 looked worst and the inclusion of QTE's is always a bad in an RPG - unless it's a pure action-RPG) which I heard was dumbed down anyway.
Most who like the Elder Scroll games only do because it's open world and casual (i.e you can just jump in and play it kinda like a Call of Duty game, indeed it's no surprise to me when I see CoD fans talking about Skyrim) or they're the original fans of the series.
Bioware RPG's are pretty good, if we're talking about Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins. Mass Effect 1 and 2 are alright but the third was too dumbed down and restricted whilst Dragon Age 2 was similarly a rush job. In fact the only Bioware games I've thought have been truly outstanding have been Baldur's Gate 1&2, Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins. Couldn't care for KoTOR or Jade Empire (which I thought was a horrible game).
If you're calling recent Bioware characters "Disney characters" then you clearly skipped everything about Loghain Mac Tir, Duncan, Zevran, The Architect, Justice, Morrigan and Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins who not only have some pretty grim backgrounds (Leliana was raped and served as an assassin to her lesbian lover who betrayed her, Duncan actually murdered a Grey Warden before he became one, lived a life of crime as a child and was originally going to kill King Calian for the "best interest" of the Grey Wardens, even during Origins he demonstrates questionable morals as he kills Ser Jory at your ritual pretty much telling you that you have no choice but the drink the darkspawn blood, it's either that or you fight him to the death, meanwhile Zevran grew up in a whorehouse, was tortured as part of his training and even tells you about the people he's killed not feeling any remorse for them and Loghain Mac Tir's character is morally questionable which gives him further depth never-mind the fact that Simon Templeman - aka Kain from Legacy of Kain - voices him) but aren't black or white with their morals too.
Disney characters on the other-hand are divided into the tragic and upright hero who has never done any wrong and the always humorous dark villain. Now honestly the only characters in the Divinity series who contain any sort of depth are Damien, The Divine One, Zandalor (who sucks in comparison to his Divine Dinity counterpart who had more of a personality), Bellegar, General Augustus and that's about it. There are other characters who are "good" and have well-written by dialogue but there's nothing about their personality or background which make them unique individuals who people will talk and debate over in years to come.
If you're applying the "Disney characters labels" to all Bioware games then I'd have to question if you even played BG with Sarevok and Jon Irenicus.
I couldn't care much for Mass Effect characters though. The only truly good one was Thane Krios IMO.
Divinity 2 is good but a diamond? Flawed diamond but nothing amazing. Divine Divinity is the amazing gem - which IMO - surpasses even Baldur's Gate. For me Larian has yet to top that. The atmosphere in that game was brilliant along with the freedom, role-playing, quests, story and characters who you developed relationships with over the course of the story.
In any case, Divinity games have always scored quite well. It's the lack of advertising which has led to it being something relating to more of a cult-following. This was the same for the Souls series (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls) before word of mouth got out about them making them huge successes. Dark Souls as a result had a better marketing campaign.
Yeah but Elder Scrolls are garbage. Capcom created a game in two years (Dragon's Dogma) which pretty much destroyed the entire Elder Scrolls series. Dragon's Dogma is how an action-open-world-RPG should be done (although the story and lack of meaningful choices are its major flaws alongside it being Capcom as the developer and publisher).
Meanwhile Dark Souls just feels so old-school. Exploration is actually dangerous and feels rewarding and the world is actually WORTH exploring and actions have permanent consequences (i.e killing someone, betraying a covenant, completing quest-lines). This combined with the fact that nothing holds your hand made Dark Souls my personal GOTY.
Last edited by Demonic; 04/03/13 10:37 PM.
