When I close my eyes and think of DOS2...
I don't see the beautiful environments,
I don't see the awesome special effects,
I don't see the well crafted animations...
I see the inventory and vendor screens. They are PERMANENTLY ETCHED INTO MY BRAIN because I had to stare at them for hours and hours and hours.
DOS2 forced you to upgrade every item on every companion every level to remain competitive. I LOVED the game, but HATED the itemization.
I could care less how they do itemization in BGIII as long as they don't do it like DOS2.
I agree 100%. I love D:OS2, but I don't like when numbers are pure abstractions with no real world bearing. You start with a sword that does 5 damage and you end with a sword that does 700 damage, these numbers don't mean anything. It is just a game mechanic to keep you cycling out your gear. I love D&D because the numbers represent concrete. A normal longsword always does the same damage, no matter what level you find it at.
And D&D lacks BS mechanics like cooldowns.
Fallout New Vegas also did a amazing job with firearms.
Your starting clearly improvised bolt action 556 rifle in poor state is vastly inferior to the 556 semi automatic rifle which you can get on mid game BUT is extremely inferior in RoF, not in raw damage. I really miss old games. On Gothic 2, when i got the Beliar claw on chapter 2, i ended the game with Beliar's Claw. I call this type of itemization "stat stickie" itemization, where your character is nothing and stats makes the role of the character sheet.
That is so true.