Here's where we disagree though. Owlcat games are just bloat and the writing is awful in every sense, from dialogue to companions. Did you reach act 3? The decision a certain character makes is so unbelievably stupid it makes no sense in the 40k lore. Also, whoever wrote that Linzi stuff in Kingmaker should be fired.
Not sure what you mean by 'bloat' in this context but I was referring to Owlcat providing games which are focused on the more 'traditional' aspects of RPGs such as combat, exploration and, dare I say it, puzzles. I disagree with you about Owlcats writing which i find to be of more than average quality - certainly streets ahead of Larian's.
So-called romances have been in cRPGs for decades and I have been ignoring them for decades.
I'm still in Chapter 2 of RT so I don't know the character decision you refer to. I'm not a big fan of 'lore', I just play the game in front of me and don't buy into the whole lore, community, world of thing.
Who exactly is this "dating sim crowd" that people are talking about?
See all the threads on this forum about relationships - from technical issues regarding lips being out of synch during kissing scenes to better 'and they all lived happily ever after' endings. The current mod scene on Nexus has already been mentioned. Try doing a search for a companion and see how many 'how to romance x' hits you get. This last applies to every RPG, even Rogue Trader, thus supporting the proposition that this nonsense is growing.
