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MrPopo wrote:And the invisible rolls in Baldur's Gate aren't any worse than Morrowind's. Hell, I'd say Morrowind is worse because you see your character actually swing and hit something but the game rolls failure. At least with Baldur's Gate you understand that them swinging at each other is a visual abstraction.

I really hate the way it's handled in the early Elder Scrolls games. I couldn't handle Daggerfall and got sick of Morrowind pretty quickly because of the impotent sword swings. While I might rationally understand it's a dice roll it makes me feel like an idiot standing there, flailing about. It takes me right out of what would otherwise be really amazing virtual worlds to get lost in.

Gunstar Green wrote:

MrPopo wrote:And the invisible rolls in Baldur's Gate aren't any worse than Morrowind's. Hell, I'd say Morrowind is worse because you see your character actually swing and hit something but the game rolls failure. At least with Baldur's Gate you understand that them swinging at each other is a visual abstraction.

I really hate the way it's handled in the early Elder Scrolls games. I couldn't handle Daggerfall and got sick of Morrowind pretty quickly because of the impotent sword swings. While I might rationally understand it's a dice roll it makes me feel like an idiot standing there, flailing about. It takes me right out of what would otherwise be really amazing virtual worlds to get lost in.

20 swings in a real time first person perspective to hit a giant overgrown rat.

I couldn't get into them either.

In my view, they really have George Lucas-syndrome: Very good at mechanics and world-building but bad to very bad at dialogue and making interesting characters. It doesn't help that Obsidian makes sequels to so many of their games and just completely curb-stomps their character design and writing so easily. I'd say the exception to that rule kinda is Mass Effect. I really enjoyed Mass Effect trilogy (though I kinda wish it'd stayed more RPG like the first one and less shootery like the 2nd and 3rd) and Dragon Age Origins, even if nearly all of the download content for DAO is basically worthless because it's so poorly written, including the entire expansion. The worlds and the couple well written characters just carried those games so well, and it's just a shame they can't strike fire like that more often, really.

I disagree, and Obsidian has made 2 sequels to their games. I think their characters are actually well written, with witty dialogue. The place were they fall flat sometimes is the plot, and that is usually because it ends up being fairly generic.

Yeah, I think the same thing. The characters always seem pretty interesting to me. I've found their overall plots to be pretty well-trod.

I'm still working through Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it has been fun, if a little exhausting. I've pretty much taken to ignoring almost all the "collect X number of Y" quests because, really, I don't feel like having my time wasted like that. If it were the only thing I was playing, I wouldn't mind, but seriously guys, the structure of Dragon Age: Origins was much more amenable to my play habits.