What makes a great RPG?

Stop being mean about Oblivion. It was a fabulous flower-picking simulator.

I'll go better than that. It was a great platform to build a game in. It's unfortunate that BethSoft didn't bother to do so and left that part to the mod community.
 
Aye. I spent hundreds of hours in Cyrodiil but never finished the main quest. I guess that says a lot. Skyrim I finished.
 
I've already given up on Bioware, and now Microsoft is looking to buy Obsidian. :rolleyes:

That basically leaves Larian, CDPR and Bethesda as the only good, high-profile Western RPG studios, and I'm really not hopeful about the next Bethesda game. Fallout 4 was a major disappointment.

Haven't heard that about Obsidian. I'm kind of worried about their future since Avellone left. I liked Pillars of Eternity 2, but it lacked a lot of depth, it certainly suffered from "streamlining". I think Fallout: New Vegas is the greatest game ever, but I don't think they will ever get back to that peak.

Bioware is gone as well, but there's the possibility the next Dragon Age game will turn out well. Inquisition had its problems, but still turned out fairly well.

Bethesda I don't consider a good RPG studio since their games aren't RPG's. This whole thread seems to be a Skyrim love fest. Am I the only one who thinks it's vastly overrated? I did get some fun out of it, about 200 hours worth. Haven't touched it in years and only own the base game. It was better than Oblivion which I hated. Morrowind was better than both of them, but I had issues with that game as well. They just have a weird style, and the lack of good storytelling puts me off.

Larian. I kind of regret buying D:OS 2. I bought into the hype. Maybe I'll give it another try, but I just couldn't finish it, got less than halfway through. Again I need story.

CDPR: A lot of hate for the first Witcher here, but I actually prefer that one because it feels like a proper RPG. The other 2 games are more action games. 3 looked very pretty and had good story. But I can't seem to play a 2nd time. I always get bored. I bought both expansions but haven't touched them.
 
Skyrim is a bit like Avatar - the James Cameron CGI film - it creates something really impressive, but shallow at the same time. You love it and simultaneously wish there was more to combat than swing weapon or block.
 
Well they do both have pretty worlds.
 
Skyrim is a bit like Avatar - the James Cameron CGI film - it creates something really impressive, but shallow at the same time. You love it and simultaneously wish there was more to combat than swing weapon or block.
Wow, there's a damning analogy. I think Avatar is one the greatest enigmas in mass media. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time, and yet it has had zero impact on popular culture. Nobody can name any of the characters off the top of their head. Nobody ever quotes it. It hasn't inspired any homages or trends. I've yet to meet a single person, of any age group, who considers it a milestone of their childhood or adolescence. It isn't reviled, either, or regarded as some kind of epic failure or object lesson. It seems to have made no lasting impression of any kind, on anyone. It may have been one of the most forgettable movies in history, and yet it made more money than Frozen and Avengers: Age of Ultron combined.
 
Wow, there's a damning analogy. I think Avatar is one the greatest enigmas in mass media. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time, and yet it has had zero impact on popular culture. Nobody can name any of the characters off the top of their head. Nobody ever quotes it. It hasn't inspired any homages or trends. I've yet to meet a single person, of any age group, who considers it a milestone of their childhood or adolescence. It isn't reviled, either, or regarded as some kind of epic failure or object lesson. It seems to have made no lasting impression of any kind, on anyone. It may have been one of the most forgettable movies in history, and yet it made more money than Frozen and Avengers: Age of Ultron combined.

They had names? I don't remember them even having names, much less what they might have been.
 
Wow, there's a damning analogy. I think Avatar is one the greatest enigmas in mass media. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time, and yet it has had zero impact on popular culture. Nobody can name any of the characters off the top of their head. Nobody ever quotes it. It hasn't inspired any homages or trends. I've yet to meet a single person, of any age group, who considers it a milestone of their childhood or adolescence. It isn't reviled, either, or regarded as some kind of epic failure or object lesson. It seems to have made no lasting impression of any kind, on anyone. It may have been one of the most forgettable movies in history, and yet it made more money than Frozen and Avengers: Age of Ultron combined.

pretty CG graphics eye candy
 
I think I'm the only person in North America who has not seen Avatar.
 
It seems to have made no lasting impression of any kind, on anyone
I liked "unobtanium." I chuckle about that now and again.

(I Google and learn that it wasn't original to Avatar; but that's where I encountered it.)
 
Skyrim is a bit like Avatar - the James Cameron CGI film - it creates something really impressive, but shallow at the same time. You love it and simultaneously wish there was more to combat than swing weapon or block.
rip

I have only recently begun to play Skyrim, although it's been sitting in my Steam inventory for ages. It's...okay, I guess.

I will say that I think that Fallout 4 and Skyrim are both better and more interesting stealth games than, say, Styx or Dishonored, because while the stealth system isn't that good, it presents a valid tactical choice.

I hate the Skyrim leveling system and it is directly responsible for most of the things that I don't enjoy about the game.
 
yeah, right? like, how hard can it be to write a cool female character. although it is kind of a clichée that no fantasy writer writes convincing females, I wonder why :lol: morrowind had so many insanely cool female characters
The Witcher has quite a lot of cool female characters (I mean, I dislike Yennefer, she's a ****, but she certainly is a very interesting and consistent character ; Ciri is top-notch too, and Triss has always had layers, the "typical over-nice girl that is actually always going on with their plans that she doesn't tell you about").
What seems to grate people the wrong way is more the realistic display of medieval society being actually misogynist.

Moderator Action: Please do not bypass the auto-censor. Thank you. ~ Arakhor

Regardless, TW1 has cool story but somewhat disjointed events and average writing, it gets better and better each game (with the third being so far above both others as to be in a class of its own).
The sequels are much better in almost every respect, especially the portrayal of female characters.
I think there are only three women (if you don't count prostitutes) Geralt can sleep with in the third game. Two exes and maybe-again-partners and an old acquaintance who's trying to manipulate him.
Add an old flame in the first expansion and the actually most insufferable female character of the serie in the second (I like the ducessa, but gawd the other woman is bad).

I've given up on major studios for good RPGs (didn't like Divinity: Original Sin, good mechanics but awful writing IMO) but still enjoy Bethesda games as action games (with mods ofc)
DOS didn't had "awful" writing, the problem is more that it was too goofy, so it made rather difficult to take the story seriously. I've heard they have rewritten a lot of it in the EE (I'll probably replay it at some point) and toned down somewhat that aspect.
DOS2 is definitely MUCH lighter on the comical aspect (it's more like a quirk now, and doesn't permeate the whole game, which in fact is rather bleak), and the writing is actually very good (I mean, Avelone went there, no surprise :p).
 
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I liked "unobtanium." I chuckle about that now and again.

(I Google and learn that it wasn't original to Avatar; but that's where I encountered it.)
I think I first heard it in The Core - Delory Lindo's subterranean ship was to be made of "unobtanium" - but I'm not sure those screenwriters actually coined the term, either, I think it may be older than that.
 
I think I'm the only person in North America who has not seen Avatar.

It's the only movie I've seen where I was like, "Wow, those 3d graphics were incredible!" instead of, "I could have done without wearing the glasses, yeah, without next time." But it's also a movie I wouldn't want to see without them. Like, it was simultaneously unique and its only high note.
 
It's the only movie I've seen where I was like, "Wow, those 3d graphics were incredible!" instead of, "I could have done without wearing the glasses, yeah, without next time." But it's also a movie I wouldn't want to see without them. Like, it was simultaneously unique and its only high note.
I watched Cuaron's Gravity at home on my couch, and I could tell that it needed the 3D to be fully appreciated.

[EDIT - Heh. I just realized this is the RPG thread, not the movie thread. Oops.]
 
Oooh, that's good to know! Wiffed on that one completely.

Add an old flame in the first expansion and the actually most insufferable female character of the serie in the second (I like the ducessa, but gawd the other woman is bad).

Aw, kinda sad they ratcheted it back in that regard. I always thought that a handsome/dangerous/gone tomorrow/sterile/immune to disease monster hunter was a nudge nudge wink wink ultimate sport **** for the passing female characters in the story. Like, they knew and were getting exactly what they sought out to get. Maybe not. I didn't play them exhaustively enough to confirm that's what they were actually doing with the writing. It would make sense though.
 
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It's a three-hour CGI showpiece, settle down.
 
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