My favorites are Final Fantasy 7, 8, Elder's Scrolls series,

What's yours?

Lunar, Pokemon, FF8, Morrowind

Oblivion, KotOR I & II

I don't play a lot of RPGs...

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Do not bore me with such trite cliches. For I have you in my clutches, and should I choose, I could snuff out your insignificant lives in an instant.

Its hard to beat the Elder Scroll Games and Bioware. Bioware games are probably better made and better written (the writing in elder scroll games, if taken piece by piece is only ok), but Elder Scrolls has epic down to a science, no one makes a bigger feeling game. Loving Skyrim at the moment.

Doom, check out the Fallout games. A great action/RPG.

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Ahh, Pokemon...The first gameboy game (Blue, I guess) came out in the US when I was eleven or so and I remember the first time I played through it was unbelievable. There's something about going through a game like that with no prior knowledge that is really exciting. Every attempt to play through after that is like a vain attempt to recreate that initial feeling.

Chrono Trigger on SNES is another nostalgic favorite of mine. I can also get into a good strategy RPG like Tactics Ogre, FF Tactics (The only Final Fantasy game I ever really got into), or Fire Emblem.

Obviously the big ones like KOTR, Elder Scrolls, or Mass Effect (Though I haven't played ME 3 and have no immediate plans to do so).

Sadly, I feel I've gotten to a point where video games of any kind don't really hold my attention anymore. The only game I've played in the last year and a half or so was Skyrim, and that only for a limited amount of time (I was mostly disappointed by it. I'll be happy to have a heated argument as to why with any interested parties).

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Do it!

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Do not bore me with such trite cliches. For I have you in my clutches, and should I choose, I could snuff out your insignificant lives in an instant.

Green, What about Skyrim let you down?

Did you play Oblivion, or is this your first elder Scrolls game?

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Ok, here goes. I'll start by covering my bases. I played Oblivion and Morrowind, and I loved them (I even put Elder Scrolls in my list of top series), but this set of complaints really goes for those games too. I'm at a point where I'm unable to ignore them anymore. Anyway, back to Skyrim. I'm in full agreement that the game looks spectacular and the scope and design of the world is undeniable. They nailed those aspects of the game, and for that reason I was enthralled right up to the point where I had spent some time exploring each region and city. After that I lost interest, and here's why:

1. If you can do anything and everything then nothing matters.
Joining guilds and factions doesn't affect the game/world/characters (yes, If you join the Stormcloaks you can't join the Legion, but thats one exception). I hate that on a single play through you can join as many of the various guilds and factions that you want. If I join the thieves guild that should change the whole complexion of how the game unfolds. Instead all I get is access to a set of quests. Sure some of them are amusing, but they yield nothing, beyond more quests and or/armor. Then once I'm over that all I have to do is kill an old lady and all of a sudden I'm in the Dark Brotherhood, and I can go through their quests with similar results. Then it's on to the next one. By the end of the game all my character needs to do is learn how to bowl overhand and he can give the most interesting man in the world a run for his money, but I'm not going to start buying Dos Equis and I'm not going to keep buying Elder Scrolls games.

2. There is literally no character development.
Don't be mistaken, being able to develop your characters stats and accolades is not the same as character development. Because of the way the game is set up there is no way for your character or any others to develop any emotional depth. Your character doesn't have long term friends, companions, enemies, lovers, etc. and without these things there is no way to forge an emotional connection with your character or the world. In short, the game doesn't tell a story. An argument could be made that that's not really what they were trying to do, and I can accept that and doff my cap to them, but I'm just not interested in that anymore.

There're two starter points, I have a couple others floating around, but I'm interested in hearing what other people have to say first. Additionally, per a point that I made in a discussion about Mass Effect 3, I think its important to respect artistic vision and integrity (even in video games), so these aren't arguments against the quality of the product, but rather why I was personally disappointed.

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On your points

1) I can see that as being a problem. I have had able to be in a "good" orginization and the dark brotherhood at the same time. I am hoping that is a technology limit and at some point they will make joining this group or that matter.

2) I also see this. To make a story with character development, you can't have an open ended game...not with the technology we have today. There are just to many variables with a game like Elder scrolls to work in character development. Works in games where you are kept on a straight path so the developers know that when you reach this point in the story, this this and that have happened to you. But you couldn't say that in Elder Scrolls.

Both of those are valid points, but I still find a draw to being able to go anywhere, do anything. Every other RPG keeps you locked down.

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Yeah, it's definitely exciting to be able to go where you want and be who you want, and they have that figured out to a T. The worlds are new and more stunning with every game, but the gameplay really hasn't changed much at all, and with Skyrim I finally reached the point where enough is enough and it left me cold.

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