What's the point of making a gaunt, emaciated face, or a morbidly obese face, for a character that's inevitably buff?
I know the whole "ethereal" elf thing is getting old, but these elves look like ghouls. They could have made them slightly more gay.. as elves should be.
That's the trend. According to the interviews with Todd Howard and other members of the team, the reasons for this are that they enjoy making an entirely new gameplay experience for each episode. I guess it's tempting to jump to the conclusion that they're trying to appeal to a wider audience, but yeah.
Honestly, I felt Oblivion was dumbed down because it holds your hand during quests. You didn't have to read or problem solve for hardly any of them, so it became a sandbox hack 'n' slash of sorts. However, there was a storehouse of lore and books that gave it a deeper feel.
Somehow Morrowind gave me more satisfaction than Oblivion, and it's probably because it didn't coddle me or follow my progress with a level scaler.
I'm not really one to consider myself above gamers/geeks and the likes, but there is nothing more stupid than a room full of people ooh-ing, ahhh-ing, clapping and chanting during a video game demonstration.
BioWare's done Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, the Mass Effect games, as well as Baldur's Gate, etc. They've been doing the same basic formula for years (Baldur's gate was released in 1998). They all center on a protagonist who accumulates companions in a group format, where each companion character has their own accompanying storyline and interactions with the main character. I think I've played them all but Jade Empire, and I've liked them all. What they aren't is an "open world", like the Bethesda games (the early games are a little more so, but that's really a different generation as far as technology goes). They tend to involve a fairly linear storyline (sometimes broken into parts that can be done in any order, but are still linear), with more emphasis on story, but less freedom than you'll get in something like Skyrim. Probably said more than you were looking for, didn't I?
haha, no that makes sense. You prefer a more linear experience that focuses more on character development/storyline. I'm not sure what I prefer as RPGs aren't so much my thing. I guess I just don't invest the time, but I'm sure I could find a game I really enjoyed that fits the genre. I'm interested to try some things out. I haven't played any of these games (BioWare or Bethesda).