Well, I'm not sure that article covers the bases for me... and Deus Ex was my #2, behind Arkham City (although DX:HR is definitely the best 2011 RPG I've played*).

* Note that I still haven't actually played The Witcher 2, and fully expect it to eventually shake up my 2011 ratings

What I will say is that it all boiled down into "the return on investment wasn't there".

I can better my skills, and all I will get is the occasional perk point... except the perks excite me so much I have 11 I never used, and never really will feel the need to (on the longshot assumption that I'll even play the game in the next 3 years)
I can invest hours completing quests... and the loot I get is likely no better or worse than stuff I can get at the corner store. I don't even feel like the quest giver cares five minutes after I complete the quest.
I can invest 90 hours into a character, and he's still the same cardboard cutout that stepped off the cart in Helgen. There's never any real chance to develop a real personality to him or her.

Whereas...
...in Deus Ex, I might have all of the abilities I really need and want, but if I gain a level, I can choose what abilities I "need" most in a heartbeat.
...in Deus Ex, I know why *my* Adam Jensen is doing what he's doing, because of conversations he's had and things he's said.
...in Mass Effect, I know *my* Shepherd is a nice guy who is still capable of making hard choices, because that's who he has made himself.
...in Dragon Age, my first meeting with Morrigan had certain responses that I "had" to choose, because I literally, by that point, couldn't imagine my character acting any differently.
...and so forth.

Skyrim just didn't reward me. It distracted me, and that came to an end. I haven't felt the need to go back.

As for why Arkham City wins, I have a very hard and fast rule about what makes a game instantly on another level than most games: if I am reacting emotionally to content, then it's a cut above. Of the 2011 games I played, that means DX:HR or Arkham City, and I went with the better gameplay as my decider.

Finishing what ya started.

Thieves Guild

hey bro guess what

you're a thief because that irish guy said so
burn a beehive and kill a crazy rat guy
kill karliah
no kill mercer
now you're nightngale just because
return a lockpick

I read that review when it came out, and it looked to me like a lame attempt to cash in on Skyrim's popularity and get more page views. No one was going to read it if he just said "My GOTY is..."

Really good article. interesting points all of them are true. I didn't really like Skyrim that much, even more because buying the PS3 version was the worst mistake ever .. it was jammed packed with bugs and glitches made it worse, but no worrys i got it for PC.

Fantastic. Skyrim questlines in a nutshell.

That was the most inaccurate synopsis I've read. You missed out half of the details, twisted others and basically altered the questline in order to make it look bad.

What did I miss out on?

And it's not like I hate the questline. It's my favorite, next to the Dark Brotherhood. The entire point of my post WAS to dumb it down and make it look dumb. But it was as a joke.

Cool your jets.

LOL

Have you heard the expression "the more you hate the more you love"?

Yes, one of Skyrims biggest flaws is the guilds. The guilds suffer the same way as they did in Oblivion. Instead of being an actual factions, there is always some dark plot or a conspirasy with a rival faction behind them.

I remembered in Morrowind when I first got out of Seyda Neen. I was a nobody just wanting to make a few coins to survive, and found out I could work at the Fighters Guild. What made that guild superb was that it actualy felt like it was my job. Of corse the first 3 quests svcked a**, but it was just for the money, and the "quest line" progressed, I got contracts to more dangerous quests. It made me feel like a real mercenary who just wanted keep myself from living on the streets, by working for money.

AND you had to be a member for more than like a week, and be good at the required skills in order to advance. I think I'm going to install that graphics overhaul and boot up Morrowind again right now.

Bethesda needs to work with Bioware to get more creative storylines as well as choices in those storylines that actually matter then i'll just die on the floor here when that game comes out.
Or rather after i've played it to death

Let Bioware die in peace.

Did you hear porm Age: Mass Orgies by Bioware is coming in 2069!!!

Yeah, the guild questlines could have definitely been longer, but..... re: those "witty" summaries - with a little bit of thought, nearly any story can be "summarized" like that, no matter how well it's written. You're not proving anything. (You are, however, tossing an awful lot of spoilers around openly in the General forum )

----
Also, not sure where this is coming from. Or what that second one is supposed to mean.


Yes, I was disappointed by the ending of ME3. Other 95% of the game was amazing, though. And I certainly didn't care for the rampant craziness of the "OMG, change it!" rioting..... I'm finally getting around to playing Dragon Age 2 at the moment, found a copy for $7. Up to the third act, and I'm not sure what the big problem is. Yeah, they definitely could have found a better method of recycling (and done a bit less of it) the dungeon tilesets. But the characters & plot seem fine, and the "several chapters spread across years in one city" narrative structure is interesting. So, yeah - don't understand the hate it got.

Quoting this again as a lesson to all, think before you speak/type/write

I have to say its close, and a very good step in the right direction. Although I really struggle getting into it because I really don't like desert/western settings

And that's the big problem, you see.

Even though there's all these serious flaws, no one cares and keep praising Bethesda. Will they ever bother to fix these flaws that way?

Skyrim's strength is its open world, and as far as I'm concerned world design is FAR more important than any storyline. You can have amazing storylines that last 20 hours each and all of that jazz ... But at the end of the day, a huge, detailed, beautiful and utterly breathtaking world adds far more replay value than any storyline.

Not really, take Dragon Age: Origins. It took 55 hours in my first playthrough Every time I made completely different choices, different builds and classes and the game felt like a completely different experience to me - in the end, I put well over 150 hours in that game. And they felt better and more rewarding than anything on Skyrim.

I can better my skills, and all I will get is the occasional perk point... except the perks excite me so much I have 11 I never used, and never really will feel the need to (on the longshot assumption that I'll even play the game in the next 3 years)
I can invest hours completing quests... and the loot I get is likely no better or worse than stuff I can get at the corner store. I don't even feel like the quest giver cares five minutes after I complete the quest.
I can invest 90 hours into a character, and he's still the same cardboard cutout that stepped off the cart in Helgen. There's never any real chance to develop a real personality to him or her.



Whereas...
...in Deus Ex, I might have all of the abilities I really need and want, but if I gain a level, I can choose what abilities I "need" most in a heartbeat.
...in Deus Ex, I know why *my* Adam Jensen is doing what he's doing, because of conversations he's had and things he's said.
...in Mass Effect, I know *my* Shepherd is a nice guy who is still capable of making hard choices, because that's who he has made himself.
...in Dragon Age, my first meeting with Morrigan had certain responses that I "had" to choose, because I literally, by that point, couldn't imagine my character acting any differently.
...and so forth.
Skyrim just didn't reward me. It distracted me, and that came to an end. I haven't felt the need to go back.

As for why Arkham City wins, I have a very hard and fast rule about what makes a game instantly on another level than most games: if I am reacting emotionally to content, then it's a cut above. Of the 2011 games I played, that means DX:HR or Arkham City, and I went with the better gameplay as my decider.

I agree with everything this article says.

With a series this long, though. The constraints of the lore inevitably contradicting itself become tighter and tighter. I reckon they needed to put more focus on the Snow Elves and Dwemer, partially resolve the Thalmor dispute and increase the game difficulty and make Magic a viable and fun playstyle.

My main problem with Skyrim is that I can 1 shot Ancient Dragons on Master difficulty. Without difficulty increasing mods the game is just WAY too easy. I assume that's mostly due to recent fad of gaming companies creating games that're playable for everyone. If my girlfriend can own Skyrim on her first try on Master difficulty than it's not really Master difficulty, is it?

EDIT: Come to think of it. I haven't used a healing spell or potion since level 25 or 30. Even with an entire dungeons worth of enemies wailing on my face, I just sit there with Flame Cloak on and loot after everyone falls over at the end.

Tried using the Dragonborn set from the trailers? Lol, because that's what I did when it started getting too easy. Good for roleplay too.

Just started New Vegas and ,wow, that's exactly the direction TES games should follow, IMO.

You could do this with every game ever made. So I don't see the point of this.

I believe it was a little dose of humour!

Do people create accounts just to come and complain?