# of new releases are low because development time has increased. RPG's have come a long way. Remember having to read 99pct text ala Morrowind and BG series? These days developers spend just as much time composing frikkin music, did you hear orchestra music in Baldurs gate? lol

I love this new generation of rpgs with the full ensemble of full voice acting etc. It's great stuff.

I like how Bioware's original Design Lead quit in protest to how EA had them design DA2. He quit before it was released.

Switch out BioWare for CD Projekt RED (creators of The Witcher series) and we're good.

Bethesda for world/lore building
Blizzard for balance/gamepaly
CD Projekt RED for storyline/character

I don't blame him at all.

On topic: The witcher 3

The Witcher is based on a series of novels. They do add a lot of material to it though.

Let's just hope that CD Projekt doesn't do that crazy-moving blurry third-person nauseating camera that they did in The Witcher 2 (At least for me)

And why not both? Bioware and CDPRED!

Sigh most of the games you mention are not even open world -.-
These below are open world:

2 worlds 2 - A very good open world rpg, not nearly as big as Skyrim though. And with worse character development It had better quests though and it is my first choice if i exclude Bethesda.

Gothic 1,2 AND 3 - Actually Gothic 3 was a GREAT open world game. If you forget about the optimization and bugs (unofficial patches made it playable!). I deny the existence of Gothic 4 as well. There was no Gothic 4. Gothic 3 is my 2nd choice and that's because it was kinda half finished. Otherwise i might have enjoyed it more than even Skyrim.

Risen - Not nearly as big as Skyrim but with a better combat system. A very nice game.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis - A good game, but more linear than Skyrim.

I don't even classify Witcher, or DA as open world.

Skyrim is definitely the best out there but these games are nice too.

Technically based "after" a series of novels.

But think about it, if CD Projekt RED can pull off so much from a series of novels, think about what they can pull off the extensive lore-rich universe that is The Elder Scrolls (or any other universe Bethesda wants to make up)....

You do know you could have turned the motion blur camera off right?

the only one that comes to mind is Kindoms of Amalur and maybe Risen2.


and even then I doubt they'll be as good.

I think Kingdoms of Amalar, if that's how you spell it might try to compete against TES bit it will fail against it.

and tie it all together with Obsidians amazing story writing

They haven't done an epic scaled game since Baldur's Gate 2

Jade Empire, KOTOR, ME, etc are too confining to be called "epic" in scale.

Not to mention clones of the exact same story with few tweaks to it.

The basic BioWare process of storyline:

Clueless Person who is the Hero embarks on adventure > Meet characters, form friendships/alliances > Set acquainting evolves into mission to combat big baddy > Recruiting finished, time to battle big baddy > Romance Plot of some kind > "Epic" (if you can call "repeated" epic) Battle

Nah, there's less RPGs than ever, and its not because of dev time, or resources. Its because its more profitable to make a copy/paste shooter or action game than it is to make an RPG. The market as a whole is dying.

Actually And arguably larger.. are the x series from EGOSOFT whom make large scale RPG's.... Just not in the fantasy department.

Two Worlds 2 was probably the closest I've played in recent times, but that doesn't come close to any TES game.

What about Red Dead Redemption? That was a pretty sweet western RPG. It had a sandbox world (well kinda), random events on the road, quests all over the place and plenty of other random stuff to do! I bought my PS3 just for that game alone.

Ah yea gothic 3 Graphic is still amazing with latest patch but hdd stuttering on mid spec pcs...omg i dont wanna play this. Also combat!?!? wtf, a joke?

For the story line process, I blame EA svcking the life out of the writers.

Despite being pretty linear and straight forward, Jade Empire and, at least the first, KOTOR had pretty awesome plots. But ME and DA both kinda svcked when it came to story. Too cliched, and without being ironic about it.

Red Dead wasnt an RPG.

Umm fallout...

THIS!

They are probably the founders of a secret cult whose most religious text is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And all of their employees must partake in an obscure and morally questionable ritual that binds them to the cult's tenants before becoming part of the company.

RDR was pretty brilliant. I love stuff where you can just go off the road and explore. That's one thing I didn't like about Dragon Age. Characters and their whiny-ass backstories were well done, but all the 'FOLLOW THE PATH! FOLLOW THE [censored] PATH!' thing just took me right out. Not saying that that shouldn't be their 'style' or whatever, I just am one of those people who likes to stray off the beaten track.

Yeah true, great game in nay case :blush: