Again, Wow! There's an obvious bipolarity between everyone's posts here, but I appreciate you offering your honest opinions. I had never been able to enjoy a true RPG until Dragon Age: Origins, and even then I wanted to quit the game early on because I found it quite difficult to master because of its complexity. I come from an FPS background where you just grab your guns, follow the game path, and shoot until the game is over. I've never had to manage so many controls in my life!

But after I got past the learning curve and began to enjoy the awesomeness of the game...well, I've never enjoyed a game so much in my life.....ok, that's overstating it. My top games in roughly this order are: Unreal Tournament 2004, Fallout 3, Dragon Age Origins, Half Life 2, and Borderlands. There are many more, but that's all I could think of for now.

Oh, a small confession here: I tried to play Oblivion two times, but gave up because I didn't have the patience to learn the interface and game mechanics....that was before I played DAO where I did take the time to learn the vast interface. No doubt I'm going to play Skyrim, because it looks fantastic and I think, from the responses on this thread, it probably is.

I love trying new games but my taste is funny and I grow impatient quickly: and I'm a patient person - but I'm learning to give games a valid effort before I give them up. One such example is Mass Effect, I played it for a couple of weeks, and finally said 'enough!' . I was not enjoying the game because it felt like work, and because I thought the guns were lame. Coming from an FPS background sort of ruined me for that. Just couldn't get any enjoyment out of it. It's funny though because Dragon Age is basically like Mass Effect with medieval clothes on.

In summary, I can say this: I loved Dragon Age Origins to the max, but I'm sure I'm going to enjoy Skyrim just as much, but the proof is in the pudding.

Thanks for all the input everyone, Gardenia

LOL! very funny!

I think the bipolarity is only in which is better. I'm sure everyone agrees they are nothing alike at all. I can't think of a single similarity. But of course that doesn't mean youcan't enjoy both at all. In fact I think it's highly likely you will, I did.

The combat is DA is a complete borefest though, it's like playing a very slow rts- you just tell your troops what to do and you're supposed to sit there and watch. Don't get me wrong party commands and pulling off elaborate plans are brilliant, but when even the player is a troop you can't control properly it makes the game very hard to get through for anything other than story and character interactions past the first playthrough, because SO MUCH of the game is filler combat. The only attack you can actively avoid (as a player) are the ogres' boulders I think and it ends up like a fight is only ever interesting if you won it using "a brilliant plan".

Haha. They did kill the journal and lots of other tes things didn't they.

To a limited extent yes, but not really, since post Morrowind, you cannot kill essential characters and even if you did kill the leader of some group, you couldn't just take his place since you would be tresspassing in his house ets. Plus, all the dialog options are scripted and they are fairly limited.

What I am describing is an AI so advanced that it actually "thinks" for itself and invents new dialog options and new "quests" that were complex more than just go fetch something or go kill something, complete with a voice synthesizer to implement it. Such a system would have endless quests that would be unique and interesting, with multiple ways to resolve all types of conflicts. We are a ways off from that level of AI.

I had to play a mage because the combat for warriors was so horrible...and I never play mages. Every opponent fought like they did in Origins but your squad fought like hamsters on crack. It made no sense.

The Cake is a Lie! Uhm I mean, LOVE the Orange Box - played the whole Half Life series, and TF2 and Portal and Counter Strike. LOL

Skyrim's control are pretty much the same (if you are on PC) WASD to walk, strafe - Mouse 1 to "shoot" hahahahaha

Plus, HL had a lot of other commands (Use, jump, crouch etc) so you got the same here (crouch is sneak) You should feel right at home! Plus, the cool thing is, it's not linear. You just wander where you want, discover the world on your own terms. Join a faction or not, your choice! Become a hero or not LOL That's the beauty of these games (Oblivion, Skyrim). Plus, you don't need to gain XP here, you just use your skills, the more you use them, the more they level and then YOU level.

I highly recommend Obiivion and Skyrim!

Oh, have you heard anything about HL 2-Episode 3? Wonder if they will EVER created it! lol

Really man, this post does nothing for this thread.

Anyway...like many people have pointed out, Dragon Age series is more of a "Complete game, restart and try a different story" Skyrim is more of a "Explore world and play for many, many, many hours" and roleplaying makes it even longer.

The companions in DA is much more memorable and likeable to the companions in Skyrim, although some certain ones will make comments in certain citys and places which is quite funny.

Two words: Jump Button.

In DA(O/2) there is no jump button. Why? The paths that you may traverse are set in stone.

Sure you can take the left fork or take the right fork, and those may effect the game outcome in some fashion. But, you can't jump off the road and go searching for the fork of horripilation.

I LOVED dragon age. Both of them. But because of the way the stories in those game play out, I find that playing them again is kind of boring (personal preference here, I know). The stories are awesome, but they are fairly limited in their variation. If you decide to ignore the "main quest" in DA, you will run out of things to do. Quickly. In Skyrim, there's always something else to do. Someone to kill. Something to steal. Dungeons to delve. And so on.

Skyrim is also about a singular hero. You. Sure, you can bring followers with you and you can even try to give them better gear, but you don't manage their skills. They're separate entities. Some quests have people coming with you whether you like it or not, but on the whole, it's just you.

I think Origins is a great game and way better than Skyrim but i would not say dragons are harder to beat.Like most rpg's it is easy to overpower a character ever try a Arcane Warrior or to a lesser extend a high dex rogue archer you can walk through the game by yourself on nightmare.Still everything else was more enjoyable about the game which made you want to play it repeatedly unlike Skyrim.Keep shimmering shield up and arcane shield and you were a demi god.

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