Dragon Age
Holy crap, play the Dragon Age series. It's amazing. It's what I was wishing Oblivion and Fable would be more like when I was playing them. It has personality that sucks you into the storytelling, a good interface (I'm looking at you, Fable 2), great animation (unlike Oblivion, though I can't speak for Skyrim), and runs well on the XBOX 360 (which neither Fable 2 nor Skyrim did for me). And oh yeah--the voice acting is great (Oblivion's was painful).
But the main factor that I love about this series, as opposed to the Elder Scrolls? Racial tension! It made no sense in the Elder Scrolls games that everyone got along, sharing cities, guilds, magic, religions, a common language, and all that. It made the "races" into interchangeable monster heads on human bodies. The potential for storytelling based on this kind of conflict is not wasted in this game.
For example, I started out as an elf chick. They were previously enslaved by humans, and now live in elf-ghettos. My character was getting married when the local lord came to grab a bunch of women to rape and beat up in his mansion. Things didn't go well.
The replay value on Dragon Age: Origins is huge--You start out picking gender, race, and class, but it gets better. During character creation, you also pick a background that determines your storyline. There are at least six main stories in all, with variations for the races, which is a staggering amount of game to program and record voices and animation for. It makes you feel ownership of your character and the story.
So, now I'm on the Bioware bandwagon, singing their praises. They make good stuff.
But the main factor that I love about this series, as opposed to the Elder Scrolls? Racial tension! It made no sense in the Elder Scrolls games that everyone got along, sharing cities, guilds, magic, religions, a common language, and all that. It made the "races" into interchangeable monster heads on human bodies. The potential for storytelling based on this kind of conflict is not wasted in this game.
For example, I started out as an elf chick. They were previously enslaved by humans, and now live in elf-ghettos. My character was getting married when the local lord came to grab a bunch of women to rape and beat up in his mansion. Things didn't go well.
The replay value on Dragon Age: Origins is huge--You start out picking gender, race, and class, but it gets better. During character creation, you also pick a background that determines your storyline. There are at least six main stories in all, with variations for the races, which is a staggering amount of game to program and record voices and animation for. It makes you feel ownership of your character and the story.
So, now I'm on the Bioware bandwagon, singing their praises. They make good stuff.