Top 10 RPGs of the last decade

I didn't love DA2; it could have been great but they reused the same stupid maps 10000 times. Not only were they lazy and reused them constantly but they were very poorly done.

I did enjoy DA2, it was full of choices and consequences with a fresh new setting telling more personal stories, memorable companions and very decent story/lore. The combat was flashy but solid, and lacked better level design to enable more strategic approach.

Few things were streamlined (gear, switching weapons .. etc.) and dungeons assets were recycled, but the story, characters, and choices and consequences are all there, enjoyable and warrant many playthroughs.
 
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Where's the love for Dragon Age 2 haha? I mean it was pretty innovative for its time. People tend to forget that it introduced the AWESOME-button™.

What button? Play with serious game tools, mouse and keyboard, stop use kid stuff please, gamepad.

I don't see what you mean.

DA2 isn't in my list because it is obviously rushed, and the final parts was… But combats was pretty good including managing a party and using a lot of pauses.

The idea that you are unable to play a party because there's no top down view is non sense. It even added a bit of spice in some combats, to reach a high position with a character to get the large perspective more easily. And for the spawning, it never broke tactical depth, non sense again.
 
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Makes me happy to see so many gamers listing Witcher 1 in their top 10 list. While the production values of 2 & 3 far exceed 1, I just liked 1 a lot better.
TW1 writing is much better, moreover TW1 is the only non auto censored and it was very refreshing alas not reproduced at all in 1&2. TW1 highlight of consequences is great and non reproduced. TW1 encyclopedia is just amazing, nothing like that in 1&2. GUI had a strong art style like classics, 1&2 just got some cold tedious design. So many more aspects quite superior in TW1, not all obviously but many.
 
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I didn't love DA2; it could have been great but they reused the same stupid maps 10000 times. Not only were they lazy and reused them constantly but they were very poorly done.
Baldur's Gate had a lot of reuse, modern RPG are plain stupid about that with the no reuse strategy.

And then I quoted plenty reuse in ELEX but more smartly done than in DA2. DA2 has in fact much less reuse and it was really changing the map, but just block some access with something that was looking like cement was so ridiculous, sigh.
 
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But the problem here is that they were very poor small maps.

Baldur's Gate had a lot of reuse, modern RPG are plain stupid about that with the no reuse strategy.

And then I quoted plenty reuse in ELEX but more smartly done than in DA2. DA2 has in fact much less reuse and it was really changing the map, but just block some access with something that was looking like cement was so ridiculous, sigh.
 
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You're talking about Black Gulch. The trick is to find the places you can drop down to and enter the caves below the poison statues. You can skip most the puddles this way. One tunnel contains probably my favuorite piece of NPC dialogue in the game then you'll exit out behind the statues where you can safely destroy them and drop down again to find a locked door then drop down more and find a pitch black cave with some giants in it. I assume you found the giants because from memory they drop something important but I forget what.

The whole area is more of a room than a full level and hardly long. Just stock up on OP lifegems and run. :)

Sure, you know that after playing it but I was speaking from a first run through experience. When I say long I mean time spent to get through it not the size of the area.

The first time through I had to inchworm through the area. I found it no fun and tedious. It's all just personal preference.

I would strongly advice replaying DSII with the DLCs - the three DLCs are effectively a whole new Dark Souls game, with an impressive, multilayered level design that I have yet to see elsewhere.

With the 3 DLCs, I personally rate DSII much higher than DS1 - not only for the DLC but the more open world design, variety of environment, secrets, size, more robustness and flexibility in progressing the game (multiple routes, secrets .. etc.), and huge array of weapons, gear, customisation, NPCs and lore. It is a 'massive' game with so much to discover.

Are you saying that the DLC changes the main game? if so I might be interested. I just assumed they were just add on content like in DS1 and DS3.
 
Interesting list daveyd. I still need to play Dead State and Legends of Eisenwald. Backed both on KS. Which would you recommend first.

I'd say it depends what you're in the mood for setting wise; modern day zombiepocalypse or medieval fantasy. They're both very good games, IMO but both can tend to get a little repetitive at times. Still lots of fun though. LoE has a very simple but fun turn-based combat system & you spend lots of your time recruiting and building up your forces in each chapter. Dead State's appeal to me is not so much it's combat system but the survival aspect of the game; you manage your resources to make sure everyone is fed, happy, and secure. Lots of interesting moral dilemmas, too.

Both games kind of a hybrid of strategy & RPG genres.
 
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Are you saying that the DLC changes the main game? if so I might be interested. I just assumed they were just add on content like in DS1 and DS3.

They don't change the core mechanics of the game, but the level design, traps, secret areas, new enemies and bosses of the DLCs add significantly to the core, making the whole package magnificent. If the core packages takes 40-50 hours to finish (depending on your play style and which areas you want to skip), the DLC can take 30 hours or more to go through (and is hard as nails, but you also get some new armor and weapons).
 
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What button? Play with serious game tools, mouse and keyboard, stop use kid stuff please, gamepad.

I don't see what you mean.

DA2 isn't in my list because it is obviously rushed, and the final parts was… But combats was pretty good including managing a party and using a lot of pauses.

The idea that you are unable to play a party because there's no top down view is non sense. It even added a bit of spice in some combats, to reach a high position with a character to get the large perspective more easily. And for the spawning, it never broke tactical depth, non sense again.

It's an old joke. Mike Laidlaw (lead designer or something for DA2) said in an interview that his vision for DA2 was that "every time you press a button something awesome would happen". It was in the age of streamlining RPGs and publishers trying to make them accessible anyone and everyone.
 
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But the problem here is that they were very poor small maps.
No way the map reused, 3 times if I remember well, was a bad map. In BG1 (don't remind for BG2) reuse was inside houses/buildings, plus one dungeon labyrinth like that had certainly multiple reuse.

The point is BG1 and ELEX had smart reuse, when in DA2 it was lame not because of the map quality but because the little effort to disguise it, and the ridiculous cement walls.
 
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It's an old joke. Mike Laidlaw (lead designer or something for DA2) said in an interview that his vision for DA2 was that "every time you press a button something awesome would happen". It was in the age of streamlining RPGs and publishers trying to make them accessible anyone and everyone.
Ha forgot that.

The awesome button isn't about streamlining, it's not a win button. It's about a core problem of RPG, they aren't compatible with a persistent intense pressure, nor with a constant high tension. A really good RPG can't avoid some low down of intensity, some phases borderline tedious.

As far I know Mike Laidlaw never been a lead designer but a writer and lead writer, this is hugely different. Yes he should better have shut up this day.
 
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I thought dragon age inquisition story presentation (note 'presentation' not actual story) was better.
It's not the point, the point is DAO story presentation was weak on some aspects. The ridiculous design of companions very living at the camp, and restricted to be joke machines during most of the adventuring, was a very ridiculous design.

It was also a strong point because you had 2 games for one, in camp and outside camp, and obviously many players loved a lot the artificial gameplay at camp because it allowed very developed relationship with companions at camp.

Where DAI did well in my opinion:
- It's to build two streams for the story, the main adventuring, and a more schematic but more global telling of the story around the strategic map and the events.
- Also companions development is more sophisticated, each companion has his schema, some work very well, some much less, but at least it was a good approach.

For story, no way DAO has a good story, only some good secondary stories, and many amazing characters, including the incredible writing around Morrigan, a piece of art.
 
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I feel this would be an appropriate place to relink this:
Can't you delete your post and wait someone else post to then post your boredom crap that I couldn't watch more than 5s (what the cheat you lost time to look, that's terrible).

Then I wouldn't feel targeted/aggressed or was it the point? If it was you got the returned bash to your insult.

We are no friend man and you'll never be, so keep your stupid out of topic jokes for your friends.
 
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