It's funny, because I think a lot of that highlights why I'm not into it. For whatever reason none of those things grab me the way they seem to for others. In particular, the world itself seems generic, trodding down well-worn paths that deliver cliche after cliche with nary a surprise in sight. He says he always loses interest in the Elder Scrolls games but DA had him riveted... but for me, while the Elder Scrolls games aren't exactly the epitome of originality, the lore goes far deeper, and they stray into different territory where a number of social elements are concerned, and have done a much better job of making distinct nations and regions that truly feel different from everything surrounding them. This is reflected in both lore, active behavior, and art design. All of those things felt totally lacking from DA... not because they weren't there, but because they've just been done so many times before, with more conviction. Despite having a lot of fun with the game as a mechanical entity (and enjoying the great characters, if not so much the character design), the world itself is as flat to me as two-week old soda that's been sitting open in the fridge. That's ultimately what killed it for me. I think it's a combo of feeling very much like a game in its limitations and compounding that by feeling very much like a game in its fiction. Though the Elder Scrolls games have never been known for polish and DA totally outclasses them in that regard (I would venture to say that DA is a superior game), they're still more consistent in terms of what they're attempting to achieve. They only manage semi-immersion due to the mechanical limitations, but that semi-immersion never really wavers. DA tries so much harder to feel real and engrossing, yet it constantly drags you out either with loading screens, static environments, not being able to explore something you feel you have the right to, and the outright unoriginality of the fiction itself.
It's a bit frustrating. I really want to like the game as much as everyone else, but at this point I don't even feel like it's worth the investment of time to load it again. More than likely it's going to get uninstalled before I ever pick it up again. I have a much higher chance of replaying Fallout 3 or picking up The Witcher again before I give DA more time.
