Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-26316533-20150419155658/@comment-5824038-20150419165802

Tricky one... Especially considering I have only played Origins, so that's all I can compare them to.

The Elder Scrolls is more about having a huge, expansive world for you to just explore. It isn't about telling a thrilling story (let's be honest, none of the Elder Scrolls games have amazing storylines (with the possible exception of Daggerfall, which was somewhat less generic)). There aren't any characters with deep personalities that you can get attached to, and you don't get very emotionally involved. On the other hand, what the Elder Scrolls games excel in is having really good gameplay, hugely expansive worlds, and literally hundreds of hours of potential gameplay in a single playthrough. There is so much to do in them, the world building/lore is very well done, and they can be very addictive. All in all, the Elder Scrolls games tend to be shallow but wide: they never go very deep, but they are really big.

Dragon Age Origins is very different. The story seems generic at first, but they do something truly amazing with it, making it seem fresh and new despite its cliches. You can actually get really emotionally involved over the course of the game. Assuming you take the same character through the main game, Awakening, and all of the smaller expansions, then that's around 70-80 hours worth of being the same character. I for one developed a very deep emotional attachment to the characters and the game world. Now, it is a very different game to the Elder Scrolls. The gameplay is different, in a weird mix-up of RTS, turn-based combat, and real-time combat; it has a much larger focus on the main quest, and side quests are less prominent. The game may be big, but it's got nothing compared to the Elder Scrolls. One thing it does have though: you decisions actually mean something! In Elder Scrolls games, you are often given a choice about things, but it never really means anything. In Dragon Age, your choices do have an impact on the game world, which is very satisfying. All in all, Dragon Age is deep but narrow: it has a bigger focus on storytelling, less of a focus on making a huge world to muck about in.

Personallly, I find it very difficult to decide which I prefer. It really depends on what mood I'm in, and which game I have played most recently. Overall though, I possibly slightly prefer Dragon Age.