I didn't leave my favorite game series, my favorite game series left me.

[Monk]

Dragon age. I kinda liked 2 but it didnt have the replayability of origins and I hated the plot, Nothing you did ever felt like it changed anything, god help you if you want to save anyone, in the first one you could even save the primary villian if you so chose and you influence who gains the thrones of two kingdoms. The second one you couldn't even save your mother and the main villian tries to kill you even if you do your utmost to side with her, railroad much?

It's actually worse than you're making it sound.

I liked 2 in a number of ways. Combat was fun (minus magical enemy spawning) and the skill/talent system was really cool to experiment with. 2 really started to falter in the later half of the second act, where things began to literally just fall apart. The plot starts to feel incredibly disjointed, two huge out of the blue boss fights (ones you cannot avoid no matter how you play) later and BOOM end of game. Dragon age 2 feels like a game that ran out of time in development. This wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't abandoned all the important ties it had with Origins and gone out of their way to make the experience feel completely different. The ugly as sin environments didn't help either.

Bioware looks like they are going down the drain honestly. Hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling ME3 is going to be their last hurrah.

bought Shogun 2 and tried the series again, then set it down when I realised elevation doesn't give archers extended range, yet another simplification while prettiness is improved

To be honest I don't believe that was done for the purposes of simplification. Shogun 2 runs on a modified ETW/NTW engine, which was designed for a much different kind of game. It seems more like limitation in that regard than anything else.

[johnhughthom]

To be honest I don't believe that was done for the purposes of simplification. Shogun 2 runs on a modified ETW/NTW engine, which was designed for a much different kind of game. It seems more like limitation in that regard than anything else.

The reason why isn't really that important, it's still a pretty major tactical advantage made impossible. CA made the engine then decided to use it for a game with a totally different type of warfare.

[Drunk Clown]

Total war has never been a star in tactics IMO. I wish it would, though.