Funnily enough, beat DA2 before DA1.

You were right in saying the Arishok is a pain. For a rogue. As a mage I would have destroyed his schwarznegger-esque behind in seconds. Liked the game overall, liked the dialogue wheel, the random comments, and the overall cheerful attitude. Disliked the spawning and too fast combat mechanics that defeat the point of having tactics, the silly boss fights (Arishok), and the arcadey feel. In that sense, DA1 was much better. DA1 isn't without flaws either, however, and could do with a little less running. I feel like every second mission involves so much running.

Skyrim, in contrast, is much better in the 'world' sense. Very varied, but involves way too many multi-layered dungeon clearing missions. It gets very tiring to clear dungeon after dungeon with skulls, and bones everywhere. I mean surely, if there was genocide at the scale necessary to produce all those, someone would have noticed...