It's a good preview but I'm also confused now... the combat doesn't consist of attack & parry rolls? Does one always hit an enemy, with damage being determined by special combat abilities, attributes & skills?
How many people envision themselves as the in-game character when playing a game? That seems to be the issue of the OP.
Following such a dogma, one would miss out on many a great game...
Heavy Rain has the potential of becoming a classic. At least Cage is trying to do something new, mixing quick-time events, dark/gritty storyline & Sims gameplay into the cauldron of ambition... he is almost the Peter Molyneux of elitists.
Wouldn't most console "kiddies" be more likely to pick this game up than Dragon Age? As soon as they read that Dragon Age isn't like God of War or Devil May Cry, they might completely give the game a pass.
Boll's movies are mostly fun. The lad has an uncanny talent for getting the worst out of big-name actors.
Boll should've named it "Tunnel Snakes" though.
Having someone in heavy armor during a dungeon crawl doesn't make much sense either. The beasties would hear the knight ringing & clanging from 5 miles away... not to mention the knight would never be able to keep up with the light-armored companions. Heavily armored warriors dashing across the screen in games is always hilarious to watch.
In the quintessential dungeon crawl, the Mines of Moria in LOTR, the heaviest armor worn was ringmail by the dwarf.
Ranged weapons (& all weapons for that matter) are quite realistic in Drakensang - you can craft bows & arrows from yew/elm wood, goose feathers & wood glue. Crossbows are more powerful than longbows/shortbows, but take a long time to load. There are also special archer skills like "marksman" & "master marksman" that allow to penetrate arrow & inflict wounds on enemies.
Does DA:O have any crafting?
Tremere get both Dominate & Thaumaturgy. Really overpowered - level 5 dominate = "mass suicide" should kill all Tongs in their nightclub without any problem.
It would be really cool if it were possible to create your own homonculus as describe in one of Strauss's books.
Since TLJ I'd only call the Syberia series classic. Broken Sword 3 is a possible contender, but is marred by its ending which is completely out of this world (and in a bad way).
Mind you, I don't care about labels, but if ME is called a RPG, why is STALKER called a shooter with RPG elements? Because ME is story-based, it becomes a RPG?