How *unappealing* do you predict straight male romance options will be in DA4?

It's not been delayed, there's rumours from people.
EA have slated it for their fiscal year 2019 which is until March 2019, so it only can have about 5 months delay if it needs it - and they told their investors it's coming out before March 2019 so it would mean they have to have a lot of confidence in that releases date.

I'm a bit torn.  I like the familiar and I think DA still has a lot of mileage left in it, but it's really sad when a franchise gets to the flogging-a-dead-horse point.  I think TES has got to that point, for instance, and as fangirly as I was (and still am) about Morrowind and Oblivion I honestly wouldn't be that bothered if we never see a TES6.

yeah i would like mods too, they are very fun.

Skyrim was a bit of a weird one for me.  I can't say I disliked it because I spent hundreds of hours there and as much again modding it, but there was something a bit... I dunno, it's hard to place.  I often describe it as charmless, though I don't know if that's totally fair: I did feel there was a distinctive element of "you done here yet?  Please go back from whence you came", which somehow cut deeper than Morrowind's endless "outlander" and "we're watching you, scum": there was always a feeling that they were just ribbing you whereas the Skyrim nords were really serious.  But it wasn't just that, there was nowhere I felt at home: Skyrim seemed devoid of a Balmora or a Chorrol, or even a Vivec or Imperial City or any of the other major towns: I didn't even feel like a tourist in Skyrim, I felt like I was in any of the towns I've been to on business when it was the only reason I was there.

I think a part of it is also that transitional period from the Oblivion era Gamebryo engine to them finding their feet again, and the characters in FO3, NV and Skyrim were often a bit dead-eyed, unreactive and not very appealing (at least to me), even compared to Oblivion's slightly pudding-faces and... well, let's face it, the designer in Morrowind wanted to do horses, not people, as I think she said.  FO4 has seen a big turn-around though and it seems a lot more human than those wilderness years, so it's possible that a TES6 could feel like somewhere I belong again; but I do wonder if they've thrown in their lot with TESO, or if there's a risk it's retconned a lot of TES stuff (I don't know, since I don't do MP).

Andromeda I think was a missed opportunity: of course it was going to be panned after the ME3 debacle, at least from certain quarters, but it seems like they'd resigned themselves to that as an inevitability and not really bothered to try to realise its full potential or market it properly.  I enjoyed it as a game but was somewhat frustrated that what was good could have been great with a bit more effort and commitment, but they'd given in to the criticism almost as if it was the expected outcome.  But because of the ME3 ending and the rather lacklustre approach to Andromeda I think that it would require a lot of guts to take things further, and that's something EA has never really shown.

I love Skyrim too! It was my introduction to the series, and I prefer the gameplay in Skyrim to Oblivion. But when I compare all three and put aside the differences in gameplay, it doesn't have the same elder scrolls feel to me, and I can't put my finger on why exactly.

I've played ESO. While I've gotten farther with it than other multiplayer games, it's just... so long I guess. I always lose steam pretty quickly when I play it. The single player games are long too, but there's a definite end to each one at some point. An mmo can go pretty much forever due to how they're structured. I did get far enough to meet Naryu though, and yeah she's definitely cool. Would romance her if possible 

I love Oblivion, but I think it really does seriously benefit from having its levelling, stats and stuff overhauled.  For me, FCOM is a must as it makes enemy encounters and loot a lot more interesting, and I also installed a couple of progression mods (I forget which offhand) which made the whole experience feel a lot more natural and moved it away from the temptation to try to artificially improve one's stats (I hasten to add I only did the "power gaming" thing for a few hours, which is probably the least fun I've ever had while gaming, but knowing that efficient levelling needed a deliberately contrary approach was frustrating).

And yeah, I can't make myself be an arse when I'm gaming: I guess maybe my roleplaying ability isn't all that great, but making the darker or at least more edgy choice doesn't do anything for me.

Yeah, I think I'll look into Oblivion mods too, when I'll install it again.

Mhm, I had no problems with my favorite Inquisitor, but while he's an ass, he's mostly just snarky (goes along very well with his boyfriend Dorian) I think the worst he did, was letting Sera beat up that one guy in Verchiel (what? I wanted to know what happens and he would've let her do it ) and telling Celene, Gaspard and Briala "You work for me now." (so sad OBS decided to troll me and didn't record that scene.   )

Sadly, a consequence of this is that you can't buy Breezehome, the most convenient/central home.

In my most recent play, I used the Alternate Start mod for the very first time and delayed starting the main quest for quite a bit. It was nice having that freedom, but I eventually began to feel directionless. If you're roleplaying a "good" character, you also miss out on some stuff like the more evil Daedric quests and the Brotherhood and Theives Guild quest lines. I destroyed the Dark Brotherhood, but that was just a short bit. Nothing to be done about the Thieves Guild, so I just ignore them; I'd wipe them out as well if I could and wish there were a legit option to do so (read: not a mod).

This is certainly true. Even some characters that are a bit more fleshed out, like the Companion followers, don't have any content outside of that minimal area. It's even worse if you decide to take around a hireling. Their only personality is gleaned from the occasional world or dungeon banter. My recent Skyrim play, where I did a marriage for the first time, really made me miss Bioware relationships.

Another terrible OP turned general discussion thread

What I wanted to add in one of my lasts posts, but forgot, was that I remade my first Warden in ESO. (she's an OC I made in 2006 and since I've played DAO I like to reuse her in other RPGs, if they let me create a chara. )

Kita in DAO


and in ESO, where she looks much closer to how I imagine her. (excluding the horns, but she's a Bosmer and I just wanted a Bosmer with horns )