Arena

[A Black Falcon]

You get a huge list of things to ask people about, though generally most people will say basically the same thing. I don't see how this could be a big thing though. Some of the more important characters will have a lot of unique things to talk to you about.

Ah, in the first two you can ask about a lot of things too. Except in Arena it is 95% about 'Where is building X', and 5% 'Can you tell me about any jobs?' or 'Can you tell me about any rumors (read: quests in town, generally fedex stuff early on). Daggerfall gives you a longer list, but it's still a majority about "where are things" and a minority about other questions that they will all either not answer ('what is your opinion on this or that faction/thing') or answer similarly... this is not exactly a strength of the series, I'd say, unless it's changed a lot from the first two... but as I've said, when you are dealing with that much scale, how much can you really do?

No.

It never does, does it... :) (Baldur's Gate works exactly the same way -- put your stuff on a table in a busy tavern, leave for a month, come back, and it'll all be there...)

Swamps, grasslands, ashlands, islands, and most of the cities have a unique look and architecture style.

Graphically, of course they are going to be different... but by that I meant a more encompassing thing -- not just the graphical look but also if there are, say, quests that are specific for the region, design differences in the overworld and dungeons in addition to towns, NPCs that actually say different things, etc... this is hard to do really well when you have such a large area to cover in making your game.

You can join the Fighter's Guild, the Mage's Guild, the Theive's Guild, the Great Houses, the Blades, the Imperial Legion, the Temple, and the Mora Tong Guild, all of which have their own quests. And there's the main quest which I'm currently following. It's not unique or anything, but it's good enough to keep your attention.

Sidequests are obviously one of the biggest strengths of the series, but all reports say that the main quests aren't exactly engaging... the games are still great, reviews say, but the main quests are lacking. Fun games to play but not to focus on the main story on and actually finish?