Ugh, Bioware what am I going to do with you. I love all your games, yet you you are missing one key ingredient to RPG's. One of my favorite parts of any game with rpg elements is having a decent selection of loot to use and show off. There is nothing better then working hard to defeat a tough boss and getting some kick ass weapons or bad ass armor. For whatever reason Bioware chooses to have very minimal loot in most of their games. They are still great games, but its kind of disappointing. 
 
Mass Effect 2 had little to nothing, especially if you weren't a soldier. At the end of the game my character had 2 smg's, 2 pistols, and 2 snipers. Keep in mind one of each of those you start with, so I found only 3 weapons my character could use the entire game. The upgrades were okay, nothing special. There isn't any visual or gameplay difference to the upgrades which kind of sucks, just 10% more damage and whatnot. There isn't much armor to speak of either.  I don't see why they couldn't have thrown a few more in there, I mean seriously it's a 30 hour game and it took me 15 to find a smg that isn't burst. 
 
Anyway, Dragon Age loot also sucked donkey nuts. Fun game, I love the combat, but I never felt satisfied with any of my items. First of all almost every single good weapon or armor in the game comes from a vendor after you save enough of a ridiculous amount of gold. I used some of the same stuff almost the entire game ( just like ME2 ). All I know is that this is the type of game that scream awesome loot to me, but it is no where to be found. If you slay a big ass dragon no you don't get some amazing sword or shield , you get jack shit. Even Kotor's loot wasn't that great, although better then ME2 and DA.
 
Well don't get me wrong they are great games with a minor setback, oh well. :(

I'd say suck up the loot-lust fetish and enjoy what is a great game. Yes, the inventory system is changed (non-existent), but it seems like everything they did was based on user feedback and making the game more enjoyable. It seems like it was a pretty big design decision to make sure you were spending as little times in the menus as possible.

There's kind of a problem in a lot of RPGs though where money becomes pointless because all the best stuff is obtained from enemy drops, so I can kind of see why being able to buy nice stuff is a positive. Kind of strikes me as closer to a Dragon Quest aesthetic where you gear up to beat the boss, not beat the boss to gear up. Beating a tough boss is its own reward, in theory.

The point in DA is that you never ever reach that point where money becomes meaningless (actually same thing for ME2).  In most RPGs you reach a point where you can buy the entire world and have change left over.  Its nice Bioware has started to do away with that.  
 
And when you kill a dragon you get its skin, the most valuable drop in the game,

I think that the lack of loot in ME2 was a bit of an overreaction to the mess of an inventory contained within its predecessor.  Dragon Age was a little bit better, but still not really all that good.  I don't remember KOTOR being too bad loot wise, but I do agree with you.  BioWare games, while great, certainly do nothing to satisfy my inner loot whore. 

Mass Effect 2 don't need no loot. And as for all the best stuff being with vendors in Dragon Age... doesn't that just make sense? You have to pay for the good stuff. I've always found it weird in games where all the best stuff is lying on the floor or something.

" I think that the lack of loot in ME2 was a bit of an overreaction to the mess of an inventory contained within its predecessor.  Dragon Age was a little bit better, but still not really all that good.  I don't remember KOTOR being too bad loot wise, but I do agree with you.  BioWare games, while great, certainly do nothing to satisfy my inner loot whore.  "

I kinda agree with you on Kotor and dragon age most of the stuff you got in both games were pretty useless, but if i would compare mass effect 2 to 1 the loot removal was pretty refreshing near the end of the original mass effect i had tons of armor and weapons, i were constantly running out of inventory space and all the weapons still looked and felt the same, plus the inventory was a nightmare. They could have included at least more than one set of armor in 2 though.

" @TurboNinjaPanda said:

" I think that the lack of loot in ME2 was a bit of an overreaction to the mess of an inventory contained within its predecessor.  Dragon Age was a little bit better, but still not really all that good.  I don't remember KOTOR being too bad loot wise, but I do agree with you.  BioWare games, while great, certainly do nothing to satisfy my inner loot whore.  "

Play torchlight. That will remove your want for mass random loot. "

" @The_Laughing_Man said:

" @TurboNinjaPanda said:

" I think that the lack of loot in ME2 was a bit of an overreaction to the mess of an inventory contained within its predecessor.  Dragon Age was a little bit better, but still not really all that good.  I don't remember KOTOR being too bad loot wise, but I do agree with you.  BioWare games, while great, certainly do nothing to satisfy my inner loot whore.  "

Play torchlight. That will remove your want for mass random loot. "

Indeed I have, and it scratches that loot itch like nothing since Diablo. "

I like what they did with the inventory system in ME2, I think it is much better than the first, but I would've liked a few more weapon, maybe 5 or so per weapon type. I'm not saying it needs as much loot as a diablo type game, I think that is just overkill. Maybe something closer to fallout or oblivion.

I feel Bioware focuses on skills and runes being a major role instead of uber-weapons, which I definitely prefer (as far as Dragon Age, yet to play ME2)

" I'd say suck up the loot-lust fetish and enjoy what is a great game. Yes, the inventory system is changed (non-existent), but it seems like everything they did was based on user feedback and making the game more enjoyable. It seems like it was a pretty big design decision to make sure you were spending as little times in the menus as possible. "

" I like what they did with the inventory system in ME2, I think it is much better than the first, but I would've liked a few more weapon, maybe 5 or so per weapon type. I'm not saying it needs as much loot as a diablo type game, I think that is just overkill. Maybe something closer to fallout or oblivion. "

@Talesavo

" There's a difference between changing an inventory system as opposed to outright removing it due to not coming up with a good way to implement it. "

Games like Oblivion go a little too far, in that by the time you're halfway through the game you'll have more money than you'll ever need. But even that is more fun than no loot at all. I didn't think that the loot in Dragon Age was too bad at all really; much more functional. The rolling back of established RPG mechanics is easily my biggest gripe about ME2 (an excellent game, although I prefer Dragon Age), and the lack of loot was a big part of it. But dude, if you want loot, go play Torchlight. That game scratches the loot itch so thoroughly you won't even need to worry about it again. Borderlands scratches a similar itch.

" I feel Bioware focuses on skills and runes being a major role instead of uber-weapons, which I definitely prefer (as far as Dragon Age, yet to play ME2) "

I think Bioware games are above needing to rely on loot-lust to draw in players. Some games need it, other don't really.