I have them both and Ill admit that I love both of these 2 games. Have DA on the PC.
(have NOT beaten DA yet, nor seen all the content. About 25ish hours into the game and this is my opinion so far)
Ill give you a few bullets with the strength/differences of each and I hope it helps.
Story
DA - Good story, a lot of interaction with NPC, some good-great voice acting.
DS - Not a story drivin game, some but not alot of NPC interaction, bad-good voice acting.
The DS story is kind of misunderstood. This game is about game play. Its about you and (maybe your random phantom) vs. the world. The story/NPC interaction does a great job of making you feel isolated.
Gameplay
DA-If you like anything Biowares, you will love how it plays. I cannot be 100% sure how it plays on the PS3/Xbox, but on the PC it reminds me alot of Baulders Gate/those type of RPG's (NWN, BG, Planescape Torment, etc). Overhead view when paused for tactical awesomeness, behind the shoulder for running around the town. The game will become much easier as you level, since the enemies will not level with you.
DS-Over the shoulder combat (zoom in for using bow, lock-on type combat). This game is 100% skill based. While weapons/soul levels make a bit of a difference, if you suck at the game you will not succeedd. Game has one difficulty, hard. The game is hard and you will suffer many many many deaths, none of them are cheap and are all your fault. Controls are TIGHT (if they were not this game would basically be impossible, hehe)
Lasting Value
DA-Already has 2 expansions and we will probably see many more to come. 3 races to choose from, with 2/3 classes per race and 1/2 origins per character, this "should" have great replay value.
DS-Atlus....I love you but... This game ran out of copies (after what, 100k?) Unfortunately, this does not seem like a game that will have any additional content coming out for it (tho I could be wrong...look at ALL the Disgaea 3 stuff) However, beating the game is only the beginning. Each time you beat the game it gets harder on NG+ (more so the second play thru than the following), and if you want all the trophies you will need to beat it 4 times, minimum. Playing as prim ranged/spells, vs prim melee makes the gameplay completely different. (tho you can do both, id suggest sticking with melee/ranged/magic as prim and keeping the other avaible for secondary)
Graphics
DA-The character models are not that great so far, same with the enemies. The environments are great. If you are a Biowares fan tho, this doesnt matter (most all of their games have kinda terrible character models). Some of the movement does not look natural, but it in NO WAY takes away from how good this game is.
DS-The characters are not all that impressive either, but the enemies are absolutely amazing. Bosses are just plain wow. The game is all about environments and they are completelty top notch. The animation is amazing and your character does exactly what you would expect when you attack/dodge/parry/block etc) Oh yea, you can make your protagonist look absolutely disturbing. And its wonderful!! Not many games allow you to make a straight up MUTANT to play the game with if you want (tho you can make him/her look like a person...if you want)
The DS multiplayer is documented extensively in the review on VG and elsewhere, so I would recommend you read those if you are interested. One thing that alot of places do no explain, is how the game saves. You have 1 and I repeat 1 save per character. You NEVER save your game, it is all done automatically (and its the BEST auto save I have ever seen, no downtime, no hickups, its wonderful) After each fight, after each death, after each zoning/rezoning, auto save. This means that if you do something stupid (attack an NPC that you need and kill him) there is no getting him/her back until you restart the game. DS is the thought-inspired gamers game.
I have beaten DS a few times now and I love it. Am only about 20ish hours into DA, but so far I love it also. I hate it when people try to make up my mind for me, so I wont do that to you :)
