I enjoy the dialog too. I think it brings the character to life. I like when dialog triggers a cut scene as well. I also enjoy the accents because they're all British or French-English accents. It probably does have a lot of dialog similar to Mass Effect, but I loved those games too.
If you don't like the dialog, there is a key you can press during it to skip the dialog. Don't know what keyboard key it is, but if you have a controller it's the "X" button. You'll have to keep spamming that button or key, but you'll be able to get through the dialog real quick.

Figure I'll share a few screenshots too.
First one is just a shot I like of my Inquisitor. I was impressed with the other pics because of the incredible details on the clothing/armor textures. 2nd pic, her outfit really looks like it's made of fabric. 3rd pic, I love that Josephine's gold fabric looks like what I'd imagine gold fabric to look like, and those are some fine details on that leather strappy thing she's wearing (don't know what that's called). Also a really intricate and detailed gold pattern on that armor my Inquisitor is wearing. 4th pic, lots of fine details on the burgandy-colored part of Cassandra's armor. This is even after a lot of JPG compression to reduce the file sizes. I wish clothes on Sims had this level of detail.

Well... I'm glad that someone enjoys the game. I... don't... really.

I'm around 45 hours in, and I'm not sure if I want to continue. The side quests given by NPCs are as unimaginative, unengaging and repetitive as possible... "Oh, Templars killed my husband, kill them and get back his ring.", "Ah, we are so hungry, kill some sheep and get meet.", "Eh, we are so sick, pick some healing herbs and bring them here... oh and kill some bandits while you're at it.", "Hah, we don't like you, kill some demons and we'll be best pals."... and so on.
Jesus H. Christ, who wrote that? As far as I see, every area is the same: Some main-ish quest chain and a bunch of pointless side quests I couldn't care less about. The good thing is, that only Hinterlands is overly large, every other area seams more reasonable in size and amount of "fluff" quests. Still, everything in the "open" game is "grind, grind, grind". The game fares way better in Main and Companion Quests, there is more like "talk, grind, grind, grind, talk" design. If I had my way I would cut out 90% of combat and made other 10% optional. Oh, and I would totally got rid of this sick "wheel of fortune" style dialogue, and put back the good old Wall-of-Text. When I encountered the "dialogue wheel" for the first time in Mass Effect I was a bit puzzled, but when, during a conversation, the option labelled: "This interview is over" ended with me punching a lady to the face I felt cheated, not to mention sick of the outcome. But, back to Inquisition.

Story...
I haven't finished the game (and I'm not sure I want to), but it seams it's standard "bad guys want to destroy the world, and you are the only one who can stop them". My god... I guess I have to wait for Tides of Numenera for some decent storytelling. There is a bit of political manoeuvring here and there and it's great. but still, in the end of the day we end up grinding. A shame really, because the role playing stuff appears to be good, but is so diluted by grind it is painful.

Companions...
As always with BioWare, companions are a strong point. I honestly like all of them, if only the gameplay was better I might actually complete their stories. I particularly like Cole, he is like... a little brother to me

Gameplay...
The most disappointing thing in the game. I can even stomach cheap story and fairly unimaginative setting... but the constant grind... I hated DA: Origins for it, every main quest was the same: You need alliances, so you go to mages:
"Hi, sure we'll help you out, just run around in our tower for a few hours killing things, until you get to the end of the tower and kill a big thing!"

Then you go to elves:
"Hi, sure we'll help you out, just run around in our forest for a few hours killing things, until you get to the end of the forest and kill a big thing!"

Then you go to dwarves:
"Hi, sure we'll help you out, but we are so stupid we can't decide who will be our kind, so just run around in our deep roads for a few hours killing things, until you get to the end of the deep roads and kill a big thing!"

Then you go to Arl Eamon:
"Hi, sure he'll help you out, just run around in our village for a few hours killing things, until you get to the end of the village and kill a big thing!"
OH FOR F**** SAKE!

Such a shame, the RP elements were really good, but the gameplay was terrible, it was more like a slasher than anything else. Inquisition is very similar in that regard,with a difference that the combat system itself is more dumbed down than it was in Origins, and that one was not my favourite either. For example a warrior with 1h weapon and no shield does not exit in the game. It's either 2h weapon or stick and plank. As far as I know there are no damage skills that work with 1h weapon without the shield. Dumb if you ask me.
Another silly thing in DA:I is cross-class combos. Basically you have to incapacitate an enemy then "detonate" a specific skill of other class for damage boost. Sounds great, will be very useful on bosses, say... dragons. The thing is... dragons are immune to all incapacitating effects, therefore it's impossible to combo them. Whoever thought of that deserves a kick though the door.
So, yea... we can combo trash mobs, ain't that grand? At least there is plentiful of them, and then nicely respawn every couple of minutes, even right in front of you. Swell!
Combat should be rare, so every time when I draw my weapon, I should go "Yea! Bring them on!". Instead in DA:I I go "Oh for f**** sake, not again...". I started playing on medium difficulty but quickly I turned it to low, just to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Sound...
Good, even very good. I quite like the music, sound effects are more than appropriate, ambient is well done, voice acting is great. Still it (VA) could be a bit more lively, but overall it's very good (my personal best for VA is VtM: Bloodlines. Smiling Jack FTW!).

Graphics...
They are fine. Engine does a good job, there is a nice lighting, although IMO The Vanishing of Ethan Carter looks better than DA:I. Also I have not yet encounter a place that would cause me to go "WOW, that's... wow.", like caverns in Dear Esther for example. That's a design not visual fidelity, just mentioning that.

Overall...
5/10

BUT

I don't like my mage lady, gamplay was kind of crap, however I think I'll give the game another chance. I think I'll start over as a male warrior, human probably, as Qunari are disappointing. I thought they will be cool semi monsters, more demonic or draconic like in concept art (Concept art 1, Concept art 2), but instead we got taller humans with horns. Blah.
So, yea... human warrior 2h, because I hate shields, and I think I will set my eyes on Miss Montilyet. Generally I avoid romances as they are rather poorly written, I declined all advances throughout ME series and I planned the same for DA:I, but Miss Montilyet... she's hot

Anyway I didn't expect Inquisition (pun intended ) to be that great in the first place, so... I guess I got what I deserved.

I don't have a great problem with the combat itself, even if it relies heavily on cross-class comboing everything to death to be efficient. It's just the respawns that make it wearying, though I have to say that the Hinterlands is really the worst culprit on that front (especially around the forest camp, with bears and rogues spawning every few steps you take. Seriously, I was closing a rift in that area and I turned the camera around and saw a rogue just waiting on the outskirts of the combat - as soon as the rift was closed, he started heading towards us. I guess it was nice that he waited). Supposedly you can exhaust areas of spawns if you keep killing them, but my patience doesn't extend that far.

If you want something that cuts out 90% of combat, you might like the storyline quest Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts. That's almost an entirely dialogue-based quest - you can actually fail it and cause a game over if you make too many bad choices.

The romances are not the pinnacle of storywriting by any means, but there's still better than Twilight. They're basically the same conversations you had with those characters, although some parts might change based on your race/background, gender and their approval rating at the time. Also some of them apparently only warm up to it if you're a certain race and/or gender.

Yea, I've done Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts and I thought it was a great quest, but still I believe that the "fighting" bit there was unnecessary. A bit more discussions, a tad of sneaking, some puzzle solving in order to get leverage on people, to get leverage on other people so I can get leverage on yet other people. Now that sounds like fun!
Still... I liked that quest, I got full approval, exposed all traitors and saved the day. Later I enjoyed rubbing in my superiority during a trial of "you-know-who".
Funny thing was... Miss Montilyet was hitting on my lady Inqunarisitor there. It was at that point I thought of playing as a guy and making out with her (I'm not a fan of girl-on-girl action).

Yea, I'll give the game another go and see if it gets better.

As for the spawns, establishing camps, activating artefacts and clearing enemy strongholds reduces spawn rate, but doesn't remove it completely. Still, it's better than nothing.

For me, it's fun and I enjoy it, but I also agree with your review. It's pretty much all true. The side quests are boring and unimaginative, Hinterlands started to get a bit painful as it's huge and has the most side quests. I especially hate the "find and collect this many of this thing" type quests. Main story is rather unimaginative and cliche. Not sure how far along in the game I am and don't want to spoil it by trying to find out, but right now it does seem to be a repeat of DA:O - forming alliances, presumably for some giant battle at the end. Every new area I explore does seem to be a repeat of the last, with different scenery.

Coming from Sims 4, I was just so bored that running around for hours killing things, then at the end killing a big thing, is a lot more entertaining than say watching my sims taking an angry poop. And not just sims, but the last RPG I'd played was Torchlight 2, which had pretty much no story at all but just running around killing things, and at the end killing a big thing. At least with, DA:I, I have a story that I can be immersed into (even if it's not the best story), dialog, game-changing decisions, and enjoyable companion characters. Cut out all the grind, the repetitive battles, and we'd probably end up with a game that could be completed in less than one day. I really don't mind too much, running around killing things, if it gives me something to do and allows me to lengthen the story. It makes me feel like over time, the story is building up around me, rather than just quickly beginning and ending like a movie. Even doing something interactively to build up skills, even if it gets a bit old like killing things, at least feels somewhat rewarding as I'm improving my character's level by doing it. I'm used to sims, where building a skill involves just making a sim do something repetitively, without me actually doing anything and all I do is watch (or fast forward).

For me, pros outweigh the cons and I think it's a good time sink.
Also, one thing I think is a big improvement over previous DA games and Bethesda games is the dungeons and caves are much shorter. The lengthy dungeon/cave mazes were my least favorite parts of Oblivion and Skyrim. Which in those games, almost every quest involved having to explore some dungeon maze to kill things then kill a big thing at the end. I'm glad that so far, in DA:I, the grind of killing things occurs mostly on the surface with dungeons being rather shallow.

Hey, I just want to say that I bougth Dragon Age II yesterday because it is not expensive. I liked it so much that today I bought Dragon Age Origin! Probably will buy the Inquisition one too whe the prince get low.

Hi,

Let me begin by saying that I started over as a 2h warrior, and I have to say... The game is much more fun that way. The combat is far more engaging than as a mage, where I was basically a turret. The "Block and Slash" skill (at least I think that's what it's called) is a joy to use... perfectly timed counter which sends an enemy flying... WHOA... very satisfying stuff.
Yup, combat is actually quite fun now, still gets tiresome after a while, but in small doses it is enjoyable. Who knew?

All other criticisms still stand though, I could add a few as well, for example: Val Royeaux. It turned out that it is... a... wait for it... a Major City. Yup. That tiny plaza with a few merchant stands is a Major City.
Just... lol
Now... I'm not expecting full blown Assassin's Creed style cities (and I have to say here that, while quite an empty shell, the first time I saw and entered Damascus I was in awe), but at least something resembling a district would be nice. Especially considering the space wasted on Hinterlands.

Another thing, although its a small stuff, I might me nitpicking here, is mount animations. Let me bring up AssCreed again here. The quality of animations for horses is like heaven and earth when compared to DA:I. AC is from 2007. That's almost 8 years ago and the awesomeness of those animations is unmatched by anything I've seen thus far.
But again... I'm nitpicking here.

@GnatGoSplat
You're right to like the game, if you enjoy it that's great.
However allow me to get a bit off-topic here:
First, dungeon crawling (that used to be a genre once, now lives through Legend of Grimrock). Personally I prefer quality over quantity. Less stuff, but better made. Dungeons in Oblivion / Skyrim were very fine (although some Skyrimish ones were a bit too lengthy) , but there was waaaay to many of them, and over time people were bored of them. If you get a chance, grab Dear Esther off Steam, it has some jaw dropping caverns.

Another thing is: you mentioned Torchlight.
Now... I really like that game, I spent many hours mindlessly slaying things but... It's NOT an RPG. It's a hack & slash. But, to be fair, nowadays people, especially the press, puts everything that has experience points or character levels in one bag labeled "RPG". That is a shame.
H&S' are pure action games, often with minimal story, where the player has minimal (at best) impact on the world. Comparing RPGs and H&S' is pointless as those two genres have completely different assumptions of what they want to achieve. RPGs want to tell you an engaging story on which you have an impact by making a decisions based on your personality; H&S' want you to be more efficient in killing things by the use of appropriate skills and abilities and hoarding better equipment.
If you want to compare combat in DA:I to Torchlight, they are very different: Inquisition is slower, a bit more tactical, requiring multi class cooperation where encounters are longer with fewer enemies. Torchlight on the other hand presents quicker, more dynamic, smoother combat with pretty much non stop clicking and, if at any moment you fight less than 10 things at once, you're getting off easy.

Now, both games have issues, but they are essentially different games so saying they are both RPGs is just wrong.



OK,
I'm still playing Inquisition, I'll post some pics later with some more feedback.
In the meantime check nexus page for DA:I, some cool, though basic stuff there is worth a look:
www.nexusmods.com/dragonageinquisition/?

I've recently started playing, and I'm having fun with it so far. Mostly, I'm just wandering around, lost in the woods. It will probably take me ages to finish the game, and I'm in no hurry. Anyway, I set up the game to work with my Retrolink Gamecube controller with a 3rd party keymapper. I use that thing a lot for several games (not Sims, though), and I am quite comfortable with my set-up. So far the game runs okay for me, except for this one bug where Cullen goes invisible. I found a work around for it, but I hope they fix it.

140-hours later, and my DA:I game is done. Done to about 99% completion, only things I have left is one missing location (which I've read is borked) and 3 Mosaic tiles. Not about to check and re-check every place I've ever been for them. I don't much care for collection quests.

On the plus side, I did manage to find a save game editor and was able to change my world state to sort of match what I had in DA:O and DA2. Even 100-hours in, it seemed to work, changed dialogue, and changed my Hawke from male to female. I couldn't remember my choices in those games, but I found a site that could read save games and display most of the world state from DA:O and some from DA2.

Didn't feel like going back to Sims 4, so I went back to an old save and recruited the other group and played through the main story again, bypassing all the side quests. Apparently, you can actually blast through the main story pretty quick. Maybe 15hrs or so total. From the point of choosing a group to recruit, it only took 10hrs to finish the storyline and I wasn't rushing. Even did Cullen's personal quests as I'd read those are different depending on which group is recruited. One thing that's different from DA:O is that it doesn't seem like anything I did outside of the main story really mattered. Side quests and entire areas seem to make no difference if I visited them at all, only thing it really accomplished was building up my XP level so that the final battles become effortlessly easy (on Normal) and I could do them with my eyes closed (level 24). Even on my 2nd play through, I only made it up to level 15 for the final battle (16-19 recommended) and although it took longer, it was still cake. Only a couple companion side quests affected whether they would be available for the final battles, and for the most part, completing their personal quests didn't affect anything at all, not even dialogue. I think maybe two companions got slightly different dialogue choices after the final battle, but that's all. I never really figured out the point of recruiting agents, as that didn't seem to affect anything either, except for maybe adding things to do on the War Table, but then most of the War Table stuff didn't affect the storyline either.

It depends on your pt and your style I find it really hard with choices especially the Here Lies The Abyss and What Pride Has Wrought. I'm just hoping rivaling a certain someone if you completed the game you'll know who I'm talking about in the end isn't gonna come back and bite me in the ass. Or not making a certain choice during what pride has wrought is gonna do the same. I am glad that they are giving us da II emporium and storage chest http://blog.bioware.com/2015/02/13/...black-emporium/ I think now I have over 1000 hours of play throughs and modders are making nice progress with releasing tools I've done some texture modding and stuff its pretty easy once you get the gist of it .

Oh excellent about the Black Emporium and a storage chest - I can finally offload Cole's hat. Didn't like to sell it.

I'm about 130 hours in and still haven't cracked open the Western Approach. Still like the scenery

And this hoss. I know it's the first one you get but I'm a complete sucker for bay horses and I love him.

Can't wait till dlc so I played the second time..Still this game is amazing. For second time I spent only 100 hours, and finally it's full complete.


(some nice screens)

Hey guys I'm playing it-on my dual core. If anyone else is on a dual core and wants to know how, there is a download that fixes it so it will work.

Download link and instructions on making DRI work on dual core computers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2n_B17BJq0
Also when my game started freezing and stuttering I looked up ways to make it run better and found that turning off Origin's overlay in games helps a lot. How to turn it off: Right click Origin > Application Settings > Origin in Game. That will help any computer having issues.

ooo good Jo - pics?

I didn't even realize I could take pics-until I saw them here. I don't think FRAPS will work will it? I will try it. I know my print screen button wont as that takes a pic of my desktop. A few times I thought something would make a lovely photo.

It's what I use.

PS currently playing Jaws of Hakkon.

Got my hands on the game finally!

I guess i'm doing a rogue playthrough at first. Have done it in both DAO and DA2 too.
Do you have some advices?

FRAPS will definitely work, but it's odd Print Screen didn't work for you. It's how I took my screenshots because I often forgot to load FRAPS first. Only thing is it doesn't work as reliably as FRAPS.

I believe it is a Windows 7 64bit problem. I have to go in and change a heap of setting to make it work and put my desktop to some default ugly Microsoft thing. I know I 'fixed' it last year but since I didn't want their ugly screen I undid it.

I'm also using Windows 7 64-bit. I think I know what you mean about putting your desktop into some ugly Microsoft thing. Is it popping up something about wanting to change your color scheme to Windows 7 Basic? If so, I get that on my other computer sometimes. I have no clue why. DAI sometimes has weird glitches on that one too. Only differences between it and my main one is my main one has ATI video and AMD CPU while the one that gets the popup is Nvidia video and Intel CPU. I used to have Nvidia video on my main one as well and it never had that problem, so really have no idea what causes it.

I don't think that can be it either - I have an Intel chip (i7) and Nvidia card, Win 7 64 bit. Fraps works fine for me - I used it to take the pictures on here. Fraps with DAI was a bit wonky at first (using it seemed to slow the frame rate) but was fixed in one of the patches - or the frame rate issue for PCs anyway.

The desktop thing is only if I use the keyboards Print Screen button, not with FRAPS. I meant to take some pictures yesterday and forgot. I'm not in the habit of talking in game pictures except for Sims 2. I haven't tried it for anything else so I don't know if it will work for DAI or not, but since if I have it on it shows the frame rate numbers I think it will work..

Yes, that's the sign it's engaged, so to speak.

Well it froze my game. :/ Probably too much at once for my old dual core.
That was all I could get and I couldn't move at all.

Looks pretty bad, although my game does look better then that. I was hoping to get a close up...

Doesn't look so bad - that's your inquisitor? What class are you playing and how far have you got (you've obviously got to Skyhold).