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I'm pretty excited, trying to decide if I should buy it or not. The analogy "like DA2, but a little better" sort of makes me want it more.

I was only able to get 64% of it downloaded last night.. says it's enough to start playing.. I started downloading at around 7pm and left it going overnight. hopefully it will be done when I get home from work

I already returned it for a full refund on Origin. The hardware requirements are absurdly high. I can run ME2 maxed out, ME3 maxed out (but that isn't ideal for gameplay), and SWTOR perfectly fine, but DA:3 on minimal graphics was just a mess and it looked ugly while running way too slow. I don't understand how there has been such a leap in hardware demand over the last year or so or how the ME series consistently runs so much smoother and cleaner than just about everything else.

 trexmeyer wrote:
over the last year or so

ME2 and SWTOR were released in 2011. ME3 was released in 2012. I suppose it's also important to remember, given console-driven development, that ME2 and ME3 are 'last gen' games.

DAI certainly looks heads and shoulders better than any previous ME or DA game.

 Ouze wrote:
I'm pretty excited, trying to decide if I should buy it or not. The analogy "like DA2, but a little better" sort of makes me want it more.

A LOT better.

Comparing it to DA:O is futile as they are completely different games. Origins focused on a meaningful story, influenced by the player and his party, whereas DA:I focuses on action-based combat.

I'm level 2.

A little annoyed with skill tree (as a general rule).

 malfred wrote:
I'm level 2.

A little annoyed with skill tree (as a general rule).

The bad PC port shines through here. In a good PC version, you could just mouse-over each skill and then see the description instead of having to click every single one. Consoleritis

Well there's that, but I'm kind of used to life post-skill tree.

I wound up buying it and played it a little. It's a tiny bit jerky at times on Ultra, but very playable. I've been wanting a new video card for a while - my 470 GTX is a little long in the tooth. Maybe it's time to get one of those 970's I've been eyeing.

I didn't really have time to get super into it.

I had just enough time to make it through the character generator and a tiny bit beyond. I think it's a nice step up from previous BioWare RPGs. You seem to have a lot more choices than I remember in DAO. I am playing it on PS4 and while it is clearly a 'this gen' game the graphics definitely have that Dragon Age feel, with overly shiny-smooth textures and rigid character animation. The hardware requirements must come from all the glowy stuff that happens in combat.

So for those of you who've played it, how am I supposed to
make Shield Wall work? Is it get into combat, go toggle Shield
Wall and look for openings?

 Sigvatr wrote:
I really dislike the fact that you can no longer freely allocate attribute points (they get leveled automatically). Really takes away from character individualization :(

Can you expand on this Sig?

Having not played DA in a while, I cannot remember the exact names, but you cannot allocate Strength or Constitution manually? So it automatically levels based on class?

Is that the same for Skills? (I'd hope not!)

DA2 was the same way iirc. You basically got your stats automatically increased

I spent ~6 hours with DAI ... Now keep in mind I have big problems with both DAO and DA2. Actually, I think both are extremely overrated -- especially DA2 even considering most people (who don't make money reviewing games) acknowledge it was a travesty. So I'm looking at DAI with a lot of skepticism. But honestly the game has done nothing but impress me so far. DAI feels like Dragon Age finally living up not only to its AAA status but also coming into its own as a series. These first 6 hours are probably a bit of a honeymoon period but here's what stood out so far:

- NPC Conversations: BioWare's chief claim to fame but I honestly dreaded them in DAO and DA2 because the companions were basically moody teenagers. In DAI, your companions have feelings and ideas. Rather than just being low grade soap opera wrapped in fantasy tropes, party interactions in DAI seem to be among intelligent adults who are not stuck on themselves. It will be interesting to see how this shapes the heart (pun definitely intended) of BioWare's famous companion system, the romance sub-plot.

- Exploration: DAO did a half-assed job here and DA2 basically ignored it but BioWare was not kidding when they said they were paying attention to Skyrim. While DAI is nowhere near Skyrim as an exploration game, it in light years beyond its own predecessors. First of all, outdoor areas do not feel like invisible buildings where you are bound in by walls you can't see. You can generally run and jump and climb where you please. And the maps are full of interesting side-quests that I found myself wanting to do, because the map is fun to explore.

I'll post some more later in the day. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions.

I'm liking it so far. I made an archer this time since that's the one class I never really tried in the other games.

I do like being able to wander around and explore more though. I got to the hinterlands and wandered around collecting stuff and killing bad guys and doing some random quests that pop up. One thing I can't figure out is there's this thing called an astraleium or something, where it says you have to match the constellation without overlapping your lines... I did, but nothing is happening. All it will let me to do is start over or cancel out of it. I guess I shouldn't have canceled out of the instructions window without reading it...

I don't know what the constellation puzzles "do" -- I have only completed 1/3 in the Hinterlands. Same applies to the ocularum/shards side quest (I think there are like 22 shards in the Hinterlands).

I ordered a 970 GTX from Amazon and it will arrive tomorrow. I might wait until it arrives before I play more.

If you got a good machine, it really pays off. The game offers some really good visuals. The time stopping effect is awesome, with shards flying around and almost stopping mid-air.

I highly recommend playing the game with a gamepad on PC. Makes it a lot better.

Spent another ~5 hours with DAI and have explored a great deal (I guess?) of the Hinterlands map. I ran across my first dragon towards the NE but was too chicken to take it on (am only level 7). The Hinterlands is a very impressive map, as befits your intro to the game. I took a break from it to travel to the Storm Coast in search of Grey Wardens. So far, that area seems much closer to what to a DAO-style map -- basically a corridor from A to B -- which was pretty disappointing after being so impressed by the Hinterlands.

I am going to try the Fogmire (I think that is the name) area tonight, as I am not sure what else to do in the Hinterlands other than collect more shards or close more rifts (they won't let me into Redcliffe yet). Closing rifts seems to be either sort of pushover easy or super hard but I suspect that is just because I am not very good at combat yet. Rage Demons are a special PITA because they seem to set you on fire by sheer proximity. And the guys that shoot ice, yikes. I really need some elemental resistance. Why do ranged companions want to rush up to monsters so badly? Very confusing and unfortunately DAI does not inherit DAO's simple party AI programmer.

I think I need to go to Val Royeaux to get the story moving.

I was expecting the hinterlands to be an all noob area, but I've been finding some really tough bad guys mixed in. I thought it would have been like "do all the quests here, then go here" but you apparently have to move around a bunch... which is fine.. but I guess I'm used to so many other games like that, so I like to be able to finish an area before I move on so I don't miss stuff.

It does feel like Skyrim in a lot of ways, which is fine with me. I just keep expecting to hear a guard tell me how he caught an arrow in his knee.

Fabulous game in a lot of ways, controls like it was designed for a console. Doesn't handle smoothly on PC but once you've gotten used to it the controls aren't much of a problem.

The characters and the expansiveness of the setting are really in top form in Inquisition; you get a sense of progress and a sense of your impact on the world in a way I've never seen before. The protagonist feels like an actual character instead of something for the interesting people to bounce off of, and the band of interesting people working for you are a credit to the writers.

It's got the sense of progress over time from DA2 without the stuck-in-one-homogenous-city aspect or as much of a wait time to see what the aftereffects of your choices were, combat manages to be engaging and adaptive without feeling stripped-down like DA2 or repetitive like DAO, and the characters have the depth of the DAO cast in their reactions to the world instead of the laundry list of binary opinions that made up the DA2 influence system.

Inquisition is a natural progression of BioWare's work; it's a mixture of what worked in prior games absent what didn't work in prior games with an array of things they hadn't tried yet added in to make things interesting. I am enjoying it immensely.

So as a tip, you do need to go to Val Royeaux before you can get into Redcliffe.

 Manchu wrote:
So as a tip, you do need to go to Val Royeaux before you can get into Redcliffe.

Y'know, it's encouraging that something as simple (or I suppose, more in depth) as moving onto another area isn't so blatantly obvious.

Unless it was and the choices you made just took you longer to discover this information, which again, is still promising.

BLARG! I need to suck it up and get an Xbone and start murdering demons, dragons, and Tevinter.

Eh, the game is okay. I'm having fun whenever character driven
stuff comes up. If I want tactical gameplay, however, I may just
have to fire up XCOM again.

 Sigvatr wrote:
If you got a good machine, it really pays off. The game offers some really good visuals. The time stopping effect is awesome, with shards flying around and almost stopping mid-air.

I highly recommend playing the game with a gamepad on PC. Makes it a lot better.

Yeah, I got the GTX 970 in there and it's still a tiny bit stuttery during cutscenes, just enough to sort of notice it. I see what you mean about the gamepad.

Do you have to hold down the mouse button to get it to constantly attack, or is there a way to just get it to autoattack until dead?

Also, I spent about 2 hours getting Dragon Age 2 downloaded, getting my save game in place (my DA2 already had DAO and the other stuff imported into that), and then syncing it to the Dragon Age Keep, and then messing with the tapestry function, getting that imported into the game, rolling a new character, and now. I'm going to sleep. So I still haven't gotten any further into the game, technically, just met Varric and that elf guy.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Inquisition.

And I've been playing for three days...

Buying this tonight as soon as I get home.

I am at the stage where I want to abandon my playthrough and start over with a new character.

~20 hours in BTW. Happens. Every. Time.

Don't even have the game and I know that feeling. That moment where 'buyers remorse' sets in and you start thinking "Man i wish I had X skill right now instead of Y"

 Manchu wrote:
I am at the stage where I want to abandon my playthrough and start over with a new character.

~20 hours in BTW. Happens. Every. Time.

That's been true for me in every Dragon Age so far though. Always a bunch of false starts.