FYI.... you can get DA: Inquisition today for $44.99:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_85246...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Only valid today!

I will admit that after my initial pissed off reaction to some of the elements of this game that I have ended up playing the shit out of it. I'm still tired as hell of the generic swords and sorcery schtick, but the game does have a lot going for it.

I had family in town for a week so have barely touched it after playing an insane amount the week it launched. And now a SWTOR expansion hits tomorrow, followed by a Destiny expansion next week. I need 35 hour days to get all my gaming in.

The keyboard and mouse controls for this game make me want to drown puppies. JFC... Using multiple monitors, and there's currently no way to confine the mouse pointer to the monitor I'm playing on short of loading a 3rd party mouse application focus app. If I go beyond the monitor edge, the mouse pointer jumps over to another monitor while my characters sits there getting butt****ed by a Desire Demon. And the tactical camera manipulation is frustrating as ****. Every single tree limb, leaf, or what the **** ever, is always in the way. Why can't they give you a clear view from the camera angle you're using? I'm wasting lots of time just swiveling the camera angle around just to get a clear view of battle. No wonder they're commenting so much on the long play time. Half of it is dealing with the shitty UI.

Note that the story, graphics, conversation, battles are all exceeding expectations. But **** me the keyboard and mouse control is maddening.....

I'm not sure I'd go that far. I've barely used tactical camera playing on normal (dragon fights mostly...) and I'm already around 90 hours with at least 4 main quests and 3 areas to clear. Now, I'm a completely OCD completionist, have to clear every inch of every map, find every lore item, etc, but that's a ton of time...

I have a friend who raced through it on casual on a ps4, who I'm guessing missed a ton of stuff. Still took him 75 hours.

The game's gigantic, whatever the situation with the UI may be...

I hated the mouse and keyboard, too. I switched to an XBox controller, and it's been a whole different game.

Funny bit from an awards show last night (they won GOTY and RPGOTY):

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yMVSWoUyZrs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I've played this game more in the past few weeks than all other games all year combined. Haven't even progressed the main story to far yet. A+++++

I beat it (84 hours total). Storywise, Origins beats it by a longshot and it isn't even remotely close.

I haven't beaten it yet, about 100 hours in and still have 2.5 more areas to clear (graves, wastes, emprise) and I think 3 story missions. The only part I haven't loved was the dance, and I think that's more about me: just not something I'd ever like. Otherwise it's my favorite game since kotor ten years ago.

Thread is tl;dr... I loved DA 1, hated DA 2. I mean, truly despised the second installment (fuck you, EA, for turning a great adventure game into a crappy hack & slash "action" title).

Is this installment more like the first DA, or does it continue with the piss-poor design of the second?

Thanks in advance.

Easiest way to describe it would be the best of both. It's a gigantic game (like unbelievably huge - Baldur's Gate scale but not 2d isometric) with story and characters more like 1 than 2. Combat is more like 2. It has some elements all its own like a complex crafting system and the war table and keeps.

Most of the issues with 2 are gone. No repeated areas, combat is still slashy but less so (caveat: I enjoyed 2's combat more than 1's; thought origins was a little too slow), the dialogue is better. There's been a lot of complaint about the pc ui, that it's too much of a console port, but I haven't had any issues adjusting to anything.

I think it's essentially what they wanted origins to be, from a design standpoint. They just didn't have the engine for it until now.

In any case, I think it's really good. Whereas, while I never hated da2 or thought it deserved the outrageous negative reaction it got, the sequel was more of an okay/playable game, but no masterpiece on any scale. Inquisition is a legit game of the year candidate in any genre and one of the best rpg's in years.

What kind of race/class is everyone playing?

I ****ing loved Origins and played through it twice, second time with mods. I usually NEVER do this for RPGs and it's 9 times out of 10 one play through and uninstall forever for me so that's quite an achievement.

After playing the expansion (Awakening), I thought it was complete and utter shit so when DA2 came around, it looked more of the same so I didn't ever give it a shot so I can't speak for DA2, but Inquisition is certainly not the quality of story you get in Origins and most of it seems to be directly tied to what happened in DA2, but there's a shit ton of things to do and the gameplay is pretty fun. For me it starts and ends with the story though for these types of games, I don't really care about anything else as long as it's serviceable and Inquisition was pretty disappointing in that regard.

human/rogue

First play male human mage. Second female elf rogue.