On a related note, I really liked how DA2 was ultimately really a story about one of the supporting playable NPC characters (Anders), and Hawke's really just along for the ride, and while you can change minor things about Hawke's relationship with Anders and how Hawke reacts to the big decisions, in the end Anders does what he's going to do regardless of what you say or do about it, and the best you can do is try to pick up the pieces.

It's just cool because so many RPGs obsess over giving your main character the maximum amount of agency. It's nice to actually have a game specify that you really aren't in control, and there's only a very minimal amount of influence you have regarding this one tragic event. The game balances this well by giving you lots of control over other ancillary aspects of the narrative, but the one thing you wish you could change is the one thing that's always outside your grasp.

There's a lot of praise I could heap upon DA2, but that's one of several things I really appreciate about its approach. It kind of stems from a general approach with every character in your party to give them more agency at the expense of Hawke. As much as I loved Mass Effect, that narrative, like most RPGs, was really tailored towards Shepard being such an influential messianic figure that whatever Shepard wanted to happen happened, like your choices literally seemed to alter the personalities of all the characters around him/her. DA2 by contrast gives you characters with personalities and goals that are very much set in stone, and as Hawke you're forced to try to desperately balance competing interests if you want to maintain unity. There's no magic solution to given conflicts that pleases everyone.

I understand that a more reactive role in a storyline destroys our precious power fantasies, but it also made DA2 feel a bit more weighty and realistic.

Story of DA2 was good, gameplay was mechanically lacking in general. Storytelling can only go so far if the mechanics fail to keep up with it. This inversely is true as well. I would've been better off reading a novel that would be called Dragon Age 2 and gotten more enjoyment out of it than slogging through a mechanically uninspired pile of redundancy.

Gonna cast my vote in with waiting to see how DA3 pans out post-release. If mechanically insipid, then Let's Plays will be the course of action.

So apparently even if you purchase a version of Inquisition that's on the same console (or PC) as your DA: O and DA2 data, you can't directly import your old save files into Inquisition, you gotta use this new system called Keep that records all the info manually. (BUT at the very least you can bring back the physical appearances of your Warden and your Hawke...though the Warden option's been pretty glitched lately)

So, it's time to muck around all my old DA: O and DA2 save files to see if I can read up on all the decisions I made.

Seems inevitable I'll get Inquisition at some point because I've watched several hours of gameplay footage and it looks pretty damn fun.

But I never finished Origins for reasons, and never played DA2 at all, so I have some catching up to do. They're on my list of RPGs to get back into, somewhere in there. I'm more excited for Pillars of Eternity than this, but I'll get there.

Look we are all excited for Pillars of Eternity, but we have to make due in the meantime. Fill that terrible terrible void of RPG videogames deep in our black inky hearts.

Gonna play this first on PS3 because FUCK GRAPHIXZ, also I want my eyes to bleed or somethin'
I'll let you know how it goes

If you are playing on PC, make sure to set your Model Quality to High or Ultra. A quirk with the Frostbite engine makes armor shines apply to hair and lips if MQ is set lower. Gives everyone Ken doll glossed hair and lips.

Game is pretty, and walking animations are about the most realistic I've seen in a game.

Not actually a bug; It's just that waxing your lips and hair is the current fashion trend in Orlais these days.

Gotta say, PS3 version hasn't been terrible so far. I keep waiting for the wheels to fall off the wagon and to force me to buy the PC version, but despite some not-so-great loading times and significant slowdown, and despite the graphics not being hella pretty, it still looks and runs a heck of a lot better than DA: Origins did on the PS3.

It's going to at least hold me through my first playthrough. After that I'm hoping I'll have enough for a PS4. (My desktop was a gaming-quality PC back when I bought it in late 2011, but now its specs are slightly less than PS4 quality, and my hard disc is running out of space for games.)

...aw hell, who am I kidding, the moment this game crashes on me I'm absolutely splurging on the PC version.

I'm also a Dwarf Rogue for some inexplicable reason because, why the hell not? Works well enough for Varric.

I started playing. I'm playing more action style than tactical style. My character is a Qunari woman, and Varick looks more ruggedly handsome than ever.