Dragon Age The Joyguard (formerly Hype Train) [Spoilers]

The companion dynamics had far more complexity than their more recent offerings, which I definitely miss. Then there is the really interesting expansion that continues the story for your PC, with a new set of potential companions but still finding out what happened with some of the old ones.

Their older games did set the bar quite high but DAO seemed equal to task of matching it. At least in DAO companions could turn on you if they disagreed with your decisions or if you didn't take the trouble to get to know them. I wonder if the problem subsequently has been the continuing world state that needs to reflect the choices you make and their determination to bring back characters from previous games rather than move on to totally new ones. So they either have to come up with a reason to ignore fatal decisions concerning those characters or ensure that there is less opportunity for such disagreements to occur in the first place.   Then there are the characters who continue to trail around behind the PC even though they clearly can't stand one another.  Honestly, why did Anders and Fenris continue to work together for so long?  If ever there was an occasion when you should have been forced to choose before the final act, it was those two.    Also, I still don't get the rivalry path where Anders is concerned.   If you are that at variance with him, why continue to work with him?   My only rivaled Hawke felt that way and so told him to get lost during Act 2.   If the spirit is controlling him as the rivalry path implies, why doesn't it take over completely and turn on you if you spare him yet make him kill the mages?  
   
They seemed to be hinting that in DA4 there will be occasions when a decision could result in companion death. I hope it is not like the Virmire decision in ME1 or Fade decision in DAI, where they make it an either/or between characters but more like ME2 where a wrong decision can result in a character's death but if you make the correct decision it can avoid this happening.

I actually like being into situations where I have to make a hard choice, with the outcomes sometimes feeling like a loss on some level. Feels more realistic that way.

I’d prefer a lot less skyhold equivalent next time, in proportion to the rest of the rest of the game. In Inquisition, most of the interesting characters and dialogue seemed to be at home, with only a handful of noteworthy people out in the world.

I think a better realized version of the choice you had to make between choosing between the Templars, or Mages, would best exemplify the spirit of where I'm going with this.

There is no hard evidence that DA4 is going to be awesome, but BioWare taking their time bodes well surely?

This hype train really has a lot of layover stops :/

The thing is, a 'hype thread' kinda needs 'stuff' to get hyped about.

A skepticism thread can generate content based only on (hot) air...