The Lighthouse - No Spoiler Zone

Same thing for me but I'm not ready to play with a download time of 24 hours... Three times the expected time...
Of course my internet decided to take a vacation at the perfect time... .

My connection is ok but not super fast, i still have to wait 36 minutes.

Finally, I have 45 minutes of download left, we're going to start at 1 hour .
I don't know who or what I have to sacrifice a beef to but I feel so lucky. It seems that not only will I be able to create my Rook but play tonight !!!

Finally got the game downloaded and started it up. Is it just me or is the 'compiling shaders' process the slowest ever in the universe?

N o but unfortunatel yin m ycas eon Wednesday my intrenet went downs oI haven' tbeen able t og oanywher nea rthe game whoic mad eth ewai teve nmoe ragonizing .T hankfull yI hav ethe interne tbac kno ws ohopefull yI ca nno wdownloa di tont om  yPC an dplay. I' mplannoing on playin on m yXbox while I wai tthough.

Those that have played the game, what are combat and abilities like? I didn't watch the demo because of spoilers. I didn't watch anything about the character creator because I was afraid someone would sneeze and there would be more spoilers,

1. I know you're straitjacketed into only using 3 of your abilities and you decided ahead of time what they are (I still maintain that is stupid and non-tactical to 'forget' you know other moves/spells) but is it 3 out of a possible 12 or more like 3 out of a possible 5? That is, do you learn more buffs, debuffs, passives, upgrades than abilities?
1.a. In DAI, abilities had upgrades. Does the same hold true in DATV? If so, can you at least switch which upgrade is being used while in the middle of combat?

2. I believe you can't switch weapons in combat, correct? Does each build have ranged and melee options with their weapon of choice? It looked like a s&s warrior could throw his shield, for instance. BTW, does it come back like a boomerang or Xena's round blades? That would actually be kind of cool.

3. How limiting does it feel to only have 2 companions with you and to not be able to play as one of them instead of Rook? I always found that useful in terms of getting a feel for other builds that I'm less comfortable with.

Now that you've experienced it, I would appreciate your thoughts and opinions. Thank you.

Norstaera, all of these are very subjective.

I really like the combat. It's far superior to anything we've had before. It's very similar to ME Andromeda, in some ways. You only have three active powers per character (meaning 9) plus an Ultimate that runs on a separate resource; but you also get tons of mileage from passives, gear, etc... I assume you'll be playing it soon, so I won't go into excruciating detail.

You can swap weapons in combat. You cannot go into your inventory and swap gear during combat.

Warriors carry an one-handed weapon and shield, as well as a two-handed weapon. (Yes, the shield is thrown and returns. You can learn to ricochet it amongst enemies, etc...)

Rogues carry two short swords and a bow. Unlike Warriors and Mages, they don't swap between weapons with a button-toggle. They simply choose whether to attack with swords or bow.

Mages carry a staff and an orb + dagger combination. The latter is a faster, shorter range option that is very fun and effective. The Mage in particular has tons of variety, between its spells and various "basic" attacks. They have charged attacks, both ranged and melee; a beam attack; orb attacks; dagger attacks; and spells. (The charged attacks are a feature of all classes.)

The Specializations really enhance specific playstyles. They're really well done. The specialization skills have character-level prerequisites. You can retrain skills, of both Rook and companions, freely at any time.

Having two companions doesn't feel limiting at all, in my opinion. Again, Mass Effect has done this from the beginning. The banter and relationships are great as always, and you have more than enough combat tools at your disposal.

I hope you enjoy it. It's very much still Dragon Age, building upon the stories and discoveries that have been unfolding since Origins. The presentation is slightly different, more in line with the way Mass Effect has been done. (I know you haven't played those.) Essentially, there's some good and some meh.

The good: strong gameplay, if you like action-oriented gameplay, interesting gear, and character building. (Even if you aren't an action-game player, you can deeply customize the challenge to fit your preferences as much as possible.)
And the meh: I prefer the "deeper" roleplaying execution of previous DA games.

In the end, it's still Dragon Age. The stories, companions and relationships are great. It's a strong conclusion to many long running story threads. If it's the last DA we receive, they did a great job tying it up and putting a bow on it.