Interview in PC Gamer UK's october issue

The magazine suggests the maps are at least a lot bigger

I read pretty much every interview so far and have the feeling that they take as much inspiration from The Witcher III as from DA:I (if not more). So far I'm pretty optimistic that they take the best from various sources of inspiration, combine it with so much stuff that was awesome in the original trilogy and will deliver one of the most epic and immersive games ever.

Bigger?!?!  No no no no oh god no.  They need LESS open world, they're not fucking Bethesda.  
The differences between the 2 franchises are getting less and less with this new engine.

'Some of the relationships were maybe a bit formulaic in the past', says Walters. 'So we're trying to find a more organic way to evolve those relationships that's less systemic in nature and feels more like real life.'
This gets me all kinds of excited, Inquisition was already a step in the right direction imo. Can't wait to see what they do in MEA.

Please be good.

You need bigger maps if you are going to build several new worlds were you can travel via vehicle.
Now just hope they make those worlds interesting.

I suppose it means to see if the new thing feels like Mass Effect before putting on the game.

I hope there is a walking option. Traveling long distances with the Mako is cool but sometimes you may lose some details on the map if you do that. Witcher 3 offers a lot of rewards to players who explore the map not only by horse but on foot too.

In theory a game built on the strengths of DA:I and TW3 could be especially good. Both had their issues but were good games, it would be interesting to find out what they mean by that. Which parts of the witcher have they taken inspiration from? I'm hoping they mean side missions, in terms of returning cinematic's and giving them depth or even consequence.

And of course Novigrad. 

But would still be looking for that Mass Effect feel and I hope Inquisition is less of an influence than it appears atm with so little known. Which is likely the case.

I feel like the picture is getting clearer and i just want to see something of the characters. If this game is in fact a spiritual successor to Mass Effect 1 (which is the vibe we're getting.) this is great news. 

I'm happy to hear it.

Ugh corporate talk. Nothing of substance to see here.

I hope the enviroments are at least as good as they were in Inquisition. I loved exploration and most of the areas in the game (I even sort of like Hissing Wastes now, after playing the game so many times... though 'Notes on the Wastes' is still the most annoying quest in the game). I remember reading somewhere that we get to visit over 100 planets... I hope that was exaggeration because if it were true most of the planets would probably be like the ones in ME1... empty and lifeless. I hated driving the Mako there. 

This sounds good and I'm interested to see what the romances in MEA will be like. The Heart Icon of DA2/DAI sometimes makes the relationship feel less organic because to get a romance you just have to choose the heart icon option x times.... (though I do prefer that to the ninja romances of ME trilogy). I would like to see more reactivity to the romance as well and option to define what kind of relationship your character is looking for... something casual or more serious? And of course not just romances but also what kind of relationship you have to the rest of the crew... I liked the friendship-rivalry system of DA2. Not all of your companions have to be your best friends. Sometimes it's silly that you just have to do one quest for the companion and they will be loyal for life (Wrex's family armor comes to mind). Your relationship to your companions should be more defined by the actions you take in the game and the choices you make, rather than doing their loyalty mission (I'm not saying get rid of them because often they are the best way to get to know the companion better but they shouldn't be the only defining factor in what kind of relationship you have with the companion). I would like to see the player have more say in their characters relationships with other characters in general (not just the companions). There wasn't enough options for Shepard, he was too often behaving in certain way and the player didn't have enough control over his opinions or relationships (like how he felt about characters like The Illusive Man, Captain Hackett, Anderson, etc)


I did miss how the sidequests were done in earlier games. Maybe it was the lack of cutscenes that made some of those quest givers in DAI so forgettable... It could have been done better. I loved DAI and think its a very good game, but there is always room for improvement and the sidequests definitively could have been more fleshed out and interesting. I think SWTOR did pretty good with this... it had many memorable minor quest giving characters and each planet had its own main questline that I liked very much...