@yeah_28: "The Witcher 1 from 2007 already had better sidequests"... um, I know that it's purely a preference of taste, but what? Really? Well, perhaps Withcher 1 had good side quests when you finally get passed through 12-15 hours of gameplay, i.e., you get to chose which side to be on. But up until that point, the main quests and the side quests are... well... kind of boring and one-sided - go to that area and kill everything that moves, and repeat it for many times. The only distinguishable and memorable quest I could remember was in that village where you had to deal with the specter dogs and either turn in the witch or not. But even then...
@khanwashere: So, you might be interested in Uncharted, The Last of Us, Tomb Rider games. They are pretty straight forward without any noticeable side-quests, and their length is 12-20 hrs.
If the side quests (real side quests, not mineral searching) are going to be like in ME1-3, then it's all good, but if it will be like in DA:I, you can shove them up your ass.
Also, DA:I... man f' the game, especially the Hinterlands section. Just f' it. 15+ hours in Hinterlands only to find out you can go do something else.. Haven't finished the game due to this bullshit
OK, at first play-through, I uninstalled it after two-days, because of those damned Hinterlands. After half a year, I decided to re-install it again, and play it. Well, this time I uninstalled it after 30+ hours... The pros:
1. Frostbyte engine. It can create really good looking environment that you can calmly run on high with Intel I5-3330 CPU 3.3 Ghz, AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB VRAM, 16 GB RAM (i.e, with a PC that it's actually last generation).
2. The lore. I found myself enjoying codex entries more than I did the main quest.
The cons:
1. Too big world. And I mean it. The world is huge and vast. Divided into separate maps, which in themselves are vast as well. With mountain and terrains, which is hard to cross. For some a big world might be a good thing, and I agree, but you need to have something to do in that big world. Now, on every map, the same side quests: collect shards, kill some NPCs, gather their belongings, sell their belongings to gather money, solve Astrarium puzzles, close rifts. All these things in a huge environment, which is very tedious to do, especially when you are doing the same stuff over and over again for the hundred time already, and it seems there's no end to it.
2. Character faces. While Frostback engine is good for builind environments, but... my God... those characters look like wax figures from Madam Tussod's. It's unerving to watch them speak and walk during their interactions, because their motions are unnatural, they're 3D modelled manquins doing the same motions over and over again.
3. The plot. Well, either you like it, or you don't. After 30 hrs of gameplay (and I'm not sure that I've even reached the middle of it), found out that the big baddy is a Magister of Tewinter who assaulted the Heavan's throne thousands of years ago. And he wants to rebuild the glory of Tewinter. Gee, I wonder how well he'll succeed with his plan...
4. Gameplay. My god. Freaking tedious chorefest. If you're playing with a shield and a sword (regular tank), all you have to do is taunt and shield-bash your way while your party member, who is a mage and an expert in pyromancy, simply burns everything in its wake. And this kind of gameplay is throughout the game (except when fighting flying and fire breathing dragons, then you have to change tactics, i.e. get to mages that specialise in ice magic).
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