Yes, I have been obsessively playing Dragon Age:  Inquisition, and loving it.  Great companions.  A worthy task that seems far more noble and important then the problems set out in Dragon Age 2.  There was a power to Dragon Age: Origins in that you are basically a kid with out any support who has to save your country.  You basically grow up and have to deal with not only the Blight, but a civil war that threatens to tear your nation apart.  It also felt like a big world.

Then along came Dragon Age 2 and the world became very cramped and small — Kirkwall and a series of identical dungeons, and the stakes were equally cramped and small.  Get enough money to buy mommy a house.  Deal with some surly Qunari (though that act was the strongest of the three), and finally have everybody go nuts and have to fight them all no matter what choice you made.

And now Inquisition has arrived, and it’s gigantic.  Not only my beloved Ferelden, but Orlais and the Storm Coast, and the Emerald Graves.  Well, you get the idea.  In this campaign you are much more involved in being an effective commander and building a powerful army to protect, literally, the entire world of Thedas.

My fingers are crossed that BioWare learned from the disaster of Mass Effect 3 and they will give us a satisfying ending.  I’m still a long was from that ending, but I’ll let folks know once I get there.

Here’s what struck me as I was playing the other night.  You craft a lot of armor and weapons in this game, and you better because you will die if you rely on loot alone.  But no matter what kind of armor I build for the dwarf, Varric he ends up basically bare chested and sporting his bearish chest hair.  Then there is Iron Bull who is an impressive Qunari, and his armor leaves his chest pretty much bare as well.  I think I’ve finally got Bull covered so a sword doesn’t take him in one of his man boobs.

Then I remembered Mass Effect 2 and how Jack and Samara would accompany my male Shepard into a alien ship that had been breached and was open to vacuum.  I’d be in battle armor and they’ve be wearing spandex and virtual pasties with tiny breathing masks.  I had remarked on this foolishness, contrasting it with Mass Effect 1 and I know that other commenters had mentioned it as well.

So here come two males in Inquisition who are flashing some flesh.  Of the three female characters only Vivienne, a mage is wearing anything remotely sexy or revealing.  Overall I love BioWare.  They design the kind of games I like to play, and this just struck me as a little wink from the designers, and that they had they tongues drilled deeply into their cheeks.

So kudos to you BioWare and thank you for the man boobs and the chest hair.

Sincerely,

Melinda