I'd prefer another triology, preferably better planned and with a consistant core squad. This would provide more time for the writers to develop their characters and more opportunities for the player to get invested in those characters (as evidenced by the popularity of Liara, Garrus and Tali). Maybe 4-5 core squadmates and 2-3 new characters in each game.

I finally finished the game and I'm so sad now

Seriously through, I think TW3 is the best that the open-world RPG genre has to offer and I just love how much the game makes you care about the characters (not only the main characters...but also minor NPCs like Keira, Priscilla, the Baron, Shani, Syanna in Blood and Wine, and so on). The fixed protagonist didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but I'll always welcome the ability to customize my character.

My only real problem was that the story was sometimes really confusing for someone like me who is not familiar with the Witcher universe. I suppose that those whose first Mass Effect game was ME3 or started the series with DA:I had the same problem and it's probably unavoidable jumping this late in the series...I mean, there are all these characters Geralt has a long history with. But I also didn't really understand the ending for example and was left wondering about how exactly Ciri stops the white frost. Yennefer and the last wish side quest is another example....and I ended up romancing Triss before having more than one conversation with Yen at the beginning when she's rather cold towards Geralt.

As for Bioware games being more like TW3, I'm sure everything has already been said: Better animations, open world immersion/design, side-quest design are things I'd like to see.

And Gwent is so much fun 

Nice propaganda but false, mages are allowed to marry and chosing their paths inside the circle, for rest of the things there are good reasons for that.They also aren't told they are monsters so you can turn off your drama that you use to sound like they live in gulag.

 

I said Circle mages. Chantry has self-declared themselves as the ones responsible for mages (to protect the world from them, of course...) so when ever their "perfect system to control the mages" fails (as it so often does) they are responsible. 

 

I agree with that. Circle mages are forcefully separated from their families, forbidden of marrying someone, dating, creating a family, choosing their paths inside or outside the Circle, they live their entire life in an atmosphere of fear and are constantly told how they're bacically monsters. I can't say I'm surprised that some mages go crazy.

Who wants to surrender their children to become chantry prisoners? Who wants to have their kid get taken away, afraid they will never see them again or that the templars will commit unspeakable abuses once they go there? The chantry has the lion's share of the blame in this quest.

I just hope the next games will show more the "greys" of both of mages and templars.

 

I know this is one of the main conflict in the Dragon Age universe but I think it's time to move on from this a bit. I mean...I'd take the exact same stance in the exact same conflict the fourth game in a row because for me the templars were always the villains in the story, and that's simply not very interesting. The story feels rather complete now, imo. 

So the people forced into military service that helped to win a lot of wars, where a lie?

 

Nope, but I think volunteers tend to fight harder than people who don't have a choice to be there. And this game seems to be a lot about second chances anyway.

"Ideological" reasons aside, I think it's always better to have willing allies than people who don't have a choice.

I'll miss the character disussion threads. I mean, sure...some things were a bit weird, but there are not exactly many places where you can have a civil discussion about the characters, share the fun banter, fanart and experiences. And at least the character threads I frequented (this thread, and the threads for Leliana and Josephine) were not toxic wastelands

DAO
City elf rogue
Everyone recruited, all companions survived
Romanced Leliana
Leliana and Alistair unhardened
"Killed" Flemeth
Destroyed the Anvil, Harrowmont became King of Orzammar
Saved the circle mages
Nobody sacrificed to save Connor
Andraste's ashes not defiled/Cultists killed, dragon not killed
Cured the werwolves
Alistair killed Loghain and remained a Grey Warden, Anora rules alone
Alistair performed the dark ritual with Morrigan
Made Shianni bann of the alienage
Let Morrigan leave as a friend
 
Awakening
Everyone recruited, all companions survived
Killed the Architect
 
DA2
Rogue Hawke 
Everyone recruited, all companions survived (except Carver^^)
Romanced Isabela, dueled the Arishok 
Bethany joined the Circle
Sided with the mages, Anders sent away 
Friendly and helpful with Tallis 
Sided with Janeka
 
DA:I
Female elf, rift mage
Everyone recruited, all companions survived
Romanced Josephine
Wasn't sure wether she was the Herald of Andraste, but accepted the role to give people hope
Sided with the mages and gave them a full alliance
Made Alexius give his wealth to the rebel mages
Reconciled Briala and Celene, made Florianne an agent
Left Alistair in the Fade
Allowed Grey Wardens to stay and rebuild
Forgave Ser Ruth, imprisoned Erimond
Saved the Chargers
Blackwall joins the wardens
Made Cole more human
Helped Cullen through his lyrium addiction
Helped Varric, Solas, Sera and Vivienne with their quests
Drank from the Well
Unhardened Leliana as the new Divine
Didn't disband the inquisition

I've been posting on Bioware's forums for close to a decade (joined before the release of ME1) and never expect to engage with Bioware developers except maybe giving some feedback. Oh well   
 

Briala isn't some pathetic girl desperate for love and portraying the relationship as abusive or one-sided is sheer nonsense (both in TME and the game). Briala always used her influence on Celene to get what she wants. The novel makes this clear. We know she wielded a tremendous amount of influence over Celene and her decision making. With Briala being given respect and control as a noble she can do even more.

Personally, I have no qualms putting them back together for the good of Orlais and the elves. Say what you want but it's made clear by both of them that it's what they wanted. I mean, the inquisitor did not force them to get back together, only brought to light that they both still cared for each other. And Briala shows concern for Celene's life before you even show her the amulet while Celene takes a big risk by raising Briala to noble status.

From the ones I've completed myself my favorite is Liara, followed by Kelly and Miranda

I think Liara has the most complete romance arc and the best overall. The evolution of the character really makes the relationship evolve in a very unique way. They have experienced their ups and downs, which makes the romance more meaningful imo. The chemistry between Jennifer Hale and Ali Hillis is also fantastic, and it improves the emotional and romantic tone of the relationship to an even greater extent.

As much as I like Kelly in ME2 and consider her one of the more "realistic" romance options in Mass Effect because there's consistent flirting and a good build-up, there is barely any content in ME3. I thought Kelly's romance in the original script for ME3 was phenomenal - it really showed how Shepard could connect with someone who didn't need to be right there on the front line with him. Unfortunately, BW cut most of it.

Miranda has her moments, good and bad. When she's flustered after the kiss or when she makes you say you're not going to die on her she does a pretty good job. And when you tell her that it wouldn't be so bad to let Oriana know she has a sister! Great scene. Unfortunately these get a little overshadowed by gratuitous booty shots... ME3 Miranda was a bit disappointing (except the Citadel content which is excellent)

I agree that completion rate is not necessarily indicative of quality. Generally the longer a main quest is, the less likely it is to be completed. I mean, according to Bioware the average completion time for ME2 was 33 hours. Now I have no idea how long The Witcher's 3 average completion time is, but I'm pretty sure it's more than 33 hours.

1. She was very inexperienced and looked to Cullen and Cass for guidance.  They both preferred Gaspard. (Right?  I know Cass did but I'm not sure about Cullen come to think of it)

Cassandra greatly approves of Briala and Celene reconciling, I think she's only against Celene ruling alone. Anyway, listening to the two people who don't even want to be there...I don't know I follow Josephine's advice here, she's the adept politician and diplomat.

Even without metagaming I can't think of any reason why my inquisitor would want to side with Gaspard. According to Josephine Celene was always a decent ruler who was peaceful and looked to strengthen Orlais via internal reforms rather than warmongering. And with Briala at her side, she would at least try to make the world a better place for the elves (that's why I reunite them).

Gaspard says elves have no place in politics even to an elven Inquisitor's face, and also says that he wants to invade Ferelden. Why should my Inquisitor support someone like him? War isn't going to help anyone, it's going to extend the civil war and cause more harm for Thedas as a whole. Military support? He was never portrayed as as a military mastermind. As far as we know, his and Celene's forces were both pretty evenly matched and Gaspard wasn't winning the civil war or even coming close. In addition, has already broke his oath of loyalty to Celene for no good reason. So what would he care about an oath made to an elf/dwarf/qunari whom he thinks are below humans in the first place?

Earth is the most heavily populated homeworld, but I don't think we're supposed to believe humans are the most populous race in the ME universe. Terra Nova is supposed to be the most populous human colony and numbers about 4 milion people. That's like nothing, the Council said in ME1 that they're responsible for "trillions of lives". On the other hand, Ilium is "one of the asari youngest colonies, of the 7th wave of expansion" and numbers 80 milion (and in one of the novels Anderson says that the Asari are the most widespread species). Older asari colonies like Lusia have populations in the billions.

I think both are villains.  I'm not arguing Gaspard over Celene... but for neither.  And Celene's "progressive nature" is simply her need to impress Brialla.  Without Brialla, Celene wouldn't care one bit about the elves or their plight.  Everything she sees in the world is a tool to use.  Even Brialla is the same thing, just with some emotional baggage on Celene's end.
 
Honestly, if I had to choose between Gaspard or Celene, with no Brialla as the puppet master... it would be Gaspard every time.  His motives and drive are clear.  He wants to expand Orlais as Drakkon did.  Celene's is ambiguous.  She says she wants to better Orlais, but that is such a nebulous concept that it is never truly outlined what that means.  And through that, she uses it to justify outright murder at her mercurial whims.  A war monger that simply wants to create an empire is a far better evil on the throne than a clear psychopath who has no moral compass and no actual code to follow.  Someone will create another play to "slight" her honour and she'll storm off to burn another of her cities in spite while claiming it is for the common good.
 
I'd rather them both be executed for their crimes and a sensible leader placed on the throne, but between just those two, Gaspard is a far better choice for the throne than Celene in every possible way.

Celene's sins amount to being willing to do unscrupulous or questionable things when backed against a wall and all her other plans have failed. The worst thing she does in the novel is obviously ending the elven rebellion, an uprising which was killing innocent humans...and had Gaspard not tried to paint her as beholden to elves (which he admits he didn't even think was true.) the uprising would probably have ended with the assassination. And even then she tries to minimize bloodshed and suffering.

"After that, Celene’s greatest concern was troops losing discipline and turning the night’s work into a celebration. The elves lived in these slums, Celene knew, and with nowhere to turn, they would be vicious if given the chance. She rode along, protected but present, and snapped orders to the men when they seemed inclined to rush into a building for easy looting. They marched through the elven slums with military precision, and when they rode back out, the section claimed by the rebels was burning behind them."

That's not the behaviour of a psychopath. Celene also has already proven herself a capable leader ruling orlais for years, we know what she wants.

"Regardless of how she came to the throne, Celene quickly proved that it was exactly where she belonged. The mad Florian's rule had brought the empire to the brink of collapse. Celene was its savior. Orlais has never been quite so peaceful or prosperous as it is now. The empress highly values education and learning and is an ardent patron of the arts. The aristocracy—in order to impress her—has followed suit, leading to a rebirth of Orlesian culture."

The empire's culture and education seem to be thriving under her rule. And maybe she's helping the elves for the wrong reasons, but I think that is still better than nothing.

 

On the other hand we know absolutely nothing about how Gaspard would rule day to day apart from "kill everyone who doesn't agree" and "war". What exactly would Gaspard have done to bring Orlais back from the brink of collapse as war wouldn't have worked? Take away Gaspard's "honor" and you have a guy who is willing to attack defenseless targets, lie about his enemies, use tactics he publically abhors and benefit from other cheating on his behalf as long as he can say he didn't know about it beforehand. Oh yeah, he's also a classist, a racist and while we don't have evidence of him murdering civilians or raping people, we have no reason to believe he wouldn't do either of those things based on what we know about Chevaliers.

Celene really isn't any better... she so quickly resorts to burning the alienage only to protect her "image" and repeatedly shows she has no regard for actual life with the ease she orders the deaths of innocents to placate her needs in the Game.  Celene is as evil and reprehensible as Gaspard without the strange sense of honour that Gaspard actually shows. 
 
I used to think Celene was someone that played the Game only because she had to and was not a terrible person... The Masked Empire completely ended that delusion.

As I see it, there are two major differences between Celene and Gaspard. Despite her questionable tactics, Celene is a better leader in terms of peace (the last thing Thedas needs is yet another war) and progression (she does push forward several important reforms). And she is using violence as a last resort to solve problems rather than the first.

Compare her to Gaspard. Gaspard's first appearance in the novel is him trying to anger Teagan to cause a war with Ferelden; he forces Celene to deal with the elven rebellion when she tried to settle things peacefully; he wanted to burn down an entire city in order to find Celene...even though it was obvious she was no longer there; he started a civil war (killing thousands of Orlesians) and put Orlais in more danger than ever in an effort to seize power for himself. And his "chevalier honor" apparently can always be warped enough to justify his actions. So yes, I think Celene is better...and it is pretty impossible for me to think of Gaspard as anything other than a villain.

HOWEVER, because I know how Celene manoeuvered the Council of Heralds to steal from him his right to the throne - since Gaspard was next in the line of succession to the Orlesian emperor -, I don't fall for the antics that Celene is "the rightful ruler of Orlais" and that Gaspard is an "evil warmonger, trying to steal the throne", as some players do.
 
The throne is his. Always was. She stole it from him. And no matter how much of an expansionist Gaspard is, Celene is hardly a virtuous ruler just because she is more of a diplomat than he is. Players talk to her when arriving at the Winter Palace and are so enchanted by her courteous manners that they forget she's calculist and a backstabber. She's just as dangerous as Gaspard. She just plays the Game using different weapons.

Celene didn't steal the throne, she won it using the same methods Gaspard was trying to use. She just was better at convincing the Council of Heralds (which is supposed to decide in situations like this) that her claim was better. Also even if that were not the case - as a non-human inquisitor, I have no reason to give a **** about the birthright of some racist human noble who thinks the solution to everything is war.

Inquisition has its flaws, but I think it has more potential as a framework than its precedent. Open world & exploration, dynamic world & environment-narrative, character customization, interesting combat. Aesthetically I think the game is largely a success as well. Bioware just needs to make better use of the big maps...and they do need to have a better ratio of quality content to filler/"exploration" ofc.

And I know I'm late to the party, but I just started playing TW3. It’s the first exposure to the series that I’ve had...and I'm not surprised that it sold well. The storyline is great, the characters are great. No complaints so far.

My favourite Inquisitor is Lavellan and a mage, and romanced Josephine. Josephine greeting her with "Andaran atish'an" at the beginning was great 

I don't know if the op played LotSB, but I don't think Liara necessarily changed much from ME1 to ME2. The situation she finds herself in is simply different. She is obviously alot more cynical in ME2 and ME3, but I think that making her a bit more hardened was a logical way to take her character. Of course it's not like she's completely lost her old personality, it's still there. She's very compassionate and caring, even in ME3. And she's more sure of herself now, sure...but why wouldn't she be (especially if romanced)? She also had to give up some of her solitude in order to get the job on Ilium done and she was willing to do so. I think it's made quite clear for example that Liara was using one of Benezia's threats as an element of the facade that she has constructed out of necessity, and in order to operate in Illium's underworld. This is why Liara ultimately prefers the Shadow Broker position...she gains the solitude back and usually only interacts with close friends on a day to day basis (Shepard and Feron).

I suppose her character development required additional clarification and elaboration in ME2 that the scene on Illium did not provide. If she had a bigger role in the main game and you got to know more about what happened to her in the past two years then perhaps it wouldn't seem like as drastic of a change as it appears to be...this was however corrected in LotSB imo. But her core personality didn't change.

I think two or three bisexual love interests would be my preference. In KotoR, Bioware knew who the romance option was going to be, and the romance got written into the main plot of the game (TW3 is similar from what I've seen so far). It was developed very slowly and gradually, and it was finely interwoven with other plot elements. In the end, the romance with Bastila is intimately tied up with the ultimate denouement of the game, and yes, you had important choices about how to handle it. I'd like to see them go back to that model now and then.

I mean...sure, the current system has the obvious strength of increasing player choice, and I recogonize people have different tastes but Bioware indulges in too much fan service by making anyone and everyone a possible LI. The result? We got many mediocre romance arcs and people feel shafted when it's apparent "their romance" didn't get the attention they want (I'd say only Liara and Garrus had enough content...mostly because they had three games to grow as characters). Had Bioware focused on just a few each one would have been special. There were simply too many romances in the ME trilogy.

I enjoyed it, for the most part...there are many funny moments and I liked Liara's romance scene. Sure, it really doesn't fit the tone of ME3, the jokes didn't hit the mark everytime and there are some bizarre parts like the Traynor hot tub scene or James' "romance"...but I think it worked as a fond farewell to a protaganist and a set of characters we had spent a trilogy of games with (and a bleak ending). The cheesy mission plot worked in that environment as did the meet ups and party. But it shouldn't be the template for future DLC.