The Official Spoilers Thread.

Oh my goodness, Citadel. I laughed, I cried. I laughed some more, I cried even more. It's a metaphor for life in a way.

I'm 100% with ESpiza on this one. While the plot is a bit "blrghgm," this DLC is soooo worth the money. I haven't had this good a time playing a DLC from any game ever; laughed my freaking ass off. Get it. If anything, it shows Bioware is actually watching us do all our weird fan things- even if they don't always agree with them.

All of the ambient multiplayer-related ambient dialogues.

Yeah I know I was super late on this but I played all three DLCs over the past month or so finally. So I can stop avoiding you all OOC. My impressions if anyone cares:

1) Leviathan was decent. The ending was a little blah and unsatisfying, by the point of that build-up I wanted a Leviathan/Harbinger-class bitchfight a la Kalros on Tuchanka. But I think it did a decent job of sticking the idea of "something built the Reapers, somehow it all went wrong, we don't know why or what the Reapers are trying to accomplish" in the player's mind which would probably make the ending be a bit less out of nowhere for a virgin playthrough. So not bad.

2) Omega was not worth the money. Aria felt OOC to me and it was just very dark and bland and it was the same "Aria is renegade! Nyreen is paragon! We have unresolved sexual tension issues!" between every mission - there was no growth and blah. Also Nyreen just magically got biotics one day? Bullshit.

It was nice from a CDN standpoint to see the closest canon thing we're gonna get to Jo and to know that apparently canon I made up about cabals back in 2011 was legit. But having a new character model to sketch Jo off of and a name for her job title wasn't worth the extra cash.

3) I loved Citadel. I honestly didn't have a problem with the clone plot, maybe because I played it directly after Omega but it was fun. Casino break-ins reminiscent of the Kasumi DLC, meta jokes, Shepard actually bringing the whole team along on a mission, having Wrex back. It was just straight up fun and this game needed a little dose of that. And the side missions leading up to as well as the party itself were flawless. Blasto, multiplayer jokes, pretty much anything they could do a call-back to they did.

Though a tango, Garrus? Really?

Its funny I think even with someone doing a playthrough for the first time I would say play this one after the ending. It does a better job to me at bringing closure. Maybe because I think that was the whole problem with the original ending to begin with that was only sort of fixed with the EC. We care about the universe sure, but the important thing is the characters. Its why Shadow Broker was so much fun - we got to snoop in their emails and see their Google history. And just having everyone together and then leaning on the rail to look at the Normandy out against the black of space really worked for me. It felt like the bittersweet happy ending I wanted, even though chronologically the ending hadn't happened yet.

Pelit magazine did a pre-review on Dragon Age Inquisition. Here's what it said condensed to few bulletpoints:

The Inquisition was a precursor to the Templars of present.

The player is tasked with rebuilding the inquisition, and players decide the direction that they take. Are you going to help the poor, hunt apostates, get involved with politics or build a financial empire alongside fighting the Fade's incursions into the real world? You decide (and BioWare attempts to deliver)

The Inquisition can take over keeps and forts as their own bases, and they can be customized based on needs. Military, espionage and trade specializations were mentioned. Press review version had a minor melee decide the ownership of the fort.

Health does not regenerate after battles anymore, more emphasis on learning strong and weak points of enemies.

Explorable areas are going to be larger. One map could hold a keep, a village and some of the countryside around them for example.

Morality system doesn't tell you anymore what's good and what's bad right away, so no "RENEGADE +10" for leaving people to starve to conserve food for your own troops.

More freedom of movement permitted once the initial piperun at the start is over.

Thirty minutes of leaked, DA:I pre-alpha footage

Apparently, this hasn't been authorised by EA or Bioware (obvious from the shaky footage), so it's probably not going to be around too long. But while it's still up on youtube, I figured I'd show it here for anyone curious.

As I said in the link, there's a label in the top corner stating this is pre-alpha footage. Honestly, it looks pretty damn good for pre-alpha, so it could be that's just there to discourage criticism about 'teh graphix'. That said, hopefully it means some of the ropier looking animations (facial stuff in particular looks really flat) will be improved on.

There's some interesting moments of player controlled powers interacting with the environment (burning the ships with what looks like a fire spell or bomb), and a couple of hints that maybe the class system will have more of DA:O's fluidity (the PC in this is a two-handed warrior looking type, but it also appears to drop into a stealth mode at one point and has access to some incendiary ability - could of course just be developer god mode).

On the whole, combat looks a little less OTT than DA2, but it does also look like this is a console version, so no revelations on hotkeys or bars. Tactical view IS back though (18 minutes in), even on the console version. So there's hope.

Honestly, I like the aesthetic they have going on. I don't think this video is going to necessarily win over people left doubtful after DA2, but it's an interesting look at what could potentially be a deeper experience than even DA:O - if the new mechanics, like managing forces, actually work as more than filler.

It's enough that I'm not going to write off DA:I just yet.

Apparently the next Mass Effect will be a sequel taking place few years after ME3.

EDIT: the actual quote I heard was "According to Priestly’s words, later backed up by BioWare Montreal chief Yanick Roy, the game will be set in the Mass Effect universe a few years after the end the previous trilogy."

Harrad pointed out to me that Priestly is no longer working with Bioware and Roy's been quiet so this is most likely bogus!