Dragon Age: Inquisition featured on Game Informer

Somehow I didn't see this posted, so here it is. Holy crap, what a reveal.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/08/06/september-2013-dragon-age-inquisition-6119.aspx

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• Multiple races to choose from
• Wants to make the action less frantic and more deliberate, returning to more tactics-oriented approach to encounters. Big return to party-based tactics
• Part of that is slowing down speed of attacks, more important is designing enemies that force you to examine the battlefield and choose actions carefully
• Instead of swarming enemies, your foes have specialized roles; work together and force you to size up the battlefield
• Battles veer away from button mashing toward a structure where observation and reaction take precedence
• PC gamers getting an optimized version; "PC actually is different, especially from a controls standpoint", trying to "recapture the very tailored experience of DA:O on PC"
• Going from Eastern Ferelden to Western Orlais; repetitive environments are nowhere to be found in DAI like in DA2.
• Players aren't just funneled down narrow corridors, the demo showed a bog, desert, a mountain range, all enormous and freely explored in third person.
• Lots of hidden things to find, caves, dungeons, corpses, etc that create other unique sidequests
• Want to make sure there a sufficient number of caves in the game that are each unique, and optional. If you have a mage in your group, you can use a spell to reassemble a crumbled bridge to reach a new area.
• Can also restore a ruined desert outpost into an Inquisition stronghold
• So much ground to cover that mounted creatures are implemented
• Monsters, and dragons for example, do not level up with you. Some are vastly more powerful, forcing you to come back later with proper experience
• Some environmental destructibility
• Enemy scenario: Fighting a massive, armored dragon, you can target a leg, send warrior into melee range to bash off armor, rogue can sneak up and poison the exposed limb, dragon stumbles around allowing others to unleash spells etc
• Weather effects can impact exploration, ex. Rainfall, desert sandstorms
• Rainy weather can make areas muddy, slowing down your traversal/agility in combat, while sandstorms can inflict damage causing you to seek shelter
• Both Varric and Cassandra also join you, presumably as companions, and there will be a new female mage companion named Vivienne (how not surprising)
• Collect resources/materials and craft armor for you and all your party members; heavy emphasis on customization
• A lot of loose ends will be resolved in the story; expect full resolutions to things like Red Lyrium, the activities of the Grey Wardens, and Flemeth, and also Morrigan

This sounds too good. It already looked like it would be the best game of 2014 by a landslide, but seeing this, it might even rival DA:O as one of the very best games ever made.

I have to say, I lol'd at the devs playtesting it with a controller.