The top spot for a Game of the Year nominee has to go to something that's going to stand the test of time - a real daylight hour-stealing epic-fest that ensures once you've placed a foot within it's digital walls, you'll be spending a small chunk of your entire lifespan exploring every facet of what's on offer. Dragon Age is that game, and it's the nearest a developer has come to offering that slack-jawed "Hoooly sh..." feeling you got when trying to just comprehend the size of something like Skyrim. Bioware have forever been the twin-masters of western RPG game design alongside Bethesda, and although they had quite the monumental trip n' floor-splat with Mass Effect 3, Inquisition sees them doubling down on what they know they can do better than anyone else. That means hugely expansive areas that snake off in a million different directions, more side-quests than there are characters in the whole game, interesting lore to soak up and a constantly-rewarding system of loot that'll give you something to carry forward regardless of whether you play for 30 minutes or 30 hours. That's alongside a downright fantastic combat system that returns from Dragon Age: Origins, where again it perfectly twins the turn-based idea of old school Japanese RPGs with the more Western-influenced real-time approach. Basically at any point in combat you can pause the action and issue commands to your entire squad, slowly advancing time whilst still watching from overhead as tactics are played out. You're free to place your warriors wherever they need to be and move them on the fly, offering things like stat bonuses to archers who are on higher ground, for example. You're also able to play as any character you recruit directly, and it's a mix of these styles that may feel overwhelmingly complicated to begin with, yet makes for a stunning amount of variety when tackling every encounter. Throw in a brilliant Dragonborn-esque story that sees your custom character thrown into the middle of a conflict between the warring Mages and Templars, a swathe of narrative-diverging dialogue choices that only Bioware can nail, and a overall production that makes the next generation versions downright breathtaking, and there's nothing as comprehensively jaw-dropping in every aspect of its creation than this. It's taken them long enough, but Bioware have finally reclaimed their place at the top. What's your Game of the Year? Are there any you would switch out or add in? Let us know in the comments!
