Dragon Age: Inquisition will be released on November 18, 2014, in North America, and November 21, 2014 in EU.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be released on March 24, 2015, four months after Dragon Age: Inquisition.

We will see a lot of denials, ("they are apples and oranges," "they are not competing with each other," "they are different!" etc., etc.,) but the two games are direct competitions. Both are the third installments in the series. Both belong to the same genre, i.e., medieval fantasy RPG with a strong focus on storytelling and characters. Both have Tolkienesque dragons and elves and dwarves and swords and sorcery. Both have very similar gameplay and execution, (i.e., third-person camera view, real-time tactical action combat with pause, dialogue choices that impact stories and characters, cinematic dialogues and dynamic cuts, etc.) Both will be the first attempt in each respective franchise to duplicate the open world of Skyrim. Both will be released in the same time frame within a few months. Both are in the same generation so they are directly comparable in terms of technology and graphics. I suspect if you show screenshots or brief gameplay video footages from both games to people who are not familiar with either game, they will think the screenshots/footages are taken from the same game.

Most importantly, both games will require intensive time investment. Supposedly either one will consume over a hundred hours to complete. Most advlts will have the time to dedicate to only one of the two - unless someone has no job, no school, no family, and no life; then he can certainly sit in his parents' basemant and play video games all days. Otherwise, advlts will have to prioritize and choose, and one has to come before the other That is why the two games are competitions.

Let say you can choose one and only one. Which would you choose? Explain your choice.

Even if you say you will buy both, you must prefer one over the other. So choose which one you prefer over the other.

No verses threads.

Really? I did not know Bethesda does not allow versus threads. All other forums allow them.

So, if I had titled the discussion as "Would You Choose Dragon Age: Inquision or The Witcher: Wild Hunt?" would that have been fine?

If you want to discuss and compare the two games, and then make a choice, that is OK, it won't be a vs thread.

I don't buy roleplaying games that don't allow me create my own character. I didn't buy the earlier installments of The Witcher and I won't be buying this one either.

I am eagerly awaiting Dragon Age: Inquisition. Dragon Age:Origins is my favorite Bioware game and possibly my all-time favorite game after the Elder Scrolls series. I have high hopes for this game.

I posted the same poll in the Obsidian forums just last night. However, I will not be posting the poll in either the BioWare or CD Projekt RED forums, (and I am in both,) because the results will obviously be biased in those forums: BioWare forum users will overwhelmingly vote for Dragon Age, and CD Projekt RED forum users will overwhelmingly vote for The Witcher. So I think "third-party" forums (Obsidian, Bethesda, etc.) would be better places to ask the question.

Since the bear didn't close this, I'll contribute a bit.

I will (may) get Dragon Age. My sole reason is that I dislike Geralt in TW. I don't like his voice, his hair, his face, or really anything else about him. In DA, you create your own character and adventure.

For RPG's, I prefer to make my own guy. But it's going to be hard getting into either of them as I really don't care for third-person. I think Kindoms of Amalur was the only 3rd-person RPG I could really do without losing interest.

I never enjoyed the Witcher, so I have no plans on buying Wild Hunt.

I am however planning on getting Inquisition after all the DLCs are out.

Definitely getting Witcher 3. The only Bioware games I play are Mass Effect and their work in Star Wars.

I've never played either franchise, but from what I know of the recent track records Bioware and CD Projekt Red, Witcher 3 will probably be more widely considered to be the better game (and better by my reasoning, too), but if I go with one it'll be DA:I, simply because it has character creation and customization, whereas Witcher 3 has a preset protagonist and that is a deal killer for me, even for an otherwise superior game.

They're not really going to be in that much competition. DAI is being released this November, while TW3 is coming out in February next year. It may seem like a three-month difference, but the former is being released in time for the holiday rush.

And advlts with jobs will only be able to prioritize one of the two? [censored], please. As I said, three months apart. There's plenty of time to play through one at a leisurely pace before starting the other.

Anyway, The Witcher 3 hands down. I enjoyed the first two games, the writing in them is much more skillful, the setting is much better, and the devs show a lot more ambition in what they want to achieve. And much of what I've seen in the latest game looks fantastic so far. Meanwhile, I just have no interest in the latest Dragon Age title. Origins was great, Awakening was meh, all the DLC were bad, and Dragon Age II was frankly embarrassing. The writing has always been mediocre at best (and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKdTWepIYQ at worst), and the worldbuilding is absolutely banol, despite or rather because of the devs' attempts to make it stand out from the fantasy norm. The fact that the latest Dragon Age game is getting a holiday release isn't doing much to inspire further confidence from me; it could very well be a fine game on its own, but it has a good chance of feeling rushed as most holiday titles are.

The Witcher 3. I've played both the first and second game and enjoyed each one greatly. The story/writing, characters, emphasis of choice and consequence, and a respectable developer.

I've only played Dragon Age: Origins. Never bothered with Dragon Age II after hearing how it turned up, and quietly frankly, I simply don't have faith in Inquisition. Bioware has had a pretty bad track record lately, which is a shame because I've been a fan of their previous work like the Mass Effect series; which despite its likable story and characters, I couldn't deny that the gameplay became streamlined throughout the series. And it looks like that was the same direction for DA with DA2.

I simply have more faith in a developer like CDPR than Bioware at this point.

Witcher 2 was the most disappointing RPG I have ever played. So far I see no reason to give part 3 a try. And no amount of improvements can outweigh knowing that I would have to suffer through 100 more cutscenes of that dumb story.

I really enjoyed Dragon Age Origins, so I am looking forward to the new one. I didn't play part 2 after I heard complaints that it was nothing like the first one.
But Inquisition is supposed to address those problems, so I'll probably wait until all the DLC is out and buy a complete all-in-one edition next year.

If I had to choose one? The Witcher 3. I am getting both at some point though. I don't expect fantastic writing from either (especially Inquisition) because I have played all the previous incarnations in each series. Geralt is, frankly, written quite poorly in the games. I don't think we should be able to choose what Geralt does. We are not Geralt. I feel like choices with a set character are a waste of my time and that often the limited choices given to Geralt don't fit his character as I understand him. So I just choose what I think Geralt would choose as best as possible. Considering that The Witcher is using a Sset character, I am pretty disappointed in the gameplay CDProject Red games have shown so far. They are games with shallow, clunky and linear combat.

I much prefer creating my own characters. I don't think I need to explain about Dragon Age's writing after number 2.

That being said. Inquisition is a wait to buy game. The Witcher 3 I have no qualms about buying day 1.

I can understand why people are turned off by playing a pre-set protagonist in an RPG...but the voiced protagonists of Dragon Age and Mass Effect never felt like my characters either. They say (and do) things you don't expect in tones you can't control, in a voice that likely doesn't even match the face you made. Not to mention the explicit categorization of the dialogue options and personality types only limited things even more. ME was designed around going full on Paragon or Renegade; mixing things up or choosing the middle "neutral" options only hamstrung you. And the Diplomatic/Aggressive/Thinks-He's-More-Witty-Than-He-Actually-IsSarcastic personality trichotomy in DA2 meant that Hawke developed a personality without your express permission anyway. To say nothing of the number of times the PCs of both games would talk without you selecting an option beforehand.

I expect Dragon Age III to have the same issues.

I suspect it will as well. I don't really want a voiced protagonist either. It NEVER sounds right in my head.

I've essentially grown out of Bioware's games. The writing is hammy and sentimental, the emphasis on your team and the fact they stick to a formula almost every time has grown tiresome with me. I think CDPR is far better with nuanced dialog, world building and C&C. But I'm one of the few who has enjoyed the combat in almost all Bioware games, even DA2 which looked downright silly. DA:I looks to have some fun combat and it's always nice to have classes in a game to play with. I'm also curious to see if Bioware can effectively open up their levels for once. I honestly expect TW3 to be better in most areas but DA:I will likely be a sale purchase for me.

I played the first DA and loved it but the second one I just couldnt get into it. I've never played the Witchers and I didnt realize the new one was a rpg....maybe I'll try it.

If anyone here is getting the Witcher 3 on the Xbox One shoot me a friend request so I can get some help getting started when it releases.

I know nothing about either franchise but I am interested since they are advertising open worlds and >30hrs of game play.

I picked up The Witcher 2 EE from Steam for 3 bucks.

The going is slow because I use a game pad(XB1) and the Witcher 2 game pad controls really svck.

Mouse sensitivity is way too high and the 1-10 adjustment does not work. I guess CD Projekt RED is no Crytek or Bethesda.

So strike 1 against the Witcher series. As for Dragon Age I'll probably do the same thing find it super cheap DA2 and try it.

And before I get any K&M comments. No 3rd person only game is worth assuming the postion to use a K&M.

So don't waste your bandwidth telling me to do so.

The first Witcher is rough around the edges and I almost didn't play through it until I realized that my decisions actually have an impact on the world and I love that aspect about the series. The second one is my favorite RPG.

I love open world games so the choice is easy. On top of that, CD Projekt RED's game engine looks superior. I've watched the demo videos of Dragon Age: Inquisition and there seemed to be lag when new areas were being entered.