All I'm hoping for is better level design, more joinable factions with C&C and a lot more side quests.

IMO, those three things would have made Dragon Age 2 a great game.

Originally Posted by rossrjensen
Weren't they talking about doing something more "open world" before, ala Skyrim?

No, an article quoted Ray Muzyka or someone as saying they were playing Skyrim or taking cues from it or something, but they specifically said they would not do any open world games.