Let me start out by stating rather emphatically that Dragon Age origins has bugs.
it has a lot of bugs.
and no, not the kind you fight in game.
on the bright side, the bugs in DAO are not not terribly severe for the most part.

Hmm... let me say this now: Dragon Age is locked into my all time favorite RPGs right up there, making my #1 position now a three way split between Dragon age, mass effect (yes i consider this an RPG, not a shooter), and baldurs gate 2.

for those of you expecting Mass Effect with swords and magic instead of spaceships and mass drivers, DAO might be a fuzz of a letdown. the game is real time third person with anytime pausing (for plannings and plottings), but the camera angle has a full range of movement plus a semi-fixed overhead cam that comes in handy for planning an ambush.
unlike a LOT of similar games *cough*NEVERWINTERNIGHTSTWO*/cough* this game has working, functional stealth and allows the division of the party over fairly large area.
it also has traps in absurd variety that can be planted by your properly trained rogue all over in those tricky hallways and chokepoints where you KNOW the raging hordes of the damned are about to come streaming out at you.

(story is at the bottom and its why i will treasure this game forever)

Graphics: 9/10 paws up.
*This game is freakin' gorgeous (i run at full settings).
*the only bugs i found are the automatic fullbody blood spatter looking a bit too generic and unsmeared, and a tendency for opacity mapped surfaces to disrupt the distance blur.
*the visuals are quite honestly frequently stunning. (im not counting those 2d cutout crowd animations in the Proving Hall)

Audio: 10/10 paws up.
*the music is perfect to the mood and setting, and as with mass effect it makes those inspiring moments just make your heart ache with pride/honor/horror/other emotions.
*the sound effects are surprisingly well done as well.

Voiceover: 10/10 paws up.
this isnt a normal part of my reviews, but for dragonage it had to be included. the voicacting gives the game an amazing touch of reality. Tim Curry played an absolutely PERFECT Arl Howe, and the touching "I love you" from the PCs cousin in the elven alienage (city elf origin) was the first time i have ever heard a character in a game say it as if they meant it (in a familial way).
the voicacting made the game for me.

AI: 5/10 paws up.
ACK! Blargh! Glurk!
okay... i could have rated this higher, i really could have and i wanted to, but sometimes when the player controlled character is detached from the rest of the party (say to sneak over and disarm a trap or plant one) the computer controlled members... well... every so often they forget to react to things... like being attacked. they just... stand there.
this problem is not terribly common, but every once in a while the AI goes bonky enough to cause cats-trophy.

Stability: 8/10 - 4/10 paws up.
?Que? whyfor are you making confusiness for us kitty?
I bought the game by box at a store. it works great. load times start getting a bit long and i start risking a CtD after around 8-12 hours of gameplay, but MOST OF THE TIME it remains stable.
the lower score is for the other sources of the game and the online content. steam and D2D have had positively nightmarish problems making the game even install correctly, let alone run, and the toolset still isnt working for some people who used the online loader systems.
also, the online system incorporated for the expanded bonus content (and a necessity to get the toolset or the toolset wiki) are notoriously unstable, unreliable, and the forum search... still does not work.
the online stuff (particularly registration codes) are were the majority of the early problems were. most of this was caused by problems with Steam and D2D.

and now for whats one of the most important parts to kitty...
Story: 15/10 paws up.
the story dragged me through it, sometimes charging ahead with entropy spells and magic wards flying, other times kicking and screaming, and at a few points it made me cry.
the ending portions of the game i was forced to make several freaking HARD choices, and the results of a couple of them were heart wrenching.
i cried.
literally.
by the time i faced off with the archdemon i wanted that thing dead so bad it hurt.
of all the games i have ever played, this one had what i believe to be the best story(s). Ever. Period.

butbutbut... they removed the full frontal nudity and a few of the sex scenes!! why does kitty li-
THIS GAME DOESNT NEED SEX TO BE AWESOME! (although those frilly white undies that replaced the nudity just look kinda silly...)

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Next stop, more dragonage, and i just got my mittens on a copy of Jericho for $4.