Dragon Age: Inquisition screenshots offer a first look at some new areas

Bioware are teasing some of the new areas set to debut in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Their latest blog post offers a brief tour of the snowy cliffs of Emprise du Lion and the overgrown forests of The Emerald Graves—showing off some beautiful scenes of camps, wilderness and icy desolation. Also: a bloody great big dragon.

Interestingly, it sounds like those exploring the area will be able to avoid some of the more difficult encounters. "You may not be a high enough level to take down everything you'll encounter at first, but you can sneak around and continue your exploration. When you are strong enough, however, this is exactly the kind of place you'll want to come back and do battle in search of better loot."

Emprise du Lion, meanwhile, sounds less freeform in its design. "There is still a lot of exploration to be had ... but there is a core story element that drives you there."

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.