Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s latest trailer is one of the best shows the game has ever had. BioWare should have been leading with this months ago.

I've said this before and I will say it again: Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a game I am confident in and I won't be ashamed to defend. BioWare has had a string of lean years. Yes, the studio has seen a number of high-profile departures. Larian and CD Projekt are the ones who have eaten BioWare for lunch. Yes, the first trailers were a little off. I always thought the game was solid despite all of that. But, goddamn, EA and BioWare would have avoided a lot more doubt if they had led with something like today's trailer for The Veillguard official reveal in June.

The PCG team unanimously agreed that this video felt more Dragon Age compared to anything we've seen so far of The Veilguard. The surprise return by Claudia Black as Morrigan links The Veilguard with the rest of series. I think that more than anything, this video helps us understand more about the game. This latest trailer delivers core samples from the game, rather than a contextless rundown of characters we haven't formed an attachment to.

And I like what's I'm seeing. The foppish necromancer companion appears to have a sick Necropolis level with him, complete a giant skeleton baddy right out of Dark Souls 3! The Black City, which has been a mainstay of Dragon Age codex entries and skyboxes for 16 years, is also a great place for lore-sickos to chew. This could be our first glimpse at the interior of the Black City. I love the sheer variety in fantasy environments. We have at least two more urban environments beside Minrathous. There are also autumnal elven ruin, a rocky dessert zone, and many others. It reminds me a lot of Dragon Age: Inquisition, with its eclectic world. But according to the developers The Veilguard will not have Inquisition’s MMO-style bloat.

This would have been a much better first impression than what we saw back in June. Even the game's characters, who were the focus of the first reveal trailer, look better in this version. They're introduced more organically, with small snippets that show how you interact with them within the game.

This latest trailer ends on a pleasant surprise: A release date of October 31. This is a bit earlier than EA had projected at the beginning of the month. I was expecting something by mid-November. We won't be able to tell for sure until the game is in our hands. But a pro-Veilguard feeling is growing in our collective subconscious.