Okay, I verified my game files in Origin, updated my video driver, and updated my operating system; then, I rebooted.
I managed to get from "clicking to start the game" to "look at me, I'm the Herald of Andraste!" in five minutes, so that's a success there, even if I'm not sure how it happened!
Then, lightning did something with the power lines and my computer died, and I left it unplugged for about four hours. Then, I managed to get the game to load in six minutes, and transitioned from the Hinterlands to Haven in about a minute.
So ... I guess whatever's wrong is fixed now?
It is hard to say. But I won't be asking for a refund, at least.
Oh, and thank you for your advice, both of you who replied!
Six minutes to load the game is still very long, but if a lightning strike did improve overall load times, then I think you should indeed be grateful for this divine intervention. (My money's on Zeus.)
I have a Predator helios 300 i5 7300HQ GTX 1050ti and i have extreme long loading times more than 20 minutes i just started the game and after almost 1h couldn't even played just passed the choosing character head and name and then the cutscene after the spiders chase and here i go again for another black loadning screen for who knows how much time
