Woo, another fan! Yeah, I just finished the game recently, and I absolutely loved it. Best thing I've played since Baldur's Gate II. And the Alistair romance was nice, though I did not appreciate him throwing a total b*tchfit and storming off after the Landsmeet, taking all my hard-earned equipment with him :/. I'm thinking about maybe romancing Leliana next playthrough. In general, all the companion interaction in this game is wonderful, though.
The combat was pretty difficult at first, but gets easier once you get the hang of it and make a character with a decent build... my first character was an epic failure, kept dying all the time and finally I decided to start over
. My second character was a city elf rogue (assassin/duelist) and I finished the game on mostly normal difficulty (though switching to easy on difficult fights, I'm lazy
).