Starting a Bioware game is deadly to your free time. To mine, anyway.
I played through Dragon Age: Origins for the first time last November, didn’t eat, drink, sleep, just kept playing until I was done. I got to the end out of breath and exhausted, but with the blood of the archdemon on my twin blades and the taint of the darkspawn simmering in my veins.
All those saved games were lost. But playing a rogue through the first time was only one story, and to get ready to play the expansion pack, Dragon Age: Awakenings (and to anticipate Dragon Age 2), I decided to replay the game and make some different choices.
Each different race/class combination has its own, semi-unique, origin story. Human and elf mages share an origin in the insular Circle of Magi, where all budding mages are sent to find their place as either the tools or the prey of the Templars. Your dwarf can either be from the underclass or of the nobility; your human can be from the slums or the castle; your elf can be from the ghetto or the forest. All stories do converge once your are pulled from your old life by Duncan, the Warden-Commander of the Gray Wardens. The Wardens are a mystically bound order tasked with defending the surface world from the depredations of the Darkspawn, twisted creatures formed, says legend, from the mortals who invaded and tainted the Golden City of the Maker. With the Maker departed, his prophet and bride Andraste long ago dead, murdered, and the land on the edge of civil war, an Arch Demon has arisen to lead the Darkspawn on a Blight — an invasion of the surface world.
Through the choices you make along the way, your adventure will bring you along roughly three different paths, once through the origin. Being helpful, kind, upholding the law and never making deals with the evil spirits of the Fade, you will follow the good path. Be self-serving and make deals to your benefit, and you follow the path of evil. Chart a middle course and nobody will really be that happy with you, but on the other hand, their expectations will be low. No matter what path you choose, your overall goal remains the same — defeat the archdemon and prevent the Blight — but your reasons may change.
Other Games
Non-MMO games.
Doctor Who Adventures: Metal Gear Dalek
Coolest place in the galaxy? Well, if you’re in 1963, the coolest place in the galaxy is Cardiff, Wales London, England. And if you’re NOT in 1963, you’ll probably need a time machine of some sort if you ever want to meet John Lennon Ringo Starr just when he was getting started. If you’re Amy Pond, you’ve managed to ditch your hand-gun hubby and go off on an exciting trip through time and space to soak in all the fun and excitement Trafalgar Square has to offer.
Did you know that the statue of Lord Nelson was forged from the melted guns of defeated French ships? That there are 8000 double decker buses rolling the streets of London? That the Chinese invented paper? That hackneys have been a London fixture for decades? No? As you dodge Daleks at the end of time, you’ll find out many fascinating things you slept through in grammar school.
Oh, the Daleks? Yes, well… there’s been an incident, and the Daleks — mutant cyborg creatures in salt-shaker shells — have killed all humans (except for one) (well, two if you count Amy) (well, one and a half, if you count Amy) (well, now we’re down to one half).
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning = God of War?
38 Studios and Big Huge Games released the first cinematic trailer for their Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning at the San Diego ComicCon yesterday. It’s hard to get a sense for the game based solely upon its cinematic trailer. Videos like this aren’t supposed to be acquainting you with the UI and the gameplay, but for … Read more
Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale
If I could, I’d be playing Recettear right now. (It’s pronounced Reh-keh-teer, not RACKETEER! How could you even think such a thing?) It’s only out as a demo right now, and I’ve played the heck out of that. Now and again you come across a game that turns the whole standard RPG tropes on their … Read more
Les Miserables — the video game
A couple of weeks ago, Glee featured Lea Michele and Idina Menzel doing a duet with Fantine’s haunting anthem from Les Miserables, “I Dreamed a Dream”. That brought me back twenty years to when I couldn’t get enough of the musical; I ended up seeing it twice while it was in San Francisco, and then … Read more