@Iron - Wow, what a crazy episode of Walking Dead last night! I wasn't as moved as a lot of people seemed to be, but I was pretty impressed with how well it was shot. Also, interesting to see how the group is coping after the mid-season finale. And, of course, it's always great to see Michonne get to kick some zombie ass, haha.
@Viva - You should definitely play Tomb Raider as soon as you finish up with Watch Dogs! I was kinda afraid going into it that because Lara is young and inexperienced they'd turn her into a wimp, but they did a really good job of balancing the natural reaction to being shiprecked on a weird island and giving Lara the mental fortitude to push herself through a terrible situation because no one is coming to save her. I was also impressed with the art design. The island itself is just gorgeous, but they finally remembered that back in the day the classic TRs were creepy and they brought that into the reboot with some creepy and gruesome areas. The combat is solid and they give ya lots of areas to navigate and explore for treasure. I feel like the optional tombs could've been a bit better, they were all pretty simple and small, but hopefully they improve on that for the sequel.
That's awesome! What kind of characters does he play as? My Dad doesn't play any video games, but if he did, he'd probably like X-Com and Civilization.
Hahaha, age-gate! I need an adult! The Fallowed Mire is my favorite area in the game. I remember when I first went there it was late at night and I was wanted to pop in to see what it was like. Three hours later I finally pried the controller out of hand and went to bed. I was hooked the second the level loaded, haha. It was just kinda a typical scary swamp, but it was so well executed. Bioware did such a good job with the rain and the random lightning strikes giving it this cool spooky atmosphere. I loved all the little clues they left in the abandoned shacks and trying to piece together what had happened to these people. The going into the water triggering zombies to pop up was such a cool, creepy touch too.
Ubisoft can be pretty good at creating interesting leads, which makes the creation of Pearce such a letdown. I'd love for em to do a AAA woman led game, but the AC series has had a pretty wide range of personalities and backgrounds. And Ubisoft's digital games like Child of Light and Valiant Hearts are pretty cool. I'm really pumped for the upcoming sidescroller AC game where you get to play as a woman assassin in China in the 1500's. Not sure where Watch Dogs went so wrong. Have you played Black Flag? That game was so awesome and a tragic story done right.
@Rogue - Haha, that's not a Dalish being pretentious. That's someone struggling with grief that their precious loved one is dead and you're sullying their memory by claiming they were mixed up in something as controversial as blood magic. I just told them that the guy was dead, since I don't think they needed to know about the blood magic, and got approval. I got the approval for the guy to join the Inquisition pretty easy with approval to spare. The only tricky quest was where you had to go to the grave yard and fight these bad guys. I looted a bunch of the graves there and the Keeper called me out on dishonoring the dead, which made me feel like such an a-hole that I reloaded and redid the fight.
You might've taken your characters beyond miserable, haha. I'm pretty sure all the backgrounds have some tragedy in them, so it's not like a noble has it on easy street. In the end, you all go through the same battles, face the same challenges, and same struggles. The darkspawn aren't gonna give up and lay down because the Warden was born in a nice house instead of a slum, haha. But different strokes for different folks. I suppose it feels weird to me to like an origin based purely on their wealth or lack their of.
I don't think I connected with Alistair as much as you did, so it was a pretty easy decision. I like Alistair, but no way I'd let anything happen to my Hawke. I wonder if book-Aveline is as terrible at romance the real version, haha. Bioware missed a great opportunity at putting in some chapters of Swords and Shields into the codex, similar to the Hard in Hightown chapters. You mean, assuming you can make a male Inquisitor ya like this time, haha. I've sen the scenes on youtube, but I wasn't really into the Sera romance. It's cute, but I suppose I'm not into her character as much as you guys are. I still have to check out the Cullen stuff, but I'm not really into. I was really hoping for a Varric romance option, but then I met the real Bianca and now I just wanna help the two of them be happy. The history there was just so sad.
Did you talk to Bull after you killed a dragon? He has an, uh, unusual reaction. I was tempted to go Tempest cause the special potions seemed fun and I use Varric a lot, who is an artificer, but went after the cool focus power. I didn't use Solas much, but he had some cool specialization powers, like he can create his own rift and he has stone fist and veil punch. Dorian was kinda the weakest specialization for mages, which is a shame cause I use him so much. The walking bomb is cool, but not as cool as Solas's powers or Viv with the full party heal and magic sword.
I'm not sure if Lucius would've ended up in power had Lambert not mysteriously disappeared and the world being as crazy as it is. Cass mentions that Lucius used to be a good man, maybe he only got wrapped up in the world ending cult because of the Divine's death and thought it was a sign. It's not really mentioned in-game how he came to power and when he went crazy. Might be something covered in the Dragon Age books.
Yeah, there's options to have Briala and Celine get back together as a couple and rule together as well as convincing all three parties to work together, though not sure if Briala and Celine get together in that scenario. To get Briala back with Celine, you have to break into Celine's personal vault and steal the ring that Briala had given her as a gift then show it to Briala and Celine's three advisor ladies. Then at the end I told Celine that Briala had helped us stop Gaspard and they made up. I think to have a three way rule, you just have to get blackmail on everyone and show that they're all guilty and need to put their differences aside. I have a feeling my Inquisitor was a little bit better at playing The Game then yours was, haha. How well did you score in the end? Who did you bring to the party besides Sera? I brought Sera, since I heard she makes funny comments, Cass, and Viv, who I felt like would be the best at handling this situation. Cass was pretty funny when they started going through her dozens of middle names, haha. Sera and Cass have hilarious party banter about that afterwards. I wanna bring Varric next time though, I heard that he stumbles across some fans of his books.
Haha, Leliana playing probably wouldn't have been fair for anyone else. It's such a fun little moment though, with a lot of the cast gathered together and just hanging out. Kinda surprised that Varric would've invited Cass, but maybe he liked the idea of taking money from her. I think it's pretty clear she doesn't really know how to play. She's smart enough not to end up like Cullen though. That's funny that you tried to cheap and Cullen beat you. I played it fair and I beat him, haha. My inquisitor felt like it would be an insult to just let Cullen win and is too confident to feel the need to cheat. It sounds like it was more fun when ya cheat though. After you do the Arbor Wilds you'll get to talk to Leliana about becoming Divine and if you encourage her, that will lock her into the role. It'll let you know that you're making the choice the way they usually do it with the "This is important" glow. I picked her for Divine too. I think Cassandra would be an awesome Divine being so passionate and of high morals, but I don't think she'd really like dealing with people and not being able to fight as a warrior anymore. Leliana knows how to deal with people and play The Game while also being idealistic and wanting to make the world better for everyone. And if she's softened, she deals with problems though discussion. But part of it is also me being selfish and not wanting to break up my Inquisitor and Cassandra by making Cass Divine, haha.
I was done with Blackwall the second he copped to turning a blind eye to animal abuse. But I know he was trying to be a better person and make up for his mistakes so I got him out of prison. I still felt like he had to face punishment for his crimes and that if I were to pardon to him it would be abuse of my power to let one of my men off the hook with not even a slap on the wrist. Because he didn't commit the crimes against the Inquisition, I didn't feel I was in the position to decide his fate so I picked the Wardens option since he had been pretending to be a Warden and been using the name of one of their own to hide from his past. Though when you pick that he still sticks around and it isn't until the end of the game does he reveal that they make him an official Warden recruit. So, I guess they showed him mercy and I feel becoming a real Warden is the best possible outcome for him. It was a really hard decision at the time, weighing his redemption with his crimes and whether I even have the right to get him out of jail let alone pardon him. If he had been more up front about it, like Iron Bull, I might feel differently, but he only confessed when his back was against the wall. The Inquisitor has such a position of power at that point I feel it's a lot different than being Hawke or the Warden. The Inquisition is like a nation unto itself. My Inquisitor hates responsibility too, so having to judge people's fate was always uncomfortable for him. I feel like putting the responsibility on the Wardens to pardon Blackwall fits his character so he wouldn't be the one that had to deal with any fallout, haha.
