Dragon Age II

WARNING : You will likely not understand any of this post if you have not played Dragon Age.

Well, I got Dragon Age II the day it came out and it ate my life but I knew it was going to.

My overall feeling on the game was super happy fun feelings. The storyline was very different to Dragon Age Origins which isn't a bad thing. Dragon Age Origins was the epic story dealing with an end of world scenario crossing the massive country of Ferelden. It was a story of kings, queens, betrayal and an epic battle against the Arch Demon.

Dragon Age II is more the story of a single person rising up from nothing to become the hero of Kirkwall and help change the world more than the Blight ever did. It looks like it'll be the biggest change since Andraste marched upon the Tevinter Imperium and created the chantry.

I am very intrigued to see what they come up with for the downloadable content.

The combat system I haven't fully explored yet but the mage combat has much improved. I can actually whack stuff with my staff and the levelling up system is much easier to work out too. I also enjoy the fully voiced character :D

Now, excuse me while I go play a new Dragon Age game as a rogue.

Faffing About again!

I now have 5 days off work, I plan on use most of the time to decorate the spare room but today is just a 'meh' day. Meh days are days spent watching tv, eating and playing videogames, I feel they are a good beginning to a 5 day weekend :D

Today I think I'll dedicate to the 90's like I did my evening last night. I had a whole lot of fun listening to Oasis, drinking a glass of white wine and playing Super Mario 3 and 4. I kept dying right enough but I did find it fun!

The old Nintendo games are still harder than most games you play now. New games are more complicated story wise but in the old days it was just diabolical. I still cannot complete super mario 1 and I think i've only seen the end level once in 25 years...

I get quite annoyed with it lol.

Later this evening I'll also be working on drawing. Drawing is a good passtime, might do a second posting, see how i feel later. :D

Bioware Fangirl - Does tricks for EXP

Mass Effect & Dragon Age.

My two favorite games right now. Currently I'm playing Mass Effect 2. I think I'm about half way through the game so far and I am both amazed and awed by the size, beauty and complexity of this game. You feel like this world really exists, codex entries giving background information on every race you meet that I personally have read through for hours on end.

I love the character development and how the decisions you take in Mass Effect & Dragon Age have far reaching consequences into both the later stages of the game and even the next in the series. I found myself sitting for about 20 minutes last night agonising over a decision for one of the characters in my team. Do I play the Renegade or Paragon option (good or evil?) and what would I do in this situation?

Honestly, I eventually just closed my eyes and picked an option. Turned out to be a good option! All happy in the world of the Normandy (my ship for those that don't know)

I also had a revelation that made my jaw hit the floor (if anyone in the know is reading, I'll just say... the collectors.) I honestly was so shocked at the information presented to me I felt like I had been just told some real world bad news... Dragon Age made me feel like that too.

Another game that gave me real emotion was Fable II but mostly it was just fury at how cheap I felt after the End Game.

Anyway yeah, no doodles tonight, just some random musings and RAVING about ME2 if anyone has the ability to get this game (or Dragon Age - Ramblings on that due in MARCH BABY!) you should invest some money in the game and all the mission DLC.

In other news: I need a phrase to end my posts. Just leaving off seems odd. Lets go for the ever faithful:

Have a Nice Day Now :)

General Musings!

I've been spending today cleaning and clearing out stuff in my spare room and bedroom. My other half is planning to move here in May and so that kind of means she needs space to put her stuff. Its amazing how much crap you get over 25 years. It's even more amazing when you're living with your parents!

So yeah, loads of toys got given to charity today, I found my old Game Cube, I'm going to put it in the spare room for my Niece to play with. I'm sure she'll appreciate it, it's got Legend of Zelda (She's four  but she's my padawan).

Speaking of Legend of Zelda;

This is the picture I was doing of link when I went looking for pictures of his hat :P

Bioware ate my soul

Late blog post, I am bio-aware. (heh, that's funny to me anyway)

Lets see what can be blamed for this amazing phenomenon? Could it be work? Food? A good book? No, it was none of these things. What happened was, I was innocently walking down the street and then a huge vampire came and attacked me. Said something about being pathetic and needy... I figured, "hey, I want my vampires to be scary and like 'grrr'" So I called Buffy and she totally sorted out the situation leaving me to play Mass Effect...

Oh drat, I just gave the game away.

In preparation for 11th of March (Day of Reckoning, Day of Procrastination... hell maybe I should have saved my 2 days holiday for then...) I have been powering my way through Mass Effect 1 and am about to begin Mass Effect 2. I would like to have both of these complete by mid feburary so I can begin Dragon Age again... you know... in case I forgot what happened after I played it for 11 months straight. (I'm only not playing it now because I made my brother take it away, to another house.)

He said he'd give it back, I said he should keep it until I need it or nothing else will get played.

My thoughts on the first Mass Effect  upon a second play through remain the same. Good game, good characters, fun shooting action. I hate the biotic powers, I can't use them properly, I'm more of a "Lets go in and SHOOT THEM ALL!!!" kind of gamer than then "Ooh, lets hang back and helpfully throw people around".

Even in Dragon Age my mages are all armed to the teeth. I'd give them lasers if I could and a tank maybe? Also, can't beat a good heavy suit of armor. And sharks... ooh, sharks with lasers!

Anyway, this blog post, fun as it is, is not Mass Effect 2 so, I'm gonna go play that and will give more detailed musings on Friday once I've gotten through a bit of it!

Sonic the Deadhog

Last night I couldn't think about what I wanted to write today, then I mentioned to my other half that I was maybe gonna write about Sonic. She said "Oh?". I think she's sorry she asked, I went on a bit of a rant and realised I had a lot to say!

Sonic The Hedgehog was a staple of my childhood. When I was young and was growing up with my brother, he was a Mario fan and always had a nintendo, I was always a Sonic fan and had a Sega system. Whatever the new ones were we bugged our parents for it for Christmas.

I have really fond memories of the Sonic games. The first one is basic but I still find it really hard (I have a Sonic Mega Collection disk for my Wii/Gamecube). It's still really bright and I found the art in it much prettier than the Mario games, especially when you compare the original Mario to the original Sonic.

The second game introduced Tails, a fun sidekick that had the ability to fly, not that you could control this flight but it was still fun to be able to team up with my brother at the same time and beat the bad guys.

Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles and the ability to have Tails fly and, shock! A save game!! I was so thrilled when I got that game, I remember being so excited with the idea I didn't need to sit and play that game from start to finish in one go, I could play a  bit, go to bed, continue the next day.

Things were good even in the first Sonic Adventure game on the Dreamcast. It was a fun game if not the most amazing storyline or voice acting (The voice acting was very, very bad. Sometimes I wanted to stab forks into my ears to make it stop.) but the levels were fast and it still felt like a proper Sonic Game.

After that it began to go a little downhill, the second Sonic Adventure game took out the free roaming section and just had it as a level to level game. That wasn't so bad as that's how all the old sonic games were. What really upset me is Sonic and the Secret Rings.

I get that they wanted to go into a new direction with the games because it was a new console. But they went so far down a stupid route it made my brain hurt. I felt like in Sonic and the Secret Rings, they're using the motion sensor in the wii remote because they feel they need to use it for something.


What really bugged me is Sonic constantly runs and you use the remote to steer (Like a steering wheel) to steer him left and right. You tilt it backwards or forwards to make him speed up or stop/slow down. Its really clunky and the Wii motion sensor doesn't seem sensitive enough to me to pull that off without making you want to throw the remote at the TV.  I hate there's no way to pick how you wanna control it.

I understand they wanted to try something different, but Super Mario did something different for the Wii and brought out the amazing Super Mario Galaxy. You used the traditional controls on the wii remote/nunchuck and used the motion sensor to do some small things.  A much better use of the console controls rather than using the motion sensor exclusively just because they happen to be there.

I hope the next Sonic Game (After "Sonic and the Black Knight") is way better.

I would like to be in charge of the Sonic Team, I think I'd like to find out who made Sonic and the Black Knight and shoot him/her before they do more damage. Whats next? Sonic and The Great Gatsby? Sonic and the Merry Men? Or, more probably, Sonic and the Twilight Saga!

God I'm gonna go shoot myself.

Title: Super Flat Mario!

So, I've been contemplating recently the way Video Games have changed over the years. The thing that really brought it home to me was when my 4 year old niece saw me playing an old Super Mario game and said “Why is that flat?”

I was somewhat scandalised, I mean, it's not like she's never seen a 2d game before, she plays them on her mum's DS but it was just the complete shock on her face because she's played Mario on my Wii usually and it's Super Mario Galaxy and here was Mario as flat as a pancake.

She sat with me and played it once I explained that it was a game from when I was a little girl, she laughed and said “That was a long time ago!”

I'm only 25... but oh well I suppose 25 to a 4 year old is quite ancient. We played it for a half hour and said she had to go do something else. I followed her into my dad's room where she said “Granda, can I play your Xbox?”

There she was, 4 years old, playing my dad's Xbox kicking butt on one of the Shrek games. She then declared my Mario Game as crap...I wonder sometimes what the world is coming to. I suppose at least she likes the old Sonic games.

I remember being completely fascinated by the Atari games, but I remember when I was about 5, maybe 6, my brother Hugh got his first Super Nintendo. I remember thinking after that “Wow it's so cool compared to the Atari” and all the games of the Nes/Super Nes/Genesis era are my 'classic games'

Its funny how now the same thing happens with my niece. Classic super Mario is pants to her like the Atari was to me, her classic games when she's older will be Super Mario Galaxy and Shrek 2. I wonder what she'll be fooling around with? My new gadget right now is Kinectimals on the xbox and she's only 4 so, to her that's not new, it's just always going to have been there.

I was born in 1985 and I've seen it go from Green Screen technology to 3D motion sensor capture. I can't wait to see what games my niece will be talking to her friends about when she's 25.