Yay, a new year!

...Only like six days late, right? No, seven...Well, obviously I haven't been paying attention to the time, eh? Well, that's probably because I haven't been in school have been suffering through so much Dragon Age: Origins, a game that has seen nothing but praise and...well, more praise. Honestly, I can't imagine how anyone would like such a game. It's a horrible, awful game!

Oh, and I've gotten my tablet back, so I should use it...so you'll get to see how terrible this game is with visual aids.

So from the start, this game has a lack of creativity. You can play as a human, elf, or dwarf. So that leaves only two choices because playing as human is horribly boring, why would I want to roleplay as me? And then you can be a - hold your breath at this creativity here folks - warrior, mage, or rogue. From there you get your (pretty much) pre-determined opening, but damn, why can't I be a city elf as a mage? Yes, yes, lore, but having six distinct openings is very limited when you like to play as, say, a mage. And when only one of those openings is the mage opening.

*Actual game graphics.

After you complete your "origin" story (which doesn't seem to have very much of an effect on the rest of the game, as well), you go on to become a Grey Warden through a series of SPOILERS. In fact, talking about anything related to the game would probably be a gigantic SPOILER, but let me tell you that story is pretty much YOU are the ONLY ONE who can SAVE THE WORLD. So instead, I'm going to talk about the combat.

You have a group of four at your disposal after a decent ways into the game. So...at it's very basics, the game is an RTS. Which means it's...not very basic. Now uh, I never got the tactics screen explained to me. I couldn't even find the damn thing for a long time. Turns out it was a "Hey, hit this button you don't normally hit in a menu to get to it at this very specific screen!". And, lemme tell you, the 360 version of this game is not very intuitive at you controlling all of your groups members at once. In conclusion...combat is complete balls until you get past a steep learning curve. Compared to Mass Effect's controls, it's a lot less intuitive.

Yeah, combat sucks.

So besides all of that, there's really only one thing to consider in this mess of a game. Dialogue. Lots and lots of dialogue.

You get some options regarding the text which basically include ", , or ". At least they're not always arranged in the same order, like they were in Mass Effect, but really, besides those options, the options are GET MORE BACKSTORY. So you can expect to spend a whole lot of time hearing about shit you couldn't really care less about. And then you'll have to listen to each of your group mates backstories because you want them to like you so they get MASSIVE stat bonuses. Not only that but you'll have to shower these guys with gifts. And honestly how do you figure out which gifts they do and do not like? It's almost like Bioware expected you to pay attention when they puked out their life's story at you.

And yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. Don't pick this game up, it sucks, it's hard to figure out, and it's boring. Thankfully, I've gotten a better game to play, Assassin's Creed II, that I can write about at an undefined later date.

*Not

Want to tell this author what you think, but you don't want anyone else to see it? Think she's full of it and need to set her straight? Want to worship the ground she walks on? Well, good luck with that last one, but you can email Chrys at catharticgamer@yahoo.com and at least tell her what you think.