This post, or lack thereof, is brought to you by Dragon Age: Origins. If you've been following me for a while, you probably already know I have an incredible weakness for computer role playing games, especially those developed by BioWare. Well, last week I discovered that Dragon Age: Origins had been released and I had my posterior in Best Buy and a copy of the game in my hot little hands faster than you can say "Magic Missile".
I wasn't really expecting it to suck me in and refuse to let go like it has. I can't remember the last time a game kept me up until 3 in the morning. The graphics may be a little dated (compared to current first person shooters) but the story is spectacular and the non-player characters, their dialog and interactions, in a word, are incredible. My mage is not the only one who has a serious crush on Alistair... (I dare almost anyone to play this game and not wish that he wasn't just made up of cute electrons!)
The game is incredibly expansive and involving... I've played for 30 hours (according to the game clock) and I've only played through 9% of the game. Some of that is because I was playing on my elderly laptop which can just barely play the game. Bless my sweet husband who actually let me put it on his home theatre PC where the graphics card is much better and the performance much improved (I can play it at highest resolution with all the graphics goodies turned up) -- I should be able to move a bit more faster... though this game is, I think, going to be like one of those good books that I don't really want to end.
Sad as it may sound, knitting has been pretty low on my priority list since this game arrived. I have darkspawn to slay, a world to unite and intrigue to uncover...
(Don't worry... I'm sure my character has her +5 addi turbos along to keep her company and won't let me forget that I have a few real life projects to work on).
Thank you to everyone who left me such nice comments about Z's new sweater and Z herself. As I've said many times, I'm pretty fond of that baby girl. Knitting special things for her is a pleasure!
Normally, or rather before we had kids I would lay next to DH while he plays and would knit. I love the "movies" that run through out most video games and my husband rubs my neck or something when they run. It's a fun way to bond for us. I prefer PC video games personally and WoW never did it for me and I don't have time for video games now, but once Rowan starts only waking up once, and going to bed at a set time I'll hopfully get to sit with DH when he plays.
He's playing Dragon Age and Modern Warfare 2 (he loves war games). Finally Fantasy 10 was MY MOST favorite he's ever played! Half Life TWO scared the heck out of me, I played the first 10 minutes of that and was too scared and tense to want to play more lol.
This sounds like John and I before we had Zosia. I watched him play through Half Life 1 and 2 (I agree about the creeping me out thing... if I was playing my blood pressure would skyrocket -- I can't remember the name of the one game I tried... mellow by today's standards, but every time I could sense the creepy crawlies coming after me my heart would race... amazing the physiological responses we can have to these games), Doom (the most recent one, but many of the Quakes as well), Unreal, Far Cry, and Oblivion (John got into this game more than I did because the combat was closer to FPS combat). He has Bioshock sitting around somewhere and I really wish I could convince him to plug that one in and play it... I really miss those hanging out on the couch sharing video game times. I liked to see where the stories went and I really liked seeing the graphics technology progress.
You might suggest (if he hasn't already played it) that he try out Portal -- that game is FPS in style, but really a puzzle game with a strange sense of humor. We both loved watching that game and trying to figure things out.
Dragon Age is a blast to watch (John actually sat with me some last night as I played through it -- a first for him with a game like this) if you can convince Rowan to sleep more for you!
While I love the RPG style games (though I'm mostly in table top games and not computer games) I have a stupid weakness for puzzle games. I can waste hours on those things.
Oh Bejeweled (or Maelstrom), I'll be right there!
Long long ago when the earth was green and dinosaurs walked the earth and no one knew what the 3rd edition rules were, I played table top D&D. I wish I knew people who were doing some table top gaming. I think it would be a fun way to exercise the ol' creative brain cells again!
Ah yes, we share the same current obsession. My Dalish Elf Rogue successfully "romanced" Alistair. He's talking about marriage! :) Very cute. I'm loving the game. I'm playing it on my Xbox 360 which may be a different experience but I love it! I'll play through this game more than once guaranteed.
This morning, I finished up the Mage Tower section, got back to camp and Alistair gave me the rose (I'm intentionally trying to be vague here so as not to spoil it for anyone). I love his dialogs. So well written (and voice acted) to suck women in -- in a good way. I'm looking forward to all the inter-party banter that is supposed to start up as this romance progresses. I'm playing a city elf mage... I'd like to go back through it with a human noble female (probably rogue -- I never find it all that interesting to level up fighter characters) so that I can see some of the endings that I hear are unavailable to non-human characters vis a vis Alistair.
I am so bad with console controllers... we have an Xbox 360, but I couldn't even consider it there. Fortunately, it looks pretty stunning now that John is letting me play on the computer with the spiffy graphics card.
I'm not a gamer, but that just may suck me in.
Nice thing about this game, the combat isn't really in real time, so you can stop and think about battles. Spell effects are fabulous and fun (if you've got a good graphics card) and the story and characters make you want to keep moving to find out what is going to happen next -- I don't think you have to be a gamer to like this game, especially since the character creation and development system is also much easier to navigate than games based off of D&D rules.
We bought it for the xbox. DH went pretty much straight through it (playing a female mage) and his romance quest was a bit different from yours :)
I'm not nearly as coordinated but my male dwarven fighter isn't causing me any control problems. Of course, I pretty much let the AI determine what to do in a fight. And I haven't gotten very far - I'm in the very first village you encounter.
I've got pretty serious motion sickness issues and this game isn't bothering me too much so far. I can't play long and I have to be careful watching DH play. But I'm really enjoying the story and gameplay.
Quake and Doom are completely out of the question for me. Interestingly, I can play Diablo II, I suppose because it's not first person and very simple animation. That's what I turn to when I need some mindless hack/slash!