{"id":1135,"date":"2011-01-11T13:12:21","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T18:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benie.beniesbuilds.com\/games\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2011-01-11T13:12:21","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T18:12:21","slug":"awakening-completed-my-final-dragon-age-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/2011\/01\/11\/awakening-completed-my-final-dragon-age-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Awakening completed (my final Dragon Age post)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We came, we saw, we kicked all<\/strong><\/em> their asses! Killed The Architect and The Mother.
\nWhy didn’t I agree to help The Architect to “stop all future blights”? I don’t believe him. The only proof I saw was the Messenger who told us Vigil’s Keep will soon be under attack. But that too could had been a trap.
\nHe claimed all he needed was blood from Grey Wardens. Seems far-fetched since we have to drink their blood to become a Grey Warden. How would that work? A mixture of their tainted blood and human blood?
\nI just don’t see how that would work.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I successfully got Vigil’s Keep fully upgraded, and it stood true against the heavy darkspawn assault. I decided to let the city burn and defended the keep, and got criticized for my actions in the Epilogue. But I hope that the Wardens finally brought back peace after rebuilding the city.
\nWhen it comes to what quests are needed to upgrade the keep, turns out all quests that involve Wane making you something aren’t part of it. Getting the walls upgraded and giving your soldiers new gear, is.
\nI finally completed the troublesome “Bombs Away!” quest that I thought was bugged. Now I know there’s three lyrium sands he needs. Funny how the number “3” is used alot in games.
\nThe other side quests that involved going into The Wending Wood\/Silverite Mine got completed as they should in Vigil’s Keep, and surprisingly I ran into only one bug in The Wending Wood which I was able to fix easily. No bugs in the Silverite Mine due to taking the advice of the wiki and getting off everything I was wearing before entering the mine. Had quite alot of trouble in there without my gear (thought it was bugged when I once read one of the Experimental Subjects has everyone’s gear, and I never saw mine). But I found it as the wiki told me in a chest.
\nThe merchant selling his goods to the darkspawn, he was only able to trade during then. Talking to him in Vigil’s Keep and he doesn’t trade. So I need to remember to go to him and sell all the crap I got from the darkspawn corpses I’ve found before getting my gear out, due to my inventory being full constantly.<\/p>\n

I had everything Wane needed for the quest “Worked to the Bone”, but thanks to The Architect taking all of my shit, I lost two key items to make the weapon and never got them back.
\nAlso, Ander’s kitty (aka “Ser Pounce-A-Lot<\/a>“), is also gone. Not like he could keep him anyway due to no freeplay.<\/p>\n

But now I see why there isn’t any freeplay in the Dragon Age series (the thought hit when I was reading the Epilogue about you). The Grey Wardens are only there to deal with any darkspawn threat (that doesn’t involve going into the Deep Roads). Without the darkspawn, the Grey Wardens are pretty much… out of work, and have nothing to do. So, why bother staying at the keep? It’s possible he went in search for Morrigan (which is in the Witch Hunt DLC) to thank her for saving his life.
\nBut that’s their one mission in life after being part of the Joining. Defeating the darkspawn.
\nIt will be another 400 years (four centuries) until they rise again (the sixth Blight). So do you really expect all your companions and the player character to live that long? By then there will be a new age of Grey Wardens, ready to defeat the archdemon. And the cycle repeats forever. Forever “cursed” with the darkspawn threat. .. Wow. That’s heavy.
\nThis is why there’s no freeplay.<\/p>\n

But at least now, if I was to play Origins and Awakening on my second playthrough, to make sure to NOT sell the Grandmaster Flame Rune, and the Grandmaster Lightning Rune (from Origins) as both are needed for Awakening.<\/p>\n

.
\nSo. What am I going to do now that I’ve completed (can’t say “beaten” since I used a trainer for both) both Origins and Awakening? I might get Dragon Age II when it comes out in February.
\nI may go back to Wurm, or WoW. Or even try to trust Notch with Minecraft. Not sure right now.<\/p>\n

Do I wish I gotten it sooner? Actually I’m glad I waited for this Ultimate Edition to go on sale. I don’t feel it was worth $40. More like $20. But then again I guess I’m not much of an RPGer.
\nSeveral turn-offs affect this;
\n* Memory leaks that lead to studdering gameplay and long-ass load times.
\n* Origins has no way to respec your char, but Awakening does.
\n* The confusing, sudden, forced story that you must<\/strong> understand and remember to play the game right. Apparently you were supposed to play the previous Dragon Age games.
\n* Forced to craft in Awakening to complete three quests.
\n* No Freeplay… ehh.. not sure to list this as a turn-off.
\n* “Grey Wardens sure do alot of walking.” ~Sigrun
\n* Just like Mass Effect, the last name of the player character cannot be changed.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the turn-ons;
\n* Epic boss dragon fights, better than the ones in WoW (the High Dragon especially).
\n* Game is offline, and has a trainer. God Mode FTW! \ud83d\ude00
\n* Player character doesn’t talk (except when in combat), allowing you to “supply the voice” of the character. That slightly bugged me in Mass Effect 1 and 2 and made me think I’m not the character I’m playing (I like interaction).
\n* Companions aren’t weakened or die easily in the Final Battle if you fail to get their approval ratings up with them, unlike in Mass Effect 2 where they are.
\n* The plot is straight forward with both Origins and Awakening, and is pretty good.
\n* WoW-like boss fights (the Archdemon<\/a> in particular when she goes in an area you can’t access once at 50% health), with a shitload of gear when defeating one (exception of the High Dragon in the Dragonbone Wastes in Awakening that drops a single item).
\n* Hilarious companion conversations in Awakening, such as Oghren making fun of Anders (Oghren: “Oh no, big templar man! What are you going to do with that sword?”).<\/p>\n

So that’s about it. Next time I make a Dragon Age post will be when I get my hands on Dragon Age II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We came, we saw, we kicked all their asses! Killed The Architect and The Mother. Why didn’t I agree to help The Architect to “stop all future blights”? I don’t believe him. The only proof I saw was the Messenger … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pc-game-reviews-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benies-blogs.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}