#i did some chantry board sidequests

[wyllzel]

dao's goofy ken burns sex scene LMAO 😆

[ryttu3k]

Back to Bloodlines! Gotta go see a man about a gargoyle. Sidequests galore!

Back Downtown! First stop is the Chantry, see what Strauss can tell us about gargoyles.

Welp! Sierra’s already decided she’s going to help free this poor fucker. Also, lbr, probably tell Isaac just who created them. I wonder how she’d react if she learned that Gangrel were one of the clans they used to make them...

Checked my email and the first one was Jeanette asking for a booty call XD;;

Goddamn I love The Deb of Night.

SparklingWater wants me to tarnish a restaurant’s reputation so he can buy it. Fuck off and nope :) And Mitnick is sending me off to Santa Monica! Okay, I can do that, and visit people at the same time.

Weird, most of the Thinblood kids are gone, aside from Julius :-\

Emails received, first node activated! There’s also an interesting proposition from Bertram, so while I’m still in Santa Monica, will check it out.

Glad to see Merc’s finally cleaned up all the giant bloodstains XD Always good useful info, although I’m definitely concerned about his warnings about Chinatown XD;; Kind of a shame he’s a Cammy! (Although I do like how his response about Isaac is basically exactly the same, ‘shame he’s an Anarch’ XD)

Bertram wants me to find some CD when I’m next at the Warrens. Yeah, can do!

...okay fuck it I’m curious I’m gonna go see Jeanette XD;; Sierra’s super gay anyway why not?

Speaking of sugar daddies, Jeanette just said she’s got Nines and Isaac as her new ones. Alas, I think it’s just a very... Jeanette way of saying she’s quite literally in bed with the Anarchs, given that I’m 90% sure Isaac is gay and Nines is... uh, focused on his hateboner for SparklingWater XD

...Board games, huh XD

Yeah, fade to black with some very awkward sound effects XD;;

So, uh, if you do the board games option, she says, “Think harder... and dirtier.”

Top response to that is, “Cards?” Oh, Sierra.

Back to Hollywood! I think I’m going to check out the cafe and see if I can help the reviewer write a good review just to piss off SparklingWater XD Actually, no, Ash’s club is right there and there was another concerning headline about him, so that first!

Hm. There’s a guy with a katana. I am getting a bad vibe.

Okay I thought that was the case, damn! I could have sworn I heard the name ‘Caine’ dropped in the song playing here, and yeah, what do you know...

God Ash’s storyline makes me so sad. Also knowing he’s based on River Phoenix doesn’t help, either.

Dangit. Glitch again. It seems to be any time there’s NPC dialogue followed by an action? And yeah, looks like it’s a known thing.

Ah well. Going to do some other stuff while I mull over how to deal with this one. The clothes-swapping thing does work, but, you know. Humanity hit :-\

Talked to the snooty reviewer. I wonder if this is the character Diego Lobo is based on XD He even has the same li’l moustache! Basically did the whole, ‘Hi, I’m a big fan!’ thing and fucked off XD

Weeeell convincing the gargoyle to ally with Isaac was a little on the manipulative side XD;; On the plus side, no need for fighting, at least? And Sierra’s ride or die for the Anarchs, so she would have a starry-eyed, “They’re the good guys!” view over them...

Reported back to Isaac. And yeah, totally dobbed in Strauss XD Sorry dude I’ll ally with you next run. Do wish you can just tell Isaac outright, “I’ve joined the Anarchs, I’m only spying on the Camarilla”!

Huh. Welp. RIP Muddy.

Hey, Nossies! Do you think maybe it’s a health hazard for your large warren of vampires to have piles of sharp pointy splintered bits of wood lying around?

Found the CD Rom! Man, nothing dates a game like technology. Bet a modern remake would use a USB XD Awww yeah computer skill boost!

Huh. Made it to the salvage yard, guy in a suit flat out vanished. Obfuscate? HEY. STOP THROWING CARS AT ME. Aww jeez he started a fire good thing the game forgot about Rotschreck XD

I think that’s what we call a bittersweet ending. Talked him down without a fight, showed empathy, suggested he focus his energies on justice with the Anarchs. And like... yeah, not exactly good people he was targeting!

Let’s head back downtown and get that hub installed, then call it a day!

God bless invisibility mode, making my life so much easier. Just picturing Sierra looking around like, “Huh, I was nearly executed here!”

Next location is in Hollywood, and happily, there’s a mission from Beckett! :D That’s over in Santa Monica - meet with some guy to see about a Sabbat guy seen at the library. Beckett doesn’t want anything happening to the books, dangit!

[nanigma]

So I just finished Dragon Age Inquisition

Hoo boy. It took me years to get to this game, and I somewhat regret it since the community has changed so dramatically from when this game first came out. Would have been fun to have been part of all the active discussion and theorizing. 

Oh well, I have to say I really enjoyed it. It probably doesn’t topple 2 as my favourite Dragon Age game, because I have too many feelings for that garbage pile of a city and the walking disaster that is my party in that game. I have to say though, even if this seems insane to some people, it does topple Origins for me. Since I played through that again just a couple months ago, I can safely say that even if I am still fond of that game, it does feel very dated by now.

I loved most of my companions in this game, even if Varric felt distant to the Inquisitor, and I never got very close to Blackwall, Vivienne and Sera, the rest of the bunch was just amazing. Cole, Dorian and Iron Bull were particular standouts. Josephine’s romance was very sweet. Once I got into it, the combat felt very smooth and not nearly as tedious as Origins and parts of 2. The main quests and dlc were just amazing in ther cinematography and really drew you into the story. 

There were a few very noticable flaws though: For one, the game was just too massive. i get that they wanted to make this open world and have giant areas to explore, but it did feel tiresome after the third enourmous map they make you traverse. There were some engaging sidequests while exploring (such as the time-frozen ruin in the Western Approach or the d’Onterre mansion in the Emeral Graves), but for the most part they felt very samey and not worth doing them at all. Compared to some sidequests in the previous games they felt overly simplified (probably because the developers had make a gazillion of them) I’ve replayed Origins and 2 about 10 times each, yet I can’t even think about starting another playthrough, if it means trudging through the whole of the Hinterlands yet again. Is seeing Cullen’s naked ass really worth that? Maybe...

Another thing I didn’t like was the “chosen one” style narrative. The Inquisitor felt like the center of the universe way too often. Did they really have to force that point so much? I know what they were trying to do with this, but it felt like they both deconstructed and reaffirmed the archetype constantly, causing whiplash. It just felt a bit aimless and they could have toned it down at least a little bit.

The final criticism would be the way the elves were treated. I think the game almost reveled in tearing down their beliefs and own version of history. Them being the main architect in their own downfall is one thing (though it ticks me off that this is often brought up in a “take that” kinda manner, and it really should be made clearer that Tevinter isn’t absolved of any of their shit), but the utter unraveling of the entire elven belief system was just way over board imo. It does make for an interesting backstory, but I can’t help but notice how it’s only the catholic church the chantry’s faith that keeps being presented in an ambiguous and thoughtful manner, while basically every other religion in the game gets thouroughly dismanteled and/or discredited.

Wow... okay my criticsm turned out way longer than intended. Longer than my praise even. I really did like this game and just spend a lot of time thinking about how to best articulate my misgivings with it. I will continue on to other games next, but let it be said that I do want to come back to this and look very much forward to DA4.