Of all the characters in DA:O, Oghren is my least favorite. I wasn't too enthused with Awakenings, it felt somewhat rushed. Like they were trying to fill in the gaps between the Darkspawn and the Archdemon. The whole grey line, which of the two evils do you chose thing also felt like an object lesson in politics, something that seems to be getting relatively common in Bioware games. I liked the heavy magic/supernatural element of Inquisition, but honestly could have done without some of the relationship dialogue. I guess as I get older I like more overarching depth in my games rather than the character bonding type.

And in Awakenings, if you pick up quests in the wrong order (which means you have to ignore one of the very first quest givers in the game -- they soldier standing right beside the city gates as you go in) you mess up a companion quest permanently, so I never play without a quest guide by my side. Also, even if you do everything required to make it possible to save your stronghold it will still fall because of a bug. Annoying. Actually, it has a number of quest bugs that prevent quest completions, and they were never patched.

Still, it's fun to play around with the new skill trees. I just give Oghren all his booze and his personal quest item and leave him at the Keep. By higher levels all you really need is your archer, your assassin and your two mages. A fighter is almost beside the point.

EDIT: Ugh. I forgot that DA:I has to be played on Origin. I HATE Origin. It hangs in the middle of downloading, and there are endless problems with it. That's why I never did get around to replaying my Mass Effect games.

EDIT: Oh, for the love of Pete. Origin won't update. Can't sync my games. I can't launch the game offline. If there was any other way of buying and playing this game, I would do it right this very second.

EDIT AGAIN: Finally, got it all working. Oh man, I love this game. This time I'm playing a Qunari female mage. I love the little details in the game; most people flinch at the first sight of "me." It's kind of like being an Amazon.

So, now that I'm well into the game, which is my first play since I finished the entire story three years ago, I see that the Dread Wolfie stuff is really all over the place and much of the dialogue and chit chat does give some pretty strong hints as to the ending of the game and its big reveal. I can't see how it's possible for any sequel to be anything but a story about the elves and their history.

I love the way characters from the previous games show up, too. I feel as though I have lived through epic times and am seeing the birth of legends.

Interesting. I never got around to playing the third installation. 🙂

It's so good to see you posting! I hope all is well.

The same to you. Must have been years since i last posted here. Lots of things have happened since, but I saw my gameboomers cup in the cupboard Today and figured i would check in. 🙂

I'm glad that you did. Your last post before today was in 2014....way too long!

Indeed. 🙂 Might just try to make up some more spare time for games, and for posting here again!

On topic, I read that DA:I had tons of fetch quests, what are your impressions on that?

I haven't played the game, but hopefully someone who has will be able to answer your question.

Drizzt! It's awesome to see you on the forum again. I saw your other posing over at Mixed Bag, congrats on all your accomplishments both intellectual (PhD) and biological (daughter)

Hagatha will probably have more input on DA:I. I've only played through it once, shortly after release. The scavenger hunt/fetch style quests seem fairly common in several of the other games I play fairly often (Elder Scrolls, Fall Out) so I wasn't bothered too much, or maybe just didn't notice that there was an exceptional amount of those type of quests.

Hope you get some time to recreate (read as gaming) and stop in at the forum.

TM

Hey, Drizzt, nice to see you back here. I figured you had gone off to be an adult. And here I am, happily retired now. How the years fly past.

DA: I is pretty multi-faceted in terms of the type of quests you're given. There are several huge areas to explore, and while there are some fetch quests, most of the quests are given from your stronghold in various different ways and involve exploration rather than visiting town X and finding person Y. Some are given by party members and other NPC's, other appear on a strategic War Table. Each area has its own set of quests, and its own set of collectibles. Party members each have their own major quest line, too, and party interactions are, as in all Bioware games, pretty nuanced and have minor consequences. It's also a very long game. I love it. I'm on my fourth run through it and still never get tired of it.