Dragon Age The Joyguard (formerly Hype Train) [Spoilers]

A month.

And Digital Foundry appears to be impressed with Veilguard.

Oh, don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful game that I loved the glow up of and did highly enjoy the main story. So cool seeing all these places look like they did to my child's eye back playing the original.

What I didn't like about it - that I've seen many people get heavily shut down over on reddit about, because it's not something you have to do - is the volume of minigames. There is so many. Too many. Also, Chadley. I hate Chadley so much and he gained a female Chadley for twice the headache. The open world went down the 'go to this tower and unlock the map' method that weirdly the same places I see slate any Ubisoft game for having were not coming after this game for it even though it was equally as tedious. 

I am a recovering trophy hoarder. An obsessive need to explore every inch of an area and finish all side quests there before moving on with the main quest kind of person. That person who went into the Hinterlands in DAI and tried to finish the whole area right away. I have developed a mindset of 'finish your greens' (aka all the boring fetch quests) before your dessert (continuing main story) kind of gameplay from my trophy collecting days that I am trying to phase out of and FFVII Rebirth really punishes you big for it because its so many minigames which I don't love at the best of times anyway. 

They definitely could have done the open world better - but I would say on the whole it's more my fault that I was left disappointed by it. I should have just let myself play on with the main storyline and stopped myself exploring so much with every new area when I knew it was going to be more minigames.

The wait is harder now than last month. I'm having a hard time concentrating on a single game. I jump from Mass Effect, to Inquisition, to Hogwarts Legacy, to My Time at Sandrock and so on!

Oh, don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful game that I loved the glow up of and did highly enjoy the main story. So cool seeing all these places look like they did to my child's eye back playing the original.

What I didn't like about it - that I've seen many people get heavily shut down over on reddit about, because it's not something you have to do - is the volume of minigames. There is so many. Too many. Also, Chadley. I hate Chadley so much and he gained a female Chadley for twice the headache. The open world went down the 'go to this tower and unlock the map' method that weirdly the same places I see slate any Ubisoft game for having were not coming after this game for it even though it was equally as tedious. 

I am a recovering trophy hoarder. An obsessive need to explore every inch of an area and finish all side quests there before moving on with the main quest kind of person. That person who went into the Hinterlands in DAI and tried to finish the whole area right away. I have developed a mindset of 'finish your greens' (aka all the boring fetch quests) before your dessert (continuing main story) kind of gameplay from my trophy collecting days that I am trying to phase out of and FFVII Rebirth really punishes you big for it because its so many minigames which I don't love at the best of times anyway. 

They definitely could have done the open world better - but I would say on the whole it's more my fault that I was left disappointed by it. I should have just let myself play on with the main storyline and stopped myself exploring so much with every new area when I knew it was going to be more minigames.

Oh, don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful game that I loved the glow up of and did highly enjoy the main story. So cool seeing all these places look like they did to my child's eye back playing the original.

What I didn't like about it - that I've seen many people get heavily shut down over on reddit about, because it's not something you have to do - is the volume of minigames. There is so many. Too many. Also, Chadley. I hate Chadley so much and he gained a female Chadley for twice the headache. The open world went down the 'go to this tower and unlock the map' method that weirdly the same places I see slate any Ubisoft game for having were not coming after this game for it even though it was equally as tedious. 

I am a recovering trophy hoarder. An obsessive need to explore every inch of an area and finish all side quests there before moving on with the main quest kind of person. That person who went into the Hinterlands in DAI and tried to finish the whole area right away. I have developed a mindset of 'finish your greens' (aka all the boring fetch quests) before your dessert (continuing main story) kind of gameplay from my trophy collecting days that I am trying to phase out of and FFVII Rebirth really punishes you big for it because its so many minigames which I don't love at the best of times anyway. 

They definitely could have done the open world better - but I would say on the whole it's more my fault that I was left disappointed by it. I should have just let myself play on with the main storyline and stopped myself exploring so much with every new area when I knew it was going to be more minigames.

going dark

Okay guys! I'm officially going dark until the end of the month! It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since the last Dragon Age game but it's worth the wait. I'm sooo pumped to get my hands on Veilguard! But all I ask to those who still remain is to keep the Hype Train alive! There will be a lot of people who will be bent on seeing it derailed but let them know that the Hype Train TRULY HAS NO BRAKES!

See you all at release day! I feel that Bioware has truly made a banger with Veilguard and I'm going to be playing that game 24/7!

But until the day the game is in my hands, this is Smiles signing off! 

If each specialization is associated with a faction, does that mean they are locked?

As in, a Grey Warden Rook can only be a champion and s/he can't be a duelist unless s/he is a Crow.

If each specialization is associated with a faction, does that mean they are locked?

As in, a Grey Warden Rook can only be a champion and s/he can't be a duelist unless s/he is a Crow.