What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

DA2

I finished Act 2:

- Feynriel was freed from the demons and left for Tevinter (both Isabela and Merrill accepted the demons offer);
- Emeric was assassinated, Gaspard wasn`t innocent at all (Varric and Bianca took care of him), a crazy necromancer used Leandra`s head in a corpse and Hawke was devastated with her mother`s death;
- Helped Hubert in some tasks regarding the Bone Pit;
- Found and read the Tome of Forbidden Knowledge;
- Saemus converted to the Qun and was assassinated by Petrice and afterwards Petrice was assassinated by the Qunari;
- Helped Isabela retrieve the relic and later on Hawke accompanied Aveline to see the Arishok;
- Hawke had a brief encounter with Carver during the Qunari attack on Kirkwall;
- Isabela returned with the relic and Hawke defeated the Arishok in a duel. Hawke became the Champion of Kirkwall.

It's such a minor thing, but it occurs to me that most women in Dragon Age don't wear any makeup at all.

Haven't played DAI in what feels like an eternity. Last time was a few years back when I got all my new hardware and enjoyed all the graphics and high FPS for a little bit before moving on.

But I played some DAO recently. And yesterday I kinda jumped through most the games installed on my PC, trying to get a hook (too much F1 Manager, need to break the cycle). Deep Rock Galactic was fun, I had forgotten most of how it works, spent hours recalling and blowing stuff up. MELE is too recent. Beyond Two Souls, kinda the same when you beat it twice. Sims 4, nah. The Movies, too dangerous as it's the same pattern as F1 Manager. AC Valhalla, lol, nope. AC Odyssey, fun to run around a bit. Spiderman, I have to finish it at some point, but didn't feel like recalling all the controls. Star Wars Rebellion, man, nostalgia. Monkey Island, that was a blast of laughs and nostalgia. Banner Saga, not in the mood.

So, I came up to DAI. It's still there, 4TB of HDD, rarely uninstalling stuff, especially if it's modded and I don't like reapplying mods. Last save I recall starting is a female human rogue. Idea was to go Artificer (the Varric specialization, right?) as I haven't used it on a Inquisitor yet. And romance her to Blackwall, which also I haven't done before (which leaves only Dorian, but let's be honest, no Inquisitor can be good enough for him). This Inquisitor was supposed to be pretty hardcore Andrastian and really believe she is the Chosen. Until maybe she gets shaken a bit when confronted that it might have not been Andraste.

Anyway, I thought I left that save well past Haven and maybe past half of the game. Nope. Apparently I just collected most of the initial companions (minus Bull) and was last parked in Redcliffe at level 5. Guess I had it mixed up with that other save with my elf archer that jumped in Solas' pants and removed her beautiful tattoos. Gah, don't remind me!

So, it was pretty much the start of the game, without the hassle of doing the Prologue steps. I wish I could tell you I got Bull and we went to ally with the Templars (done it maybe twice, as I really like the mages). But I just roamed the Hinterlands for a few hours. Initially it was to recall the controls and feel. But then I enjoyed the smooth feel and graphics (most of my previous runs were on the really old hardware and lower settings). Did some of the fetch quests just to recall how crap they are.

Took some weird paths and got my ass kicked by the immortal quest druffalo, which got accidentally aggroed in a wolf fight. Almost got stuck again at that one spot with permanently respawning mages/templars. Even collected shards, which I have sworn never to do again.

Picked skills that I never bothered with before, mostly the Stealth tree. I will not be bothered with optimizing.

All in all, DAI is still my least liked DA game, but I haven't touched it long enough for it to feel just a bit fresh again. And the better graphics help. It seems I will go back to play it these days. Might rush a bit to get all those shiny Artificer thingies that litter the ground and explode. Seems to be a fun mechanic.

I am a little tempted to give myself a truckload of skill points. So I don't have to wait until I can unleash the full explosive power. But I have to somehow pick a head canon how the Winter palace is not evacuated the moment Inky steps out of the main hall.

I have absolutely no idea how I lived with 30 FPS cutscenes in DAI. Because now even the 60 FPS ones look like if the characters move in jelly...

That's what I get for playing the game on good hardware that pulls 100+ FPS in gameplay.

I continue on my second playthrough with my canon Inquisitor. On the first time, I left Blackwall in jail because I believed he was right: Using your influence to release him from prison is plain corruption.

But now I realize that a lot of what you do at the war table is equally questionable. Even if you stick with Josephine and Cullen's suggestions, you still don't come out completely clean. And more importantly, my Inquisitor agreed to allow Celene's murder in order to raise an ally to power: Briala.

So I didn't feel like it would be very consistent to draw the line at trading favors to bail Rainier out.

It also aligns with the character development I had planned, which was to have Lavellan go from idealistic and naive to moderately idealistic and willing to get her hands dirty (all except murder and torture).

I've just realised while I've completed DA:O at least 4 times and DA:2 at least twice I've never yet finished DA:I I'm not sure if the game is just so damned big I get board or I just don't care much for some of the grind. Got plenty of time by the sounds of it before the next DA game that assumes I even bother about it.

DAI


I'm still disappointed that we couldn`t explore more of Val Royeaux. I liked the other areas but i`ve always enjoyed seeing and exploring big city areas like Denerim or Kirkwall (or Baldur`s Gate and Athkatla (yeah i`m old ). I`m crossing my fingers and wishing that Minrathous is a huge area to visit in DA:D.

I started an Adaar playthrough for the first time couple days ago, this also being the first time I'm using Sumalee voice for Inky. So far, a lot of fun! This is going to be a bit of a catch-up post. I'm also using mods (because why not), notably character creation mods and one to enable me to use all specs for my class. So while my character is officialy a Knight Enchanter, I'm also using Veilstrike, Horror, and Walking Bomb from other specs

I also got Blade of Tidarion that looks like a physical sword, because the way the handle is sheathed with it normally looks absolutely ludicrous.

Day 1 and 2: Mostly ran around Hinterlands and Fallow Mire, recruiting folks, then finished out by doing In Hushed Whispers and recruiting mages as allies. King Alistair was not exactly happy with them. Of yeah, and almost forgot, finished the day with In Your Heart Shall Burn, and after some minor trouble getting to Skyhold thanks to mods damn white screen dedicated Inquisitor's speech to being a mage in charge of it. 

Day 3, 4 and 5: These were mostly consumed by Crestwood, Western Approach, and then Here Lies the Abyss. For this (and well, most) world state, I have Loghain as a warden because poetic justice. I left him in the Fade, and then kicked Wardens out of Orlais since they are vulnerable and have no commander. 

Day 6 (yesterday): I killed most of the day running companion errands and then running around Exalted Plains. I saved Bull's Chargers during his mission, then started his romance, which I wasn't exactly planning on, but. I never did it before, and I decided that the dynamic in that romance could fit this Inky pretty well. My original plan was to romance Josie, and I spent like two hours agonising over that choice. Also did Cassandra's, Dorian's, Varric's and Solas' quest, and played a game of Wicked Grace. 'It comes off. I didn't know it came off...'

Next on the menu - Emerald Graves and Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts.

Some screenshots

DAI

Continuing adventuring through the Hinterlands:
- Travelled to the Farms and finished all the quests for Master Dennet and the other farmers. Dennet and his horses joined the Inquisition.
- Travelled to the Hafter Woods, was attacked by large bears and regular bears and killed the bandits at the Mercenary Fortress.
- Entered Valammar and ended the Carta presence in the area.
- Entered Redcliffe village and met Magister Alexius in the Tavern and Dorian in the Chantry.
- Recruited an healer for the Crossroads, talked with Connor, discovered the fate of the Tranquil, helped a widower with some flowers, told a talking Ram to went back home and found the sword in the lake.
- Closed all the Rifts in the Hinterlands.

Emerald Graves is such a visually spectacular area. I adore it, so lush and beautiful. That haunted villa side quest is also really good. 

So today (or, well, yesterday, but over the course of one day), I mostly completed Emerald Graves. Helped out Fairbanks' folks, gotten rid of the Freemen in the Graves, discovered evidence for his being noble...and then promptly discarded it. Since I did In Hushed Whispers this time, I also picked up smuggler letters to find out more about Samson, and found out I need to unlock Emprise du Lion. I also fought a dragon. Dragon fights are always fun.

Once that was done, I started Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts. I took Bull, Dorian and Sera with me, just for fun. I charmed the court despite the massive approval hit from being qunari (almost half your starting approval gone, just like that) and had the tough decision what to do with the court. I originally thought I would go for the truce ending, but since I never did the ones where Celene dies, I decided to try to do the shadow empress Briala one, and if I felt too bad about it, I would just reload. But I did end up sticking with it, in part because the game let me express remorse about letting Celene die.

Oh and after that I got the romance achievement. Only took me...7 years

Screenshots



I would kill for a decent photo mode in DAI.

I like that MOD.