It was with a heavy heart that I waved goodbye to my mischievous Dalish Elf rogue, and had I known that the main storyline would lock you out of the sidequests after a certain point, I think I might have thought twice about powering on with the story. He's done with now He ain't dead though! Maybe some DLC could be set after the main quest allowing me to use him once again.

Him and Sten became good friends, Morrigan did something spoilerific with him (the results of which made me a little sad!), and he made Alistair King of Denerim. I felt genuinely bad when I tried it on with Leiliana and upset Morrigan, but felt amazing when Sten finally approved of some my actions (+15 Approve!). I can't remember feeling like I actually knew characters in a game like this. Instead of just being plain good or evil, my decisions eventually began to be based on how I would make my companions feel, and realising that the end of the game was the end (no post-game questing) made me somewhat reluctant to say goodbye to my virtual friends. Mark of a good game, that! At least I could reload an earlier save and carry on with them.

I restarted the game immediately and created a stuck up noble fighter, but so far it just isn't the same, I want Bracken the Dalish Elf back! Guess I'll just have to get used to the new guy, but he can't even pick locks!

Well. I was hoping that this would take no longer to write than the Point Lookout would take to redownload onto a new HDD, but I guess I was sadly mistaken (40% left). Guess I'll just twiddle my thumbs for a while!

Woop! My 360 turned up on Tuesday, and it was manufactured just 4 short months ago, hopefully meaning the build quality might be a bit better (I can wish). Now I have 2x 120GB HDDs! I am never going to play an uninstalled game again, that disc drive is not designed to spin discs for 10+hrs. I was pretty surprised to find how silent this new 360 is when the game is installed, my old one was still pretty noisy!

Anyway, I have now had chance to get back on with Dragon Age. I supose many people are much further than I am now, and I kinda wish I had some days booked off to play this. At the same time, I'm happy to savour the experience It's great! It feels just like a 3D rendition of Baldur's Gate, some of the locales feel very reminiscent of the series, whch is definitely a good thing from both nostalgic and gameplay stand points.

I began the game as a Dalish Elf in the forests. I didn't want to play the game as a bastion of good, but I seem to have become more than a little evil (all for the greater good of course). I'm having great fun intimidating and threatening people (I'm an elf, I don't like humans ), and also having Jowan use blood magic to sacrifice Isolde to save her son. Alistair wasn't happy about that at all. In fact, I've sent most of my time conversing, and it's seen the hours just fly by... Funnily enough though, the women of the party all seem to like my character despite their differing ideals. Hah. Can't wait to play it some more. In fact, I'm putting off playing any other 360 games until I've finished this, but I'm not convinced I'll have enough time to finish it this year, so that may be it for game completions this year...

Speaking of Dragon Age, has anyone been to the social Bioware site? I read about how it could track your quest etc. I paid a visit to the site - it's terrible! The updates are several days behind, and I've not been able to properly read my own story on two different PCs using different browsers. I know it says 'beta', but really, I did expect a little more.

At work, I had been playing Final Fantasy 2. I was quite surprised at how The Last Remnant has essentially the same levelling system. Only thing is, is I think I require a more involved story. I'll come back to the game, as it is quite addictive, but for now I returned to Devil Survivor (can't believe I put it down!). I've not been on it that long, just over ten hours I think, but the doom and gloom of the storyline is just what I like!

Friday! With any luck I'll get some more DA time later.

Tchuss.

I guess third time lucky doesn't apply to the Xbox 360, but I've another one coming nonetheless. Not looking forward to redownloading all of the DLC and Arcade games again, took ages last time, and now I've got all the Fallout content to re-get. But, with any luck, maybe it will work this time! It failed miserably last time and wouldn't let me into Broken Steel or Point Lookout.

Anyway, my new 360 is coming with Borderlands, Wet, Lego, Batman and Pure (and another black wireless controller) for just under 200 pounds (pound sign = bad html apparently -_-;; ). That's a solid 2/4! I already have Pure and I've not heard great things about Lego Batman (nor is it particularly my cup of tea). Borderlands and Wet though, not bad. Just a massive pain in the posterior.

I am poor. My amazing pay day I earned from August and September after being in Leeds is now drying up, but Melissa is giving me half of the money I paid for the PS3, so it shouldn't be too bad...