My last blog on Dragon Age: Origins was pathetically short and vague, so I thought I'd let some people know what I've been up to in Ferelden these days. I've got a three-day weekend and so I've completely put off school work to enjoy this game. Anyway, some stuff I've done:

- Saved an arl (kinda an earl equivalent, I think. Clever, Bioware)

- Protected a village from zombies or something

- Explored a creepy town

- Wiped out a cult

- Ran away from a dragon

- Walked around a temple, naked

- Killed some bandits. Lots and lots of bandits. Also some mercenaries. And some demons. Dragons, too.

- Dumped some bodies down a well

- Killed a dwarf, because he was sassing me.

- Engaged in some political rabble-rousing

- Wanted to kill a little kid, but got talked out of it by his whiny mother.

- "Courted" (i.e. threw a bunch of gifts at) a sarcastic witch.

- Sexed a whore

Etc. Get this game. It's good.

The combat reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy XII's. It happens in real time, and you just target a foe and then watch your character have at it. Unlike Final Fantasy XII, however, there are particular attacks/abilities you can have your character use. There are also Gambit-esque battle commands you can use, and there's an absurd amount of depth here. As in so much depth that I haven't even started messing around with it because I'm afraid it'll hurt me, badly.

You can issue ridiculously detailed commands to each soldier, ranging from "heal yourself when you're almost dead" to "use this skill when a bandit is running after my mage using this other spell." Gawd.

The story's pretty cool, but like I said in the last blog, what's great about this game is that you feel part of a world. The game revolves around you, but at the same time it doesn't, really. You feel there's other stuff going around you, but you can influence these goings-on. Very gratifying and very fun.

Talk about an impulse purchase: I had very little desire to play this game befor this morning, when I decided I'd go get it after school. I did, and it's pretty awesome.

It's a very real-feeling world. I'm only a few hours in but you can tell there's a lot of complexity to the game world and that's what I'm sort of enjoying most. I haven't played an RPG in a while, I'm not sure if I've ever really played a western RPG, and I've definitely never played a BioWare game.

Combat seems pretty shallow at first but it's actually fairly addictive, despite the fact that I'm not really taking advantage of the ludicrously deep AI customization.

The only real problem is that it looks like a PS2 game. The frame rate blows and lots of textures look lame, even from not-too-close-up. Still, it's well worth it for such a deep, engrossing, entertaining RPg.

I recommend it.

I've got to channel my manic compulsiveness somewhere, so for the time being, pity my piano.

I'm re-learning a bunch of stuff I did several years ago and adding to my repertory. Sight reading has come back easier than I expected and while I hate memorizing songs...I'm memorizing songs.