I'm Still Alive, I Promise!

So...It's been like 3 months...not much has changed, either, sad to say.

Update in gaming- Last month, I finished yet another play-through of the Dragon Age series, this time as a female Dwarven Rogue in Dragon Age:  Origins, and all DLC that is associated with it, and a male Mage in Dragon Age 2.  It was not a terrible play-through, but I've done it a couple of times, so nothing really noteworthy happened.  I had intended to romance Leliana in Dragon Age, but I ended up romancing Alistair, and then I intended and succeeded in romancing Anders in Dragon Age II.  Woo...

Then I decided that it was past time to finally learn to like the Mass Effect series, especially since Mass Effect 3 had just come out.  I own Mass Effect 1 and 2 already, so I decided to power through them and try my hardest to like them.  Unfortunately, I am a dumbass, and I couldn't find Mass Effect 1.  So I decided to suck it up and play Mass Effect 2.  Which was the best decision of all time. 

I am terrible at shooters, and prefer using Magic-based characters in RPGs, so I tried to stick to a character class that was like the Mage.  The Adept.  And it was AWESOME.  Adepts use powers in addition to weapons, AND you can arc the powers so that they go over barriers and shiz.  Which was especially awesome because the reason that I suck at shooters is because I have terrible aim and unsteady hands.  So I played through Mass Effect 2 and some of the DLC, and got addicted.  After beating it, I finally found Mass Effect 1 and was...let down.  I liked the companions more (because they were more specialized and more similar to the classes that are available to Shepard), but HATED the gameplay.  You can't arc the powers, and the Mako was an invention from Hell.  It's just...the worst.  And they put some Mako action in EVERY SINGLE LEVEL.  It is just awful.  But I powered through it, and was rewarded with transferring my character and decisions to Mass Effect 2, and having my own decisions transferred over to Mass Effect 2 GREATLY increased my love of the game.  And then I bought Mass Effect 3, and transferred my Mass Effect 1 and 2 character into Mass Effect 3, and LOVED it!  Except that I accidentally romanced the wrong character.

Funny story 'bout that.  See, in Dragon Age:  Origins and 2, and in Mass Effect 1 and 2, you can romance multiple characters at a time.  At some point, if you've progressed enough with more than one character, the two characters that you've been romancing will confront you and make you choose one.  Based on previous interactions, I assumed that the same thing would happen in Mass Effect 3, and I feel that it was a fair assumption.  So I had my male Shepard romance the two male romance options, and got super excited to watch the two dudes fight over my dude.  Unfortunately...they took out the love-triangle option, and I was unaware, so I romanced the dude that I didn't want to end up with (as the dude that I did want to end up with was unavailable, and I felt like flirting) and ...ended up with him.  Which wasn't awful, but it was not the desired outcome.  I was then presented with the option of starting the whole character over again (Mass Effect 1, 2, and then finally romancing the correct person in 3) or just playing 3 again and fixing my mistake.  And...I chose the wrong option, restarting the character.  I thought about playing a different class or going Renegade this time instead of Paragon, and...I just HATE THE MAKO too much to play it again so soon.

Not...that any of you really care.

In other news, I'm in the chorus of a production of Verdi's Othello.  And...that's fine.  And...oh yeah, Things I'm Reading!

I've finished the Song of Ice and Fire series (as has been published by now, at least), and really enjoyed it.  Now I'm trrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg to get through the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but GOOD LORD I am having a hard time doing this.  I'm used to Jordan's and Martin's style of super flowery prose, and over descriptiveness, but Tolkien's prose is just ...too much.  I don't know why, but I am having the hardest time getting through it.  It probably doesn't help that I think Gandalf is an asshole (a post for another time) and it took Tolkien took 337 pages to introduce his best character, Strider/Aragorn.

But...there's not a whole lot else going on right now, I guess.  I'll go more in depth about my newly passionate love for Mass Effect later, and I'll probably post why I think Gandalf is an asshole and not worthy of everyone's praise eventually, too.  So...stay tuned for those, if you want.

Day Three

Ugh.  Moving sucks.

In the vein of recommending things to people, allow me to take a minute to recommend the video game series Dragon Age.  It's actually fairly well known, so it's not like I should need to push TOO hard to get people to play it.

Do you remember/have you heard of Knights of the Old Republic from BioWare?  Dragon Age is essentially that, but more Lord of the Rings-y than Star Wars.  I mean...Knights of the Old Republic IS Star Wars, while Dragon Age is just kind of similar to LOTR.

In Dragon Age:  Origins (which is the very first game), you create your own character, choosing sex (Male/Female), race (Human, Elf, or Dwarf), class (Warrior, Rogue, or Mage, although Dwarves can't be Mages), and then origin story (Human Noble, City Elf, Mage, Dalish Elf, Noble Dwarf, and Commoner Dwarf).  And then you create your character and play!  It's really fun, I promise!

You play through your origin story, and then all six origins come together and the game starts.  Your character becomes a member of a league of warriors called Gray Wardens, who are sworn to defend the world from darkspawn and the Blight.  Throughout the game, you can recruit various characters into your little army, and they can be fairly awesome.  You can customize your teammates ALMOST as much as you customize your own character.  You and all but two (possibly three) of your teammates can have two specializations within their class, and after you get them, you can change their stats, armor, skills, talents/spells, and everything.  It's a bit to take on, but still fun.
You get:
Alistair- Human Warrior, Templar
Morrigan- Human Mage, Shapeshifter
Leliana- Human Rogue, Bard
Sten- Qunari Warrior, no specialization
Wynne- Human Mage, Spirit Healer
Oghren- Dwarf Warrior, Berserker
Zevran- Elf Rogue, Assassin
Dog- Mabari Warrior, no specialization
Shale (Downloadable Extra Character)- Golem Warrior, no specialization

But...it is lots of fun, and I am a bit too distracted to go into too much more detail, but it is a really epic game, and it's really fun, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Sword and Sorcery kinds of RPGs, like I do.