Dragon Age 2. Good times.

Somehow this week got entirely away from me. I did no writing, little homework, didn't see many people. It was very sad. However, I did finish Dragon Age 2, which I must say was entirely worthy of my time. The improvements on the first game were too numerous to list, but I think the one that added most to the immersion was the actual use of a voice for the main character. It was understandably absent in the first game, since there were 6 different race/gender options for the character. Making the elaborate dialog tree that this kind of game required for every one of them would have taken a lot more time and money than they probably wanted to commit to the game. There was only incidental dialog during fights which amounted to "I'm going to kill some stuff". It made it difficult to really relate to the main character and, since he/she is the vessel through which we viewed to game world, almost as difficult to relate to all the other characters. Blocks of text don't have the same feel as actual spoken words.
Limiting the main character to one race and only giving male/female and class options (keeping the same three class system of the first game with rogue/warrior/mage) may have seemed limiting at first, but it really did aid in the whole immersion thing and kept the storyline more cohesive feeling. In the first, the beginning of the game was really the only part affected by the race and origin story selected anyways, apart from the occasional comment. It made the game feel a little blocky.
Overall experience was great, other than the ending which seemed a little rushed. Of course, that's probably because they're planning another sequel. If they are, it'll be interesting to see how everything from the first two games will affect it. Events in Dragon Age 2 seemed to have much larger consequences than in the first game, since it takes place over a decade and even the smallest action will eventually come back if not resolved. For instance, there was a young mage having bad dreams about demons at one part of the story and I didn't help him. Three years down the line, he was a crazed guy killing bunches of people. It gives a much greater weight to things the previous title, where only the immediate consequences were ever faced.
If the Dragon Age franchise is done in a trilogy in the same way as Mass Effect, I eagerly await the final installment. BioWare has made significant strides with its titles over the years, and I can't wait for them to impress me more.

It was glorious

Anyways, now that I'm finished with the game (and not yet in the process of replaying it with a different character) I have time to do other, actually useful things. Like... blog. Alright, not entirely useful.

I was recently trained to be an usher at the theater I work at. It's amazingly exciting. I sweep stuff and deal with hooligans. It's significantly better than working in the box office or concessions. Yesterday I had my first shift as an usher, which would have been great had I not been sleep deprived and exhausted from the 6 hour musical rehearsal I had been at earlier in the day. Needless to say, I feel asleep quite promptly upon getting home at around 1 in the morning last night. One of the best nights of sleeping I've had in a long time.
Other than that? Nothing too exciting going on. I have to work on my poetry presentation for Lit class. Somehow I have to fill up 10 minutes with talking about a poem. I hate poetry. Blech. I might present tomorrow, but I hope I don't. That would suck.
Do not go gently into that good night, dear reader.