A few days ago I beat Dragon Age: Origins. The game was epic to say the least, and, contrary to my initial impressions, lived up to the BioWare name. But one thing about the game that I pondered quite a bit was its ending. For a game so big in scope, yet so personal, you'd expect to have an ending that would serve to tie up every last loose end in a manner similar to The Return of The King, but things are left surprisingly open-ended.
There's a type of ending that I've noticed in which storytellers try to give their viewers a sense that life (in their fictional world) goes on. To give an example of what I'm talking about, The Ballad of Gay Tony, the final piece of the GTA IV saga, ended with a fly-by of various locales in the city in which you see characters doing exactly what you'd grow to expect them to do - Brucie, and Mori are fighting, Luis's friends are partying with college girls, etc. etc. Even though the player's time experiencing Liberty City is at an end, things go on without them.
To me, that kind of ending has always been comforting in an odd way. There are pieces of fiction which one can grow so attached to, they don't want them to end; those types of endings act as a reminder to "fear not" because the characters, and settings you've grown to love will still go on, even if the true, concrete story must end.
I didn't feel that sort of "comfort" once the last scenes of Dragon Age played out. After spending 60 hours in Ferelden, building up my character, and learning more about the world and my party members, the ending felt a little hollow. I spent a while trying to pin down the reason why I'm satisfied with the "life-goes-on" ending in games like Grand Theft Auto IV, but not in a game like Dragon Age: Origins.
The conclusion I came to was that it was because I had built my own character. If any of you have played Dragon Age: Origins, you'd know that your character plays an instrumental role in shaping the game world in a visible distinct way, more so than any other game I've ever played. Thus, after putting in all that "effort" to shape the turmoil-ridden land of Ferelden, I was expecting payoff (beyond Achievement Points), but alas, there wasn't much of it.
Of course, I think things are deliberately left open ended to keep room for DLC, or potential sequels, but still, a huge game like Dragon Age really almost owes it to the players to have a full ending that corresponds to their actions in the game. It's a blast to play the whole way through, but personally, after putting 60 hours into a game, I'd like more to show for it at the end.
I have finally leveld up to level 44 Violence Fight. Took it's time. Anyway i have still been substitute teacher the last weeks. I am waiting for spring so i can do the course that allows me to become an engineer. If i don't come in this year either, i will take one year of music studies and just have fun with that one year.
Things keep changing around here dont they?
Everything accept my level....... I've been level 20 for over a year now! Maybe if I logged on more than once a year it would help huh?
Hello to all of my friends & or anyone who reads this!
Cajun is back again......sort of.
I just remembered I had an account on this site, I post on GameFAQ's Random Insanity board once in a while now. I think I'm just going to maintain a personal blog on this site.
Anyway, I'm kinda in transition right now. I haven't even really had time to play any video games recently. College is fun and all, but MAN. To put my feelings into perspective, I have read 11 books and written 4 papers in the past week. However, I finished my French homework early, and I have the next few days to do nothing more than be lazy. The only important thing I have to do is wash my clothes. Speaking of things I have to spend money on, my savings from working all summer are starting to wear thin. I'm even feeling the effects of the U.S. economic crisis.
Also, there is a girl in my English discussion that has a crush on me for some reason. So now I have a love interest on top of everything else.
Tennessee lost AGAIN today, this time to South Carolina. Oh, well. At least I still have the Titans to cheer on. Looks like we won't even get a bowl game this year. I love how they expect us students to buy tickets and leave at the end of the game.
That's pretty much all on what's been going on with me, how has it been going for you guys and girls? Rant and rave!
Hi everyone!
I'm back from the dead. I stopped coming on here for 2 reasons...1, my computer was screwy for a while (not 2 years) just when it was fixed, I kinda got bored coming on here. Mostly because I never had money for games, and seeing all these great games made me sick to my stomach not being able to play most of them.
And reason 2, my PS2 broke. Pretty much ended my gaming days...
UNTIL 3 MONTHS AGO. After being fired from my job (funny/idiotic story) I recieved my tax return money which was just enough to buy an xbox 360(thank you God). And with some great new gamer friends who live there lives around gaming(thank you Jesus). It has allowed me to do a lot of borrowing. So life in the game world is finally a peaceful one.
So now I'm back on track, and checking this site out more often. OH, and my gamertag is SkullChrist. Anyone feel like adding me, go ahead. I'm looking foward to the online play.
Peace out for now.
Goodbye friends
patrick
mine is my black ds lite.its awesome!
Sony seems to have made a lot of mistakes and it would seem that this console war is between nintendo and MS
Sony; is placing too much time and effort into the blu-ray player, knowing sony`s track record this propetiary device will not fare well outside of the PS3 console, just look at betamax, umd`s and mini discs - yes it can store more info but that doesn`t matter, if a programmer is good he can condense info and program wisely. For instance take the program kkreiger which is only 96k, it looks as if it werer several hundred mega bytes. never heard of it heres a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.kkrieger
and in reality who cares about blu-ray or hd-dvd for that matter, i mean are people really going to upgrade all there movies, tv and so on for this- albeit gamers who are money poor to begin with, maybe they should have marketed that for movie buffs, not gamers. Another thing is Sony`s reliance on just having the fastest most powerful console; well thats all well and good but it needs to be resonable as well, i feel this console war is going to be less about power and more about experiance. it seems sony is making the same mistakes sega did years ago - making the most powerful console regardless of price and ability to program for.
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MS; well what can i say over 5.3 million sold so far with great games, connectivity and its only just begun. _real time counter
The developers of gears of war had said that that game was only using 1 core at E3!!! the 360 has 3!! http://xbox360.qj.net/Gears-of-War-Only-Running-on-One-Core-/pg/49/aid/3378
The 360 also has xbox live and arcade which are very succesful.
NINTENDO; well again what can i say nintendo has rabid fans, a great looking system, a great price to performance ratio, its got it all and is going to be tough to beat.
so i have changed my view for a third time i think MS will come out on time after x-mas with nintendo right behind
by next x-mas i see nintendo taking the lead with MS very close behind and Sony very far behind, in 5-6 years SOny will catch up and surpass but for 2-3 years MS and nintendo will be fighting for the top spot
Down and not even out yet! Lets stop talking so much hate on the PS3 till it actually comes out 'eh?
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=66506
This is an article that shows the good and the bad of what Sony has going for them, but if their numbers are correct....400,000 360's in Japan? 1.3 million in europe? That's pretty sorry numbers. 3.3 I think in U.S.A....looks like Sony might win anyways.....b/c to be number one you have to have........games! No matter what you say, Gears of War ain't gonna save no console, I don't care if their is a woman attached to the damn thing. Though one could argue, for the price of the PS3 it BETTER come with a woman haha. Also, Micro dropped alot of multi-plat games for x-box. Seems like once the 360 came out, they don't care about x-box owners. At least Sony had ps1 games made for like 3 years after ps2 was released. Bully is no longer a title b/c they don't care about BC since most of the people who own a x-box now have 360. Only problem I see with 360 right now is that there are no exclusives....most of them are PC ports with lag, at least for what I have seen with Oblivion and Full Auto, it got pretty choppy.....I digress. Good Luck to all three, I'm sure 360 will get some better games since it's still new, and ps3 will def see it's fair share of probs once out.....comment and commiserate my compadres
Man, it's been awhile since i've got on...my net at home is busted up, so I have'nt had much time to look around on here lately...My birthday came n went, and I'd have to say it was the best birthday EVAR!!! Got Madden 05 and SH4:TR, so I was pretty psyched...also got a ton of clothes, a new cell phone, and some spending money to play with...Unfortunately for me though, my algebra II grade might be keeping me from fuly enjoying these new gifts, lol...oh well, I'll try n work a lil magic in the classroom...but that's it for now, beter go before my teacher goes nuts and freaks out cuz im on here...til we meet again, au'revoir...
