Dragon Age II *Spoilers Inside*

When I play a game, I don't just play... I live it.  It starts to encompass my entire world so that really nothing else besides the game can be accomplished and Dragon Age II is no different from any other game I've played.  I'm not quite sure, other than I'm just a backwards person, but I decided to read some people's review on the game after the fact that I've played and finished it.  I found nearly all of them to have a good perspective and good points about positive and negative aspects of the game.  Generally I personally enjoy the game (when you have the same producers that created nearly the greatest games of all time: Mass Effect series, you just can't go wrong).

So let's start with the dialogue.  Its great..... and yet a bit redundant at times.  Having played through a couple times, choosing different dialogue options and choices throughout the game, I discovered that much of it stays the same regardless of things you do.  For example, let's look at the Blackpowder Promise mission (This mission is prior to the Blackpowder Courtesy).  You begin the mission by stumbling upon a dwarf being attacked by giant spiders.  He tells you about this powerful explosive blackpowder made by the Qunari and he then asks you to hunt down the Tal-Vashoth (a ruthless band of rebel Qunari) as a favor for the Arishok.  At this point in time you have various dialogue options ranging from the basic "yea I'll do it", "this is a stupid plan", to the downright, "forget it".  Regardless of which dialogue option you choose the mission (as with all the missions in this game) remains open for you to perform.  After taking on the Tal-Vashoth you then are prompted to return to the docks and speak with the Qunari leader.  Through two different play-throughs I chose one, "yea I'll do it" and one "forget it".  The dialogue between the dwarf, the Arishok, and myself didn't vary at all.  The game highly prompts that the choices you make alters game play and I just don't see this consistently with the various missions. 

Fighting: Wonderful.  The game designers really improved upon an already good system.  I recall games earlier on in my life where it was mere button smashing in order to fight your way through your enemies and most games today have drastically improved this.  Dragon Age II has a wonderfully easy radial menu with six options open to various fighting styles you can personally assign to each.  I just loved that they kept this from the first one.  Also with this sequel the moves that you see your characters performing have become even more flourished with grace and style.  I was also quite impressed that the mages in the game went from mere point and shoot with their staff to a much more kung fu type movements as they twirl their staffs along their body. 

Armor:  Very nice that I no longer have to worry about purchasing armor for my companions as they wear what is originally assigned to them, but you are allowed to upgrade each one's armor to help protect you along the game with the progressively stronger opponents.  I was hoping for more style and pizazz for my character, but I wasn't entirely disappointed either.  The ultimate champion armor of course being one of the best looking armors available, I was intrigued that instead of just handing it over in the third act, you are instead expected to fight a boss dragon (which was one heck of an ordeal).

Ending:  I enjoyed that you are still able to romance your various companions so as my first run through with the game I chose to woo Anders, an apostate mage who has fused himself with a spirit of justice.  I was dreadfully disappointed that he turned out to be a mass murderer with no sense of regret or guilt.  It made me think of how different it would have been if the designers instead allowed you to stop him if pursuing a relationship with him, and not have that capability if romancing any of the other companions.  I just wish that I had more control over the events that lead to and end the game.  With Mass Effect I felt that every choice, even in regards to the smallest of side missions, ultimately had some affect on the rest of the game play and ending.  Your companion's lives are literally in your hands in Mass Effect 2, but you just don't see or feel that way with Dragon Age II.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the game and I personally would give it a 7.5 out of 10.  I suppose after having played Mass Effect, my standards have risen in regards to RPG's, but Dragon Age II surely doesn't disappoint in entertainment value.

Cheers!

A Cattle Story

Oh do I have quite the humorous cattle story that would be criminal to keep to myself.  Everyone should have the pleasure of laughing at my expense!  As I have stated before in posts and in my profile, I'm a Veterinary Nurse.  My class was assigned to a reproductive Angus cattle farm to do some clinical hours with large animals.  The morning started off without a hitch as we corralled a couple of heifers, placed them in the cattle alley, and put the first heifer into the chute.  *Just as a side note, this particular style of alley and chute was designed by an autistic woman whose goal was to limit the stress of the animal when corralling them into these small areas.  The heifer seemed very calm, occasionally mooing at us as we practiced placing harnesses and jugular blood draws.  The veteranarian on staff was very knowledgeable with many years of experience in large animal medicine.  He explained everything that they do at the ranch even going into detail on how they mass produce embryos of elite cattle to sell.  We were all having a pretty good time, as far as I could tell, and I know I was having just a blast.  The veterinarian then asked if any of us would like to draw blood from a tail vein, and me always wanting to try everything that is offered, quickly rose my hand and stepped up to the chute.  The veterinarian got in first and showed me as I stood off to the side, just how I was going to walk in and do the blood draw.  He lifted the heifer's tail and she managed to squirt out a bit of feces onto his overalls.  We all kind of chuckled and then he stepped out so that I could go in next.  Filled with an undying eagerness I walked into the chute and stepped up to the cow's behind.  The veterinarian stood close to monitor and was giving me good pointers as I felt along the tail for the exact spot I needed.  Being a kind gentleman and in an attempt to aid me, the veterinarian said he would hold the tail up for me.  As soon as that tail went up in the air, Bessy (the name I decided to give my sweet cow friend) took aim and fired. From my stomach down to the boots I wore were literally covered in **** (feces).  And of course, like a true trooper, I looked down, looked back up at my classmates, smiled, and laughed.  I sure wasn't going to let a little bit of warm brown goo get me down so with tail still high up in the air, I poked and got blood on my first try! 
I sort of waddled my way out of the chute and like any other animal lover, instead of immediately going to wash off, I was more concerned with my patient.  Unfortunately (the one down side to my story) the heifer had been in the chute for such a time that it had blocked the jugular artery causing her to not be able to walk.  We were all pretty shaken up as we saw her desperately trying to stand on her front two legs to get back out to the pasture.

Thankfully there was only good news after we had departed from the ranch.  The veterinarian informed us that she had recovered fully and was doing just fine.  They had given her some pain medications and this seemed to do the trick.  As for me I have lots of photos and my stained jeans to never let me forget about my wonderful experience!

Cheers!

Email Corruption

I've heard of this happening to others, but never imagined it happening to me.  Its not really such a horrible experience considering the email was merely a yahoo account.  If anything its a nuisance rather than an extreme upheaval of my life.  I also enjoyed going through the whole process of having to come up with a new email ID and complete new account. I chose to go super fancy and picked an ID that was Gaelic.  I really liked the sound of it... it just flows off the tongue well. 

The only other issue I had with the whole experience was of course sending out a mass email telling everyone to ignore emails from this account and to not send me mail to this particular account, but even this was not a huge ordeal.  I received a couple of emails of course asking what happened but all in all this took only 15 minutes of my life and I enjoyed it anyway.

So to the gentleman or lady who corrupted my email... I say thanks!

Cheers!

Spring Weather

Oh how I just love spring time!  The only problem with it here in Colorado is that it never just stays in spring time mode.  The weather starts to warm up and storms begin to build and pass, and then before you can celebrate the wonderful spring time cheer... it snows.  All week has been just beautiful and we are supposedly going to receive (granted a light dusting) snow tomorrow.  I never believed anyone before moving here that the weather is unpredictable, but sure enough Colorado has proven itself as very unreliable.  I am still trying to become more accustomed to the great variances, but I fear that I will never fully accept it.  I just don't care for getting snow outside the winter months.... actually I don't care for snow during any months!  I suppose all I can do is just sit back, wait it out, and hope the summer comes fairly quickly.

Cheers!

Action Movies

I had decided to watch Blade II the other day considering I was bored and its been quite a few years since I last saw it.  I  remembered it being a rather "cool" movie with lots of fun action scenes, swords swinging back and forth, and big guns that can mow down an entire group of invading vampires, but sadly I was disappointed this time.  I'm sure its just my tastes have changed as I've gotten older and I'd like to think, more wiser. I sat on my couch half amused and nearly asleep.  I really had to chuckle at the scene in which they are preparing to enter the underground sewers during the day in order to kill off the horde of oddly mutated vampires, some rap song is blaring in the background as the camera man sweeps over each member applying their pleather outfits with black plastic shoulder pads, because apparently the combination of pleather and plastic is enough to ensure their safety against these demonic creatures.  Tears came to my eyes as I nearly laughed myself off of my seat and the most amusing thought was how in the world did I ever find this to be "cool".  I distinctly remember thinking, "this is awesome" and yet I couldn't even make it through the entire movie.  I had an odd mixture of being amused and bored so I determined that it would just be better if I turned it off.  Of course these thoughts did bring back other memories of times in which I am pain stackingly embarrassed to mention.  I recall one event (not embarrassing to me) where I was watching Fast and Furious at the drive-in.  Two young kids who couldn't have been more than 12 years old were going on and on about how each were going to place a NOS system in their car.  I had to chuckle at this considering that neither were even old enough to drive let alone make their car a moving bomb, but its moments like these in which it reminds me that once I too found something cool (Blade) and I'm sure that just like me those kids will be embarrassed of it one day.

Cheers!