version two point oh

Mass Effect 3

lauresque — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:15:53 GMT

I finished last night but this is mostly about my space boyfriend. I can't even talk about the genophage because I am an emotional wreck from that and I'm still processing endgame in my head... what I *have* processed enough to share intense feels on is the Garrus romance. With helpful video embeds.

This? was EVERYTHING I ever dreamed it would be. Just the perfect level of awkward and uncertainty and cuteness and... guh. Not a lot to say other than this scene was PERFECT. I will sidebar to say that my Shepard imported BEAUTIFULLY and had this wonderful look of weariness sometimes... and she wore that hoodie the entire time because, in my head, she was just so worn out from everything that dressing up wasn't even on her radar.

Then there was the Kaidan stuff and I wasn't actually upset over that scene. I was worried words like "cheating" and "faithful" would come up in ways I didn't want them to, but I managed a nice note of "I'm sorry if it hurts you, but this is how I feel" to it. Very happy.

And then this happened. INHUMAN NOISES. Again, it was so perfectly on pitch and my Shepard felt SO IN CHARACTER. Like, she still looks tired but there's this lightness there and she's having fun and he's still awkward because he's GARRUS but there's more confidence there and.. OH MY GOD THAT KISS. I wasn't expecting kissing because, well, I've seen his mouth... lol. But the framing on that was PERFECT, how it didn't show their faces so we don't have to know how that possibly worked, lol. And then, don't end with that because we have to get that AWESOME scene with the sniping and showing that even though they love each other they're still THEM and it was just this beautiful light moment that they both needed SO BADLY.

After that scene, when the paramour achievement unlocked, I figured that would be it except the inevitable scene before endgame and I was fine with that. BUT I WAS WRONG. SOP WONDERFULLY WRONG.

There were a few other ones but this is the scene that stuck with me the most. That's just SUCH a lovely moment and such a quiet moment and just. I don't really have words but of this entire arc and series of videos I'm posting, this was my favourite. I just... I loved this. I loved how they supported each other, I loved how tired my poor Shep is. I just loved every second of this scene.

And then the inevitable pre-endgame love scene. This was *perfect*. I was talking to valiasedai about it and the things we really loved about it was how... how quiet and subtle it was. I've watched the other romances, I know there were some pretty graphic love scenes and a lot of groping on the bed and yknow what, this is so much better. Logically, I know it's a way around having to animate alien sex or Turian anatomy, but I think those limitations actually made this so much better. It really reads like a couple that loves each other and gets each other and like, he can just sit there reading and he hears her wake up and just goes and sits beside her? It's just SO romantic and touching and real and not about "Let's get it on while we have the time" and instead about how much they love each other and support each other and can be quiet together. (Though, really, she could've had the sheet over her.... lol)

So I figured that was going to be it and I was BEYOND happy with how the Garrus romance had turned out. And then this happened.

I just. I can barely talk about this scene. My heart was hurting SO MUCH. The voice acting in this just KILLED me. You never hear Femshep sound like that and it just... God. And again with the framing of their kiss, showing their hands and the catch in her voice and that final line from her? God. It was so perfect, so on point with every emotion and was just the PERFECT ending note to this relationship.

And as far as the ending... She destroyed the reapers. It's what she was there to do, it's what Anderson wanted and she was just so tired... and Garrus was with her until the conduit. I like to think he saw her make it to the light and as far as I'm concerned, he died down there and she died up there. And now they're together in a theoretical afterlife having a drink. Shepard and Vakarian. The more I think about it, the more I don't want an ending where Shepard lives, and I don't want Garrus to magically survive down there and end up off with Joker. It's sad and heartbreaking and just kills me, but I think the best happiness my poor Shepard could have would be to do what she set out to do. To stop the reapers with her last ounce of life and now she and Garrus are together somewhere else. Regardless of my opinions on religion and the afterlife and if I even think that Shepard really believes in it, I think the idea of having that thought and that dream that when it's all over, they'll still be together out there somewhere? That's beautiful and hopeful and... that's love.

So regardless of my thoughts on the rest of the game (which will come. And are 99% positive. I was blown away by the sheer emotional impact and any gripes I have are really minor.) The Shepard/Garrus arc was perfect. Surpassed my expectations and wildest dreams and I can't imagine another game or another character or another romance ever being this fulfilling and meaningful and perfect.

Bravo.

A couple parting notes:
-If any non-gaming friends read any of that, I promise you I'm not insane. It's a natural evolution of my insane shipper past, even. (Now go play Mass Effect.)
-I have no idea what to do with my f_march_madness bracket. It's actually really awesome because I did so well in previous years and having all these different fandoms and wild cards really shook it up, so psyched

#forestofchesthair is my favourite hashtag ever

lauresque — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:54:38 GMT

I finished Dragon Age 2.

I'm going to attempt to be coherent and talk about my game in a logical order.

Marian Hawke

That's my Hawke. I like the default name, so I kept it. She's a rogue. She's sarcastic but kind-hearted. I almost always took the snarky conversation options, she tries to joke her way out of everything but she isn't a bad person. And she does care. She just shows her caring in snarky ways. I specced her duelist/shadow but I hardly used those skills at all. Dual-wield all the way (Twin Fangs = best skill ever) with a lot of the sabotage skills because those are useful.

Companions:
Anders:
Good thing he's first alphabetically, since I romanced him! Really didn't intend to, I wasn't sure who I'd go for but oh I got so drawn in. Yes, he's different from Awakening!Anders but it was so perfectly done in my mind. He's a apostate, she's been protecting apostates her entire life (Her father, Bethany) it makes sense she would be drawn to him. And I was really impressed with the romance, I'll talk about that later though. Full friend bar, here.

Aveline
OMG! I love her SO much! Absolute best friend Hawke could ever have! She disapproved of Hawke's snark sometimes, but they were such a great pair. I loved everything about her. EVERYTHING.

Bethany:
As I played rogue, I had Bethany and not Carver. I didn't use her much when I had her, which I regret, but while she and Hawke didn't always get along, they lvoed each other and Hawke would protect her to the ends of the earth.

Fenris:
Meh. He annoyed me so much. Everything he said was just so grating. I get that he doesn't like me for being a mage sympathizer, but I didn't like his storyline at all. Wasn't full rival, but definitely wasn't a fan.

Isabela
I didn't hate her? She left me at the end of act 2, and since I'm a dual-wield rogue as well I didn't exactly take her many places. But I really liked he banter and eh attitude, I wasn't as annoyed as I expected to be by her lack of pants. I'll try and keep her next time, get to know her a little more.

Merrill:
Well, didn't expect a blood mage? Everything about eh chocies made me want to smack her. She was adorable, and I /liked/ her... but her act 3 personal quest just... AGGRAVATED. Like, I just couldn't get behind her motivation. Hawke helped her to a point but kept trying to get the keeper to step in.

Varric:
BEST FOR LAST! Oh where to start? Varric, you amazing dwarf, you! Hands down adorable. Everything he said was amazing, everything he did was amazing, I AM COMPETLELY FINE WITH YOU TELLING MY TALE!

Story:
Breakdown, here's my choices:
-Sided with the smugglers in Kirkwall
-Did not take Bethany to the deep roads
-Killed the rock wraith
-100% on the mages side
-Romanced Anders
-Tried to keep peace with the Qunari, which cost Isabela
-Helped Anders
-Let Anders live
-Sided with the mages in endgame

Anything important left out? I'm absolutely FLABBERGASTED that my first playthrough turned out so well, story wise. I /loved/ everything that was going on, I was SO ENGROSSED by the time I was into act 2. Act 1 was a little rough, but I knew exactly where it was leading (Deep Roads. Woo. D: oh well). Act 2 was AWESOME. The passage of time, the deepening of companion relations, everything just starting to come together... the Murder plotline was FUCKING CREEPY and I cried like a baby when Hawke's mom died. Like full on bawling, it was really bad. I was just so attached to her and her family and the story and... I knew something bad was coming in that creepy creepy dungeon or torture, but... Oh God, it was so sad. And then the URGENCY of the Qunari assault? Running across the city to get there? Fuck, it was all SO WELL PACED and I was SO TENSE and SO ENGROSSED... Perfectly done.

Act 3 was even better, with all the tensions mounting... I did Anders' quest first in Act 3 so I spent the entire time SO NERVOUS about what he was doing. And Act 3, the act of the cameos! I SAW KING ALISTAIR! AND HE TALKED ABOUT HIS WIFE! AND HIS WIFE IS TOTALLY MY WARDEN! I don't care how lame it is or how derpified his face got, THAT WAS A VERY HAPPY CUTSCENE FOR ME. And TEAGAN was there! Nice touch! Leliana being in Sebastian's DLC was a complete and utter shock, too. She looked gorgeous! (Unlike Zevran who looked awful, LOL). I didn't get Nathaniel even though he lived through my Awakening game (BOO) so I haven't done that.

But that ENDGAME, HOLY SHIT. ANDERS! I can't even! !!! I was SO INVESTED in everything that was going on! Meredith and Orsino were both FANTASTIC and I really liked them both! Obviously, I have only done the mage-support ending, but... WOW. I was SO PISSED OFF when Orsino proved everyone right about mages and blood magic. (And mentioning Quentin's research? So he was the "O" that wrote to him? shudder.) and the entire final battle with Meredith? BEAUTIFUL. I loved the colours, in the square with the statues and the bronze and the red and the gold and just... OH MY GOD THE STATUES WERE ATTACKING ME! And of COURSE Meredith had the idol, I can't believe I didn't think of that! And Cullen! STANDING UP FOR MAGES! (Cullen got hotter in this game, I swear)

And then! LELIANA! OH MY GOD. I almost wish I hadn't seen her in the DLC and that was the only time she appeared... but I was NOT expecting her at all. I nearly screamed when she showed up at the end with Cassandra and OH MY GOD. This was SO INTENSE. You didn't just save the world this time... you CHANGED it! All the circles in Thedas have fallen? SHIT JUST GOT REAL, YO!

...I want Dragon Age 3 now so badly.

BUT.

BUT.

THE MOST FLABBERGASTING PART? Hawke got a mostly happy ending! Ran off with Anders to protect mages and have apostate babies and fight for Justice and just... I AM SO BEYOND OKAY WITH THIS. I'm so used to my first playthrough sucking so hard, and this is just.. EXACTLY the right ending for my Marian Hawke!

*flail*

(Hawke/Anders OTP forever. I was saying yesterday to Gem when I was preparing for ehartbreak that it was going to hurt SO MUCH WORSE because they had years together... god I'm so glad it worked out.)

Gameplay:
Don't laugh at me, this is a HUGE achievement for me. I PLAYED THE ENTIRE GAME ON NORMAL (NOT CASUAL!) AND DIDN'T HAVE TO LOWER IT FOR ANYTHING. I nearly did when I was on my third try with the rock wraith, but I beat it. (That was the hardest fight in the game for me, actually. Well, that and fighting some Templars on Anders' first loyalty because I wasn't thinking and had Anders/Merrill/Sebastian... so I was the only non-ranged and that sucked. BUT I DID IT.) I even did the High Dragon the first time! it was hard and long (ha!) but I did it!

A couple little gameplay notes: I still think the UI is ugly. Every cave was the same map, every warehouse was the same map... yeah. Still, the city of Kirkwall itself was SO ALIVE and I loved every minute I was there.

The format really worked for me. It told an EPIC story and the companions had LIVES... it wasn't just a group banded together, these were people with developing loyalties and relationships... I liked little touches like Varric being at Anders' clinic when I visited, etc. It just felt so awesome.

Conclusion:
Exceeded EVERY expectation I had. I was wary, THIS WAS AMAZING. SUCH A GOOD RUN!

I love this game.

lauresque — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:05:05 GMT

Um. There is no excuse for this post.

The expansion pack comes out on Tuesday. I've spent the last two months playing various characters, writing fanfic, and being generally obsessed. My latest big project was completed last night (which whisperwords & tasmen got to observe over skype.) It entailed running a "perfect" "canon" playthrough for my human noble rogue. I meticulously decided what order to do the story, which choices to make, etc. I also decided to undertake every side quest. I mostly accomplished that (I missed a few Drake Scales and couldn't do that one, but still!) And as a result, I feel compelled to share this story. Because I am a huge nerd.

This is Elissa Cousland. She's a rogue from Highever.

She has an older brother, a sister-in-law, a nephew and parents who, while lovely, have terrible taste in clothing. She also has a faithful Mabari War Hound named Vas.

One day, the castle is visited by a Grey Warden and one of her father's old friends. When guessing which of those newcomers to the castle engineer the slaughter of her entire family, keep this in mind: one is a gentle badass with impeccable manners and the other is voiced by Tim Curry.

Arl Howe betrays her father for his own nefarious purposes and Elissa's entire family is murdered. As her father lies dying and her mother vows to stay and protect him (*sniff*), Duncan recruits Elissa into the Grey Wardens to battle the Darkspawn and fight with the King at Ostagar, all in order to get her out alive. Elissa is very sad.

Duncan takes Elissa to Ostagar to fight a glorious battle. She meets King Cailan as well as General Loghain. She hangs out with the newest Grey Warden, Alistair who takes her and the other recruits off to find some gross blood for a magic ritual that truly makes them Grey Wardens. But, then they get into the wilds and are set upon by a mysterious woman with a lot of cleavage!

Her mom is totally evil and magical. Together they are ~~Captain Janeway & Aeryn Sun~~ Flemeth and Morrigan!

Elissa and Alistair get stuck single-handedly defending a tower. Long story short, Loghain is an asshat and abandons the field, the King is killed. The Grey Wardens get blamed (oh, and slaughtered.) leaving Elissa and Alsitair the only Grey Wardens left to save Ferelden from The Blight. Oh, and ~~Aeryn Sun~~ Morrigan comes along to ensure there's a mage in the party.

Elissa, Alistair, Morrigan and the Dog make a couple of new friends and set off for Redcliffe to visit the man that basically raised Alistair.

Instead they run into that dude's incredibly hot and suave brother. And a blood mage. And a crazy lady and her possessed kid. He's raising skeletons and zombies and shit and terrorizing the world but she's an idiot and tries to protect him anyway. So Elissa and her party set off for the Circle Tower to find some mages to help un-possess the kid and save Redcliffe.

And shit. The Tower is also possessed by demons and blood mages and lots of shenanigans like that. So Elissa makes a new friend and they have to go through this awful thing called the Fade that I can't even speak about lest I rage. And then they have to defeat the evil controlling The Tower and free the Templars and Mages. Oh noes!

So they go back to Redcliffe to save the kid. The purple lady with no shirt is a desire demon that's possessing the kid, but they fix that so it's okay. His dad (and Alistair's fake dad) is still really sick though, so they wander off on a sacred journey to find the ~~holy grail~~ Urn of Sacred Ashes and cure him. It's all very dramatic and upsetting. So instead, I'm going to segue into this:

Alsitair and Elissa totally fall in love. And he's all bashful and virginal and she shows him the pleasures of doing it on the ground at camp. Also, he's the secret bastard brother of the King. These things happen in fantasy world RPGs. So they're totally in love and saving the world from The Blight.

But back to the story. This guy shows up and tries to kill everyone. But he fails so he becomes their friend instead. Yay.

And then everyone runs off to the Dwarf city of Orzammar to enlist the Dwarves to fight The Blight. This is the longest part of the game and I reduced it to four caps. Elissa fights a lot of darkspawn in a lot of grossly long maps. She meets Oghren, the greatest person in the entire game and then the new Dwarf King says "okay, we're in".

And then the same thing happens wth the Elves. But there's Werewolves and it's not as long. But it's way more annoying. And that tree thinks he's Treebeard but he totally isn't.

So, with everybody willing to fight The Blight, Elissa and her friends return to this guy. Arl Eamon. Alistair's fake daddy (his real daddy was the old king...). And Eamon is all "'sup bitches, it's Landsmeet time!" and makes them march on the capital to depose Loghain from the throne and unite the country against The Blight. YAY!

Except not. First Elissa have to rescue the queen, get naked kidnapped, get rescued by the Oghren and Zevran comedy act and solve the mystery of what's going on in the Alienage with all the Elves. (Hint: There's slavery.)

Now it's Landsmeet time! All the Nobles of Ferelden gather and Elissa tells them all about how Alistair is the rightful King of the land. And that Loghain is an asshole. And that she's gonna marry Alistair and be his queen.

And then Elissa has Alistair behead Loghain. And makes his daughter get covered in her daddy's blood. They're nice like that.

Then this Orlesian asshole shows up and is all "BTW, to slay the Archdemon a Grey Warden needs to die." And ~~Aeryn Sun~~Morrigan is all "Unless Alistair sleeps with me and ~~sets up the sequel~~ creates a baby with the sould of an Old God or something. And Elissa is all ".....fine." and convinces Alsitair to sleep with ~~Aeryn Sun~~ even though it's a terrible horrible no good very bad ~~sequel plot~~ idea.

So it's big last battle time. Alistiar is all Kingly and rallies the troops one last time. And then makes out with Elissa. And then they all march off into a huge long battle that takes forever (as the climax of a game is want to do) and I didn't really cap.

Until this motherfucker shows up. The Archdemon. The source of The Blight. The big bad.

And Elissa kills it. She kills the SHIT out of it.

Alistair gets coronated. The crowds rejoice. Elissa is named The Hero of Ferelden. Oh, and her brother is still alive. YAY!

Then there's an epilogue and Alistair and Elissa get married and live a vague unspecific life together because ~~have to leave room for the sequel~~ who wants all those details?

And that's the story. Until Tuesday when the expansion comes out and ruins everything.