DAO - 3 Hours In....

Character Creation

The character creation system is very nice-- I almost felt like I was working on a Sim, except with severely limited hairstyles. I couldn't get as specific as I'm used to on the Sims 2 and 3, but I hardly expected to, either. It was a nice range for an RPG.

I chose to start out for this first play-through with a human rogue -- I'm going to go traditional, the human rogue, elf mage, dwarf warrior route. At the moment, I'm rocking dual weapon skillz, since the archery system isn't as specific as Fable's, which is what I'm more used to. Fable's can be specific, though, since you're just controlling one character there. With Dragon Age, you're controlling a party and its hard to do tricky bow work on the spot.

Story

The story is a little traditional in the case of human origins-- I'm not sure yet how much it varies between the races and backgrounds. Basically, you're the rich, privileged daughter (in my case, anyway) of a human nobleman. And honestly, I felt like a piece of meat as such. I swear that every time a single male of appropriate birth looked at me, I could see the dollar signs go ka-ching in their eyes. Gah. Points for reality, but negative points because reality sucks. I really hope that I can see Ser Gilmore and the elf lady's maid whose name I cannot remember again. They were awesome! Beyond that, I could see the "twist" a mile away and it was a really boring beginning. Let's hope things pick up now that I'm actually nearly a Gray Warden. As an aside, though, I'm really beginning to like my bratty, yet dutiful avatar. And honestly, her brother is really awesome. As in, if he wasn't her brother and married, I would definitely have her hit on him.

Battle

I don't think I've quite grasped the battle yet. Most of my three hours of play were spent walking around and in character creation, so I'm not really there yet. So far, I've basically been hack'n'slashing. Hopefully, I'll get better at tactics and control later.

Graphics

I know a lot of people have said that the graphics are nothing special, but honestly, the game is gorgeous. The architecture is beautiful and perfect, and though the people could be more realistic, they're still pretty dang close to real. I do wish that the weapons looked like they were actually on the person rather than hovering over their back, but, well, we can't have everything.

Now, to become a Gray Warden!

P.S. DAMMIT! I could have gotten the family sword in the treasury. Why didn't I remember about those lazy guards? The game was obviously telling me to go there later. *headdesk*