Lots of side quests yeah. It's different though, lots of those lead to new things later. I'm sure end results don't change much, but a lot of things will come up again. How many things I only saw because of my choices, who knows. Kinda helps the world I guess, seeing people you dealt with earlier.

Cliffhanger ending indeed. The whole thing wraps up together rather well though, I suppose. I'm wondering what the difference with the Templars are, if you choose them. I really want to try, but I can't decide how to go about it. I had two other playthrough ideas, but both really just end up mage.

Also, Anders    is one crazy bastard.   
Really did like the old him, though.

I'm surprised how well Sebastien tends to fit in to certain parts. Still clear enough that it's a bit more tacked on, but still connected rather well the the Chantry and Grand Cleric.

Oh yeah, and quite a few cameos and DAO references, but that's to be expected.
   I really got a laugh out of hearing Alister say "Swooping is bad." though.   

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Well, finished my first run. Female mage with default face.    Crazy    Anders    is crazy   .    Isabela    pulled a dick move on me early in-game and    left forever.    Bitch.    Fenris    is also a complete douche for    siding with the templars    at the end. Well I    killed the little bitch for his betrayal.   
Some people complained about the ending    being a cliffhanger.    HURRR
Overall the ending (   the side-with-mages ending    at least) is good enough for me. I liked how    Meredith bought    the    artifact from Bartrand    and proceeded to    make a sword out of it    then goes    batshit    and pretty much    turned out to be no better than    the    blood mages    that    she hated so much.   
Too well, apparently.
I have a friend that complained that this makes Sebastian pretty much a required character for the story to be complete.

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EPIC FAIL art thread | Updated 09/30/2009 | Rawbawtz
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Played the demo, I don't like the new camera

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How many acts are there?

Also, the companion quest for Aveline 'The Long Road' was hilarious. Or as Isabella said "Take a hint and bend her over a basin."

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Three acts. And yeah, I didn't really like Aveline as a character at first, but that quest was hilarious.

And geez, Glah, do you use spoiler tags like that to tempt me into reading them? Being able to read some of it, but it being gibberish without the spoilers makes my brain crave the solution!

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I really started liking Aveline the most of all the characters. It's pretty funny if you try to flirt with her because she completely ignores all of it. You could say the most incredibly inappropriate thing (because Bioware writers are the most dirty-minded folks around) and she'd just blink and continue on mechanically about what she was originally talking about.

But seriously, Aveline is just a nice girl.

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Yep. She deserves to move on and be happy.

Also, Isabella: not such a bitch when you know her. Still direct and very loose about sex, but she's willing to close shop if you just tell her to.    Better than Zevran, to me. He still doesn't seem to have an off switch. Tries to get him some on the beach with Izzy.   

And in Act 3, but no import problems I've seen. (Still unsue about Leliana's data importing. The stuff with her was rather vague about the past...) So, guess it's just luck of the draw if you get one that doesn't do it right.

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Ya. It's no coincidence there's a brothel in every other of their games.

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I made    Merrill kill    the entire    Dalish population at Sundermount    lulz.
And Anders    blew up    the    chantry.   
Made me sad.
Shut up. I like my CIA style spoilertags.
That quest was amusing.    Donnic said "I would like some backbone", she appeared in the bar in the back    and then    chickens out.   
Well yeah, I didn't go friendly with her. Thought I did expect you to be able to convince her otherwise if you have high enough friendship.
Well, unless you did something of massive significance to her (i.e.: bone her or    "revive" Andraste   ) I suspect there isn't going to be any difference at all. I did afterall    kill Justice in Awakening,    but I'm not seeing any difference in    Anders    I don't recall any brothels in ME. ME2 maybe, but I don't see an obvious one.

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EPIC FAIL art thread | Updated 09/30/2009 | Rawbawtz
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ME had strippers. Close enough.

Like the companions, especially Aveline and Varric. Romanced Merril, she was nice. Odd though. Very odd. Didn't see much of Isabella. I miss the old Anders. Sebastien was neat. Fenris was a bit meh, to me. Bethany I barely saw    after she joined the Circle.   

Yeah, what Anders    did though was pretty crazy. Heck if I know how he did that. Giant red beams, man...   
Far as I heard,    Leliana will always be there regardless, as will Anders/Justice. Too important to the story, it seems.   

Still can't decide what character to do. I'm saddened    it seems the finale is the same regardless of if you choose mage or templar, you fight Orsino and Meredith either way. And Orsino turning on you while you're helping him was just dumb. Damnit BW, what's with you and boss fights?   

I'm thinking a female snarky rogue to romance Isabela or Anders. Not sure if I'll get Fenris ever. Just not sure how to go about working with Templars. Two-handed warrior perhaps. Or a mage hating mage. Hm....    Then, it's not hard to hate them when they really are all blood mages, it seems. Honestly, every where you look.   

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There is supposedly a way for    a peaceful solution between the factions    if you    do not complete    the    last part of Anders' companion mission.    As in    don't collect all of the ingredients    and you should be able to    achieve the peaceful solution    somehow. If you haven't noticed already,    Anders' special potion    is actually    the magic bomb    that is used to    destroy the Chantry.   
About Bethany, she's    a temporary companion    afterall. I played mage in my first run and brought Carver with me for the    Deep Roads expedition    and by chance,    Anders,    so I was able to    save him by making him into a Warden.    He later    came back once during the Qunari uprising,    then I had to    save his ass    again when    Nate Howe and friends    decide to    follow my Deep Roads expedition trail.    And he    showed up again    right after    the Chantry went boom. Stuck with me from thereon until the very end.    Good thing, too because    fucking emo elf    decided that    he should join the templars.   

And about Leliana and Anders, even if have to be there, there should be some slight differences here and there.

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EPIC FAIL art thread | Updated 09/30/2009 | Rawbawtz
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   A peaceful solution? Where'd you hear this? I've been browsing the BW forums a bit, and I haven't seen anything about a peaceful solution. And yeah, I knew the ingredients made the bomb. Just weird the bomb happens to cause, well, that. Didn't know magic could be that strong, without lots of blood. Maybe he added a healthy dose of lyrium to the mix.   

And yeah. Odd they    made your siblings temps, but I guess that's why they weren't given a special tree.   

Also, this was odd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwa-mKETJW0
It's got a lot of people guessing.

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In act 3 now. It seems Isabela has left me for good, probably since I didn't see her Questioning Beliefs had come up before the one where she leaves, and she was barely a friend to begin with. Since Hawke is a dual wielding rogue, she's the most disposable party member, but losing party members still suck


As mentioned earlier, it doesn't actually import any data from Awakening, only Origins and some of the DLC. This is probably because they wanted very specific events from Awakening to be canon, namely, they wanted Justice alive (if you killed him, the entire character of Anders would be denied) and the Architect alive to have a role in later sequels.

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Would think they'd let some data import, if they comply with that info. Mine had Anders, Justice, and the Architect alive at the end.

Was hoping they'd have the epilogue thing at the end still, though. I liked reading up on some of that stuff in Origins.

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The Fallout games (all of them, I think) also has that kind of epilogue. I can't really decide on them. On one hand it's nice to see all the consequences of your actions and the future fate of the people and places you care about. On the other, it's a very dull to end the game with a slideshow with a bunch of text.

In Origins, you/loghann/alistair slay the Archdemon. Boom, climax. Then there's there's the ceremony after, where you get your righteous glory and farewells to your comrades. Boom, outfacing.

... And then comes the slideshow which ruins the epic feeling of accomplishment you just had.

I guess I would prefer it if they had a more visually interesting way of showing what happens, or perhaps if it wasn't shown at the ending but you could read up on it or something.

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And epilogue entry for the codex!
Well, Awakening didn't have post-game freedom though.

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EPIC FAIL art thread | Updated 09/30/2009 | Rawbawtz
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If they make dragon age 3, I think it would be wise if they combine the story of 1 with the combat system of 2. That game would be EPIC!