Dragon Age: Origins

In general, I would consider myself a big fan of BioWare. I've played both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 through multiple playthroughs, as well as the DLC. I love RPGs where players make choices that affect the story and gameplay. They remind me of some of the old Black Isle games and other amazing US computer RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Fallout 1 and 2.

However, I've had trouble getting into Dragon Age: Origins. Somehow the choices leave me feeling railroaded rather than involved in the story, pulling me away from relating to my character. Initially for my first playthrough, I made a half-elf rogue, intending to play her as a sort of shades of gray hard-ass but ultimately well-intentioned character (much like my FemShep on my first playthroughs of both ME1 and ME2). Every time I came to a choice, I didn't see an option that matched my character concept, and the way the text was written didn't match my image either. It seemed like my choices were either "total jerk" or "insufferable suck-up", neither of which appealed. I abandoned the game for a long while (over a year!).

So now I'm picking it up again, hoping to give it another chance. This time around I'm playing a high elf mage, we'll see how it goes.

One thing I've noticed so far (I'm playing the Xbox 360 version) is that even though I have subtitles turned on, most of the subtitles don't appear when NPCs are talking, only the tail end appears several seconds after they're finished talking. Minor quibble but still slightly annoying.  (Oh, I take it back, starting a new game reset my settings and I had to turn subtitles back on.)

To be continued...