Dragon Intoxication

As many of you know, I am a gamer.  And, as all the gamers know: a gamer has to do what a gamer has to do!  And I did.  I've been playing through Dragon Age 2 as fast as I can.  Yet I'm only 2/3 through.  Great Game!!! I think it is a fine successor to Dragon Age: Origins!  Don't knock it because it was streamlined or has a less epic story than the original.  Bioware just decided to take Dragon Age in a different direction, and you know what?  It works!  I like DA2 partly because I like Mass Effect 2 (btw, if anyone wants a free copy of Mass Effect 2, I have a code for it, read: its legal).  If I would compare Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 to another pair of video games, I would compare them to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask.  These were both excellent games that took two different takes on the series.  Ocarina was the standard Zelda much like Origins was the standard RPG.  Epic quest going against unbeatable odds, there is little to hate.  Majora's mask was a developer challenge: how can a game be based on one city with surrounding areas over the course of 3 days??  This challenge led to a huge step up in writing and it was AWESOME!  Dragon Age 2 is much in the same.  It happens in one city Kirkwall and a few places outside of it.  While I don't think its writing is better than its predecessor, I think for what it aims to be, it is an example to be followed.