Homefront Notes

Patches already? only been out half a week.

No difficulty choice?

Controls
Usual analogue sticks
X is pick up / use / climb etc.
B is crouch / go prone.
A is jump.
Y switches weapon

Clicking left stick runs, right stick is melee.

Right bumper is grenade.
Left bumper is C4

Clicking left stick sprints.

We see news, North Korea testing nukes, UN sanctions. kim Jong Ill dies and his son takes over. It is 2013 and Korea is united, the middle east explodes and oil is scarce. It is now 2017 and everything is going to hell. Korea is taking over and is now called the Greater Korean republic invading all it's neighbors. A satellite is a a secret EMP weapon that knocks out USA power. The Koreans invade America.
The montage of stock footage ends with America invaded and it's people subjugated.

Mission 1
The game starts in a small room, the radio tells us that we are in Colorado.
The door is hammered on and three soldiers barge in. We are forced against the wall and one of them tells us that we are unpatriotic.
We are smashed in the face with a rifle butt and kicked down the stairs.
Outside loads of people are being herded around and we are dragged towards a bus.
We are herded onto the bus and as it drives slowly along the street we see about fifty people being tied up and cuffed, loaded onto vehicles. Some resist and are beaten, some run and get shot. A mother and father are lined up against the wall and shot in front of their very young child.
We are told by another bus passenger that these people will be taken to a labour camp.
The bus drives through a security checkpoint into a deserted broken down part of the city.
A lorry rams it and rolls the bus. A rebel comes aboard and knife the soldiers and sets us free. we run through a shop and are followed by soldiers. I get an assault rifle.
The people we are with are Connor and Rhianna, seems they targeted us for rescue for some as yet unknown reason.
I fight though some buildings and come to a petrol station, we fight from inside the shop as trucks filled with soldiers arrive.
Eventually it all blows up and we run off into a suburban area.
I am told to wait as a tank and loads of  soldiers pass down a street then sprint past behind them.
I come to a crash site of a plane and we fight soldiers through the wreckage.
The grenade indicator is the same as call of duty. In fact an awful lot is similar.
An APC needs C4 thrown at it and detonated twice.
We move into a civilian area and meet another resistance man. He seems to have some sort of plan involving gas and us being a pilot.
He is angry that Connor brought us to this residential area. He is proved right as the army arrive and starts shooting everyone, rebel or innocent.
We have to defend a house under heavy siege until tear gas is thrown in.
Then we run, a woman with a baby is hidden in the backyard and we run on to draw the army away from her.
We move into another house and the rebels have some heavy gear of their own. We get to use a humvee that is driven by remote control. It just needs pointed at stuff and it goes and shoots at them for us.
I use it to take out a few enemy vehicles and then a plane comes and bombs the area.

Mission 2
I wake up in a house, seems to be a rebel settlement, evidence of children and plant crops.
Boone and Connor argue about the timing of the plan.
After exploring the eco commune we are asked to go on a mission with the rebels.
We go through a tunnel and are told that the resistance built loads of similar tunnels.
We come up into another street.
There is an automatic sentry turret here, it is a chaingun connected to sensors.
We have to throw a grenade at it and stay out of it's searchlight beam.
Then we meet a patrol and fight them.
We then meet up with Rhianna in a school. She has some mortar shells.
Boone has been wounded, he is taken home by Rhianna.
We are going to recon a labour camp.
Recon seems to mean full frontal assault to these people.
We have to fight our way up a street, using back alleys and take out a sentry tower.
Seems we are looking for someone inside the labour camp. The full on attack at the front gates is a diversionary tactic.
We sneak inside using a tunnel and ditch our rifles, keeping only our pistols.
We are told to ask around for Arnie.
A slow walk around the camp reveals intense hardship, like an Indian slum with armed guards.
We find Arnie, who is meant to be leading us to some buses we are going to do something to.
Not very good at explaining the plot here guys!.
Anyway Arnie is a double crosser and we are captured. In slow time we shoot our way out.
We have to climb some stairs and take out all the guards on the balcony above where the two rebels are pinned down.
We then go into the guard station and take three beacons for some unspecified reason.
The plan is finally explained. We are tagging three fuel tankers. Which we will then be able to track. The plan is to fly out following them to a remote location where their support will be negligible and take the tankers.
We come to a baseball field and find the army digging mass graves with loads of victims to toss in.
We fight our way around the field until we take out two towers. We then have to evade a helicopter gunship. To do so we hide amongst the bodies.

Mission 3
We see Boone back to health and we are going on another mission, getting into a van.
There is a mortar in the van.
We are to be a sniper.
I follow rhianna up onto the roof of a building.
We are now looking down onto a walled yard with lots of soldiers.
The van is driven into the compound and crashed, it is designed to bring the soldiers towards it to kill more of them. The weapon we saw earlier is used, white phosphorous. It is a mortar shell that  goes up and then rains down a flammable substance which coats and burns anything below, including people. Lots and lots of soldiers die. We get to snipe. Then a second shell misfires and nearly hits us, lots of rebels and Koreans are caught in this blast.
We have to run through flames towards a tower. Which is then brought down by a helicopter.
We are nearly killed by a soldier when the goliath makes a reappearance.
We attack a more soldiers and vehicle using goliath.
Then we go inside a building and fight lots of soldiers.
We come out into a yard and find the tankers. They are leaving and we have to run to them and throw the tracking device onto one.
We then shoot up some soldiers and regroup.
We go back inside the building for some reason and shoot up some more people. The place is coming down around us and on fire.
We go to some stairs and head up. We are told on the radio to get to the parking lot, weren't we just there?
We go out and use goliath again to shoot soldiers.
We then have to sprint to a truck.
On the truck we have to use goliath to take out pursuers.

Mission 4
We are back at the little homestead, only the Korean's have been to visit. Everyone is dead and it is all burnt to the ground. Boone lies dead in the middle of it all.
Rhianna is distraught. Connor tells her that they have to go.
We are ambushed in a street and have to use goliath. The soldiers target goliath using rockets.
We then have a tank to deal with.
We are heading for the wall now, a wall built around what I don't know.
The Koreans are bombing the hell out of the civilian town in retribution for the resistance attack.
Rhianna is despondent, Connor tells her that we must honor Boone by carrying out his plan.
we meet some fairly banged up resistance fighters and make a plan to breach the wall.
Connor wants all the c4 they have to be placed on goliath and use it to ram and blow a whole in the wall.
We progress to some well defended barricades and must storm them and open the gates.
There is a little bullet time sequence here where I burst through a door and shoot people with a shotgun.
really bad checkpointing here.
We have to take out about four rpg armed soldiers and then open the checkpoint door.
We then have goliath arrive and shoot it with an rpg. This blows a hole in the wall. We steal an army humvee and drive through the hole. This is now an emplaced gun section.
We are told that we are going to a farm to collect a helicopter.

Mission 5
We are told about life after the EMP, which saw modern civilization break down, food became scares and countryside areas became dangerous places, cannibalism is hinted at.
The farmers were known to Boone, Hopper who is Asian is told to wait outside.
The chat with the farmers doesn't get much past the fact that Boone is dead, their leader seems to think the deal is off and just wants to have Rianna as his sex slave. Fighting breaks out and we are into a head on gunfight with the farmers.
We regroup after the first group of farmers and are now going to sneak in and steal the helicopter.
In not so subtle terms we are told this is a stealth mission. We are given a sniper rifle.
The farmers are redneck nutjobs, who were probably batshit insane before the war.
There are hanging bodies and Korean heads on pikes dotted around.
We follow a scripted path and see that the farmers are acting the same way that the Koreans are towards their prisoners. Is this a lesson on how war dehumanises people?
We shoot a few snipers in high places and watch as Rianna chokes out a guard. Then into a garage.
A Korean helicopter flies over spouting propaganda and asking for resistance members to be turned in. It is shot down. If we steal the chopper without taking the rpg's out then it will be a short flight.
We see the farmers making a Korean soldier dig his own grave before shooting him.
Incidentally I see a QR code on the wall here and it gives me a wallpaper.
More stealthy movement and shooting at select targets then it's back to normal with a pitched battle. The Korean helicopter that was  shot down has some survivors and they are fighting the farmers.
We fight both sides and push on through the area.
We can see the church where the helicopter is supposed to be. It passes overhead and appears to be landing at the church.
The chopper is heavily guarded, we are to go up into the bell tower and provide sniper cover for the other three who will attack head on.
I have to go alone and attack the church, after getting inside and halfway up I die and am sent back right outside the church to assault it again. Poor checkpointing is no excuse for a short game.
I get to the top of the tower and find a sniper rifle. Connor tells me what to shoot at.
After carefully shooting a few guards Conner then drives a truck straight at the helicopter and stirs up a hornets nest, so much for the careful approach!
I have to jump from the bell tower down the scaffolding and make it to the helicopter through the mess.
I get to the helicopter and we see it take off in cut scene.

Mission 6
This is a helicopter sequence and surprisingly I am actually in control.
It's quite hard to survive very long, it seems to be asking a lot of you straight off.
One or two hits from the rockets take you out straight off.
We chase the convoy of tankers. Then take out their escorts.
Now we have to hover close to the tankers and let the gang jump onto them and hijack them.
Now we have to escort the tankers and protect them from missile batteries and road blocks.
We take down a bridge in the progress and the tankers have to take a detour.
This is quite a fun section where we cover the convoy as it goes through a town and protect it from solider's, tanks and another helicopter.
There is a large road bridge out of the town and one of the trucks breaks down. we have to protect it as Hopper places c4 to take out the bridge. This will stop any pursuit.
We have a lot  of incoming vehicle to deal with.
Then the bridge is blown and that's it. We are to deliver the fuel to what is left of the military.
We arrive at the military base and join in on an assault near San Francisco.
I am to get into a helicopter.
We have a nice scene as we ride towards the golden gate bridge in the chopper and then start the fight. We have to use a grenade launcher to take out soldiers as we circle one of the bridge pillars.
Then we land and take an area from the Koreans.
Next we push on and find a tank. We have to avoid it's attacks and find something to kill it with.
It's all scripted but it's breathless fun. I find an rpg and then we shoot the tank thrice to kill it.
Now we have too climb up the bridge to the top.
At the top we meet up with the gang and some more soldiers.
We then move along the bridge with a convoy shooting the place to hell.
At a point we are blown off the bridge in cut scene and clamber back onto a lower level.
WE have to fight along underneath and we come up behind the sentry guns that are holding up the gang.
After the sentries are down we have a helicopter to shoot down.
Then we push on to destroy anti aircraft guns.
On the anti aircraft gun platform we have to defend until Hopper reprograms them and stops them shooting our planes down.
We then get to use air support to take out the convoy ahead of us.
Now we get into a humvee and meet a goliath.
We are chased about by it and have to use missile counter measures
We eventually shoot it and it blows up in our face.
In cut scene we see a convoy coming in, the air support has no firm target on it and needs something to shoot at. Connor gets up and using a flare runs towards the convoy. This allows the pilots to aim at the flare. Of course Connor is holding it and is vapourised along with the Koreans.
That's it, news reports tell of the fight in San Francisco and talk about European involvement coming to aid America. All set for Homefront 2 then?

4 hours 30 minutes.
120 achievement points which is quite stingy, though I suppose i only put in four hours work.
I found the difficulty settings buried in the options menu, strange choice. I was playing on normal.

Bulletstorm Notes

First task is to enter the now ever present EA online pass. I firmly fall in the camp that abhors the selling of second hand games by corporations and as such have to endure these things with a smile.

Next up is to choose difficulty, there are 5 options, though I am firmly a normal man these days. Gone are the days of being masochistic and choosing hard levels. Not coming straight from Dragon Age Origins where even the gamer baiting casual difficulty was annoyingly hard.
So normal it is.

Controls
Left and right sticks as usual.
Clicking left stick crouches.
Left trigger aims down sights.
Right trigger is Fire.
B is kick.
X is use.
A is used to climb over low obstacles, holding it runs. Double tapping A slides.

Prologue Chapter 1
On the road to hell
We see a space ship with a skull painted on it.
Presumably on board the spaceship two beer drinking men are interrogating a man tied to a chair, who sounds very scared. Probably because the drunk men are trying to shoot a beer bottle off the top of his head.
It seems our two friends have a large bounty on their heads. Someone called Sarrano is paying for the hit.
We find out that the unfortunate in the chair is a bounty hunter. We shoot the beer bottle, then blow him out the airlock.
We then have to exit the cargo deck. The door is malfunctioning and we have to pry the door open.
As we do the bounty hunter can be seen throwing a grenade at the ship window in presumably his last act. The window shatters and we have a pseudo quicktime sequence to get the blast door shut.
We then get shown the crouching and jumping controls. We are told that the ships is jumping. A call comes from the bridge telling us to get there quick.
Our hero is called Greyson. On the Bridge a large ship is in front of our ship. It is called the Ulysses. Seems that this is Sarrano's ship and Greyson and a few of the others have a grudge.
The pilot named Ishi is less demented than the rest and calls for reason.
However Greyson has the support of the other drunken war veterans and they attack.
We get control  for a little emplaced gun fun, however it's short lived.
The ship is wrecked, Ishi is either dead or knocked out. Greyson pulls himself to the controls and engages the thrusters and tries to warp right through the enemy ship.
amazingly the ship isn't broken entirely and crash lands on the planet they were in orbit of.

The scene shifts to a flashback. We see Greyson standing on the side of a building using gravity boots and on his way to an assassination mission.
We are with all the gang from the ship and are here to kill someone called Bryce Novak.
We find him and look in through his window.
Breaching in we kill him in quicktime lite.
Then we are told that Sarrano wants a bomb placed on a computer. Seems we are working for Sarrano.
Ishi, always the troublemaker it seems finds that Novak was a reporter and was finishing a piece on Sarrano's corruption. It seems the Greyson and his gang thought that they were killing gung runners and mass murderers when it has been civilians all along.
Miffed they call Sarrano for an explanation, he insults them and Greyson tells him that he will kill him. We try and leave and soldiers pour in. There is a kid in the room as well and Ishi is trying to save her. I try and fight but it seems to be a no win fight. I get knocked down and a cut scene shows Ishi about to be shot and Greyson take the bullet for him.

We shift back to the present and Ishi is hurt bad in the crash. We can also see escape pods from the Ulysses landing in the distance.
We have to help the others get Ishi to the med bay. We go down in a lift and into the med bay. We have to get a fuel cell which we don't have to save Ishi. The escape pods have them, so it looks like a little mission is in order.
We progress through the ship and find some local loonies attacking.
We can slide
We fight some more groups of mad maxers.
Then we see an escape pod with one of Sarrano's men.
In cut scene we see him take out some mutants with a whip lash type weapon.
However someone crashes a vehicle into him.
We go to the wreckage and get the leash weapon, which I am asked to use to open the engine and our friend takes the fuel cell.
we are shown how to use the leash to move certain objects in the environment.
Also to pull people into object to kill them.
We get back to the ship and into the med Bay. The doc starts the procedure to save Ishi and we have to stay outside of the sterile field.
As the doc works the savages get inside and attack.
They also start to attack outside as well.
We fight until there is an explosion, In cut scene Greyson wakes to find the savages shooting up his friend. Ishi comes to save Greyson and the other guy grabs an explosive barrel and urges us to shoot. I do and there is an explosion and everything goes black.

Act one Chapter one
Just like the old days
Ishi has had half of his crushed body replaced with robot parts. He is now half robot.
He understandably is pissed with Greyson. He is now more robot that person.
Sarrano is on the planet and stuck on a hotel. Greyson thinks that rescue will be on the way for him.
Ishi needs some fuel to stay alive.
We set out to get some from the natives.
We are shown exploding barrels, we can kick the barrels then shoot them when they are near enemies.
There should be some note made to the nice environment here, a rocky mountainous landscape with jagged claws of rock pointing at the sky. Desert sand and bones of large animals making bridges.
I come to gate and before it is a machine. The machine is dropped from the ship by Sarrano for his troops and is a gated ammo and upgrade cache. We can shop using skill points for new upgrades and weapons.
We are shown about skill points, which the leash gives by grading the style of your kills.
The gate opens and savages attack.
We come to a camp and fight all the savages here.
Then down in a lift into a refinery

Act one Chapter 2
Last train from explosion town
We go down into the refinery, Greyson wonders if this is a pirate mining operation, however Ishi thinks that it is using to much confederation tech and is too organized to be anything other than confederation in origin. Maybe it has been taken over by the savages?
We come to a large room full of gyro copters, Ishi tell us to destroy them. As we do savages attack.
A gyrocopter driven by a savage attacks. We have to leash the pilot and play a little mini game of click the button at the right time, like a golf game to pull him out.
We progress through shanty buildings fighting the savages.
I find a place where I can kick barriers that the savages are using for cover and kill them.
We fight in a room and suddenly the building collapses and we fall down into the floor below.
I come to the power source and Ishi grabs hold and charges up in a spectacularly painful looking fashion.
The impromptu recharge has overloaded the system and we have to leave fast before the place explodes.
A train seems the best bet so we head for it.
As we get there a larger chaingun toting enemy appears.
He is stunned by a charge shot from the gun and then we can hit his unarmored areas to kill him.
We then have some chaingunning from the train as savages swarm it.
In cut scene Ishi gets the train moving, however a  savage sets a grindwheel in motion. It is a huge serated cog type device It rolls after the train.
This is an emplaced gun ride on the train. Jeeps, a barge and gyrocopters give chase. Then a dropship type copter which fires ground burrowing torpedoes.
We then have to hit huge tanks by the side of the track to stop the grindwheel from hitting us.
A another train attacks and while I blow it up, it is still pushing us.
The brakes are out and the train crashes.

Act one Chapter 3
Whatever it is, it's pissed.
We are now in more green and water filled terrain, though still mountainous.
Gyrocopters and savages attack. One of the gyrocopters is damaged and lands. Maybe we can use it. We have to head through a cave to get to it though.
Inside the cave we encounter some eggs. To progress we have to blow up the eggs. As we do the mother creature stirs. We have to run and a timer appears in the top middle of the screen.
I run out to the gyroppcoter and we both get on in cut scene.
The mother creature bursts it's way out of the mountain to chase us, though we can't see it for all the dust kicked up. he train is still hanging above us and we shoot the fuel tank to bring it down on the monster.
The gyrocopter is too broken to fly much further and crashes.
A new gun was taken from the savages here, a screamer.

Act 2 Chapter 1
Damsel in distress
We are closing in on the beacon, the final echo trooper is nearby.
I find a savage that can't be leashed.
We proceed into a new area which is a villa type area, in the distance a huge city can be seen.
I shoot up a bunch of fireflies that I find here.
I also find a newsbot, these appear to be the collectibles.
We fight some savages in a square then find a club, which we enter.
We fight a boss in the disco then out the other side.
Now through some dock like areas.
I now have to contend with exploding enemies.
A dropship brings in a load of enemies and then  suicide bombers come in waves.
Another newsbot here.
A new gun here called the flailgun. This gun fires two chain linked grenades that wrap around the enemy.
I find the escape pod and it is empty.
We don't have to go far before we find the soldier in combat with the savages.
She tells us to get lost and not to follow her. Which I am sure won't stop us.
We fight through some more areas then we see her take out a bridge to prevent us following her. We have to take a detour through an attraction called the monster dome.

Act 2 Chapter 2
Worst family fun vacation ever.
There are a bunch of large robot monsters in here and one of them is missing.
It looks like you get to drive the monsters around and destroy a miniature city.
We enter the small city and have to fight the savages through the streets.
Then the monster turns up. We hide under the city in service tunnels.
We progress through the service areas avoiding the monster which seems to be trying to get to us.
I get dead ended by the monster and we see who is controlling it, one of the savages, killing him stops the monster moving and gives us it's controller.
We now get to semi drive the beast. We can aim to a point where we want it to shoot and we have a shooting gallery of savages and three bosses to take care of.
We then get to make the  beast knock a bus into a canal to make a path for it.
Then another shooting gallery with gyrocopters and jeeps.
We now get attacked by more gyrocopters in the same area and some savages.
The beast is used to break through another wall before finally breaking down.
Seems that the savages here were guarding a hole, it's possible they were guarding against what comes out of the hole. So of course we are going down the hole.

Act 3 Chapter 1
One sniper means a dozen.
We go down the hole and have to kick an obstacle aside, it brings the place down around us and we have another quick run sequence to escape the collapsing mine. We come out into more green and waterfall filled lands, the city is closer now.
I find that I have got a new weapon from somewhere called a boneduster.
We use a lift and go up the side of the dam.
We are seeing signs that suggest this is Kreeps turf.
These are even more crazy cannibal mutilating type chaps.
They avoid being kicked and can't be leashed.
Now we encounter snipers. I get the sniper rifle and it is a guided bullet type sniper rifle.
I pass through a boat house and come out onto some docks.
More snipers to deal with.
The leash can be used as a bomb type mechanism, you hold the left bumper and it thumps the ground raising all the nearby enemies into the air.
We pass through the marina and into a hotel type environment.
There are fireflies in the hotel area overlooking the damn view.
In the kitchen the freakier freaks are cooking the less freaky freaks.

Act 3 Chapter 2
A dam fine mess.
We come to a room with an open roof and balcony and we are ambushed.
We cross a bridge and there are  fireflies here.
Now we come to a blast furnace type area.
Here we fight freaks in a large fight box filled with roaring flames.
When it's done a cut scene shows Trishka kicking the snot, well the snot and the blood out of a freak before shooting it in the head.
Greyson tries to chat, however she knows who we are. She is also disillusioned with Saranno and a truce is called. Ishi is getting all robot overlord destroy all humans again.
Trishka tells us that the skulls and the Kreeps are at war.
Which is basically a prelude to seeing a huge fight between the two which we can get in the middle of.
We fight along the top of the dam, then into it's inner workings. We pull a piece off one of the giant wheels to make a path. However this may have been a bad move as the damn starts to break down explosively.
The large wheels break free and fall bringing the dam down, we end up in a makeshift raft floating down with gyrocopters after us.
A huge tidal wave hits the boat and everything goes black.

Act 4 chapter 1
The only way through.
we are now in the city proper. A soldier with a jump ships nearby, or at least was recently. Trishka wants to find him. The city is called the forbidden zone.
Trishka tells them to be quiet, the road is blocked by a chasm and we have to kick over a sign to make a bridge, when we do it blows up a chain of cars and brings half a building down. So much for being quiet.
New here are glowing yellow balls called nom parasites. They grab onto your head and try and eat you I presume.
You can kick them at enemies, you also have to be careful not to hit your allies as they get immobilized by the nom parasites.
Now we find the creator of the parasites, large man eating plants.
We use a zip line here.
After a fight with some snipers a cut scene shows the capsule we are looking for in the distance.
Gyrocopters attack in the cut scene and while Greyson and Ishi are shooting them Trishka makes a break for it. Ishi shoots the ladder she is climbing and nearly beats her to death.
Greyson is starting to worry about Ishi, also feel guilty.
We are tasked with working out how to pass a road block, when I can't Trishka shoots a large wrecking ball of a sign down and it ploughs into the road block opening the way.
There is a news bot behind the dropkit after the wrecking ball.
Also a bottle of juice in a tent.
Now we find a new boss which shoots exploding balls.
same as before, stun him then grapple his helmet or butt.
We get his gun which is called a bouncer.

Act 4 Chapter 2
Maneaters prefer tight spots.
We move into a sewer type area. Some of the nom plants are here and shooting them releases clouds of rage gas.
Ishi climbs through a tunnel to open a gate, this puts him ahead of us up the stairs. When we start to climb them he shouts for help. A huge tentacle monster has erupted from the ground and it eats Ishi right in front of us, powerless to prevent it.
We progress down a long sloping terraced garden area. It's full of man eating plants and prickly bushes.
A helicopter comes to attack us.
The plants bring it down with their tentacles and a boss gets out to fight us.
We then progress up the terrace towards a large greenhouse type building.
Just before the boss plant there are some fireflies, there have also been a few obvious news bots on the terrace.
Inside the green house we meet the boss plant. It's a bulbous body with a long neck and a head full of teeth. It tries to bite us, which rapidly pressing B solves.
We basically have to circle around it and shoot the red bits as they are presented. A traditional boss battle, yet a fun one as I did it first time with no frustration and it was just pure fun.

Act 4 Chapter 3
Itchin to crumble.
We jump down the plant hole and find Ishi alive.
Trishka tells us that Sarrano was sent here to clear out the skulls and the Kreeps. The soldiers were given the skillshot system in some sort of twisted natural selection type experiment. Those that did well were able to resupply while the rubbish ones ran low on ammo and died.
Some electroflies here.
Now we are into the actual demo that was given away on xbox live.
Getting stuck on objects here, feet tangled in scenery isn't a good look.
A nice scene sees you bring an old lift down on top of about five enemies at once.
News bot just after the lift scene.
We get to fight through some open areas with large drops, lots of kicking the bad guys over the edge.
Mini boss here.
Now the building starts to really crumble and we have to run for it until we reach an elevator. In the elevator it is moving too slow to escape the collapse. Ishi tells us to shoot some canisters we can see and in cut scene we see the elevator propelled out of the building like a rocket on a plume of smoke.

Act 5 Chapter 1
Crash Resistant.
We survive the crash unscathed as usual.
Now we are heading for a monorail.
I use an elevator and a helicopter can be seen landing nearby.
We go over to this area and clear out loads of enemies. Then we  have to get the monorail working. This is really just a horde mode level.
Boss to finish and it's onto the monorail.
On the monorail ride Trishka is asked by Greyson why final echo could not control the skulls and kreeps as is usual in FPS games he is wiping out their entire population single handed. Well Ishi and Triska are there and shooting but they don't seem to kill much.
Triska tells us that we haven't seen the worst yet. There are totally mutated creatures called burnouts to deal with. Oh look, speak of the devil, here is one now.
The monorail is made to crash by the burnouts.

Act 5 Chapter 2
We get hemmed into an area with loads of incoming burnouts, they are men shaped blobs with glowing orbs. Shooting the orbs is advised, however sliding into them knocked them off their feet and nearby prickly plants and bombs make quick work of them.
There are fireflies behind a kick barrier just after the burnouts and a news bot as well.
Now we go into a smaller room and are mobbed by burnouts.
This is a trap and it's a good one.
Sudden difficulty spike though.
There is some juice here to drink.
Skulls attack in a helicopter and blow open the wall. Now there are lots more burnouts. We are told there are too many and to just keep moving.
Though there aren't and I take them out, the skulls chopper goes down and it makes a nice death trap to kick the burnouts into.
Now a boss burnout. Which needs shot a lot then kicked into the blades to take it down.
We get into a lift.

Act 5 Chapter 3
I see we're all a bit upset.
We see another survivor in the distance fighting. We are making for his position.
We fight some more kreeps this time for variety and then a cut scene.
Trishka falls down a hole and is knocked out. Ishi is in robot mode and wants to leave her. Greyson wants to save her. Ishi tells Greyson that they need Sarrano alive and not to kill him or he will have Ishi to deal with. Greyson goes down to Trishka and argues with him about all this being about his issues with Sarrano. Of course her world view of Greyson comes from Sarrano so she is biased. Greyson tells her some home truths about why he was so angry with Sarrano and we find that the reporter we killed was her father, the girl in his office was possibly Trishka. She is angered, Greyson does not tell her that it was him who killed her father.
Now we are in the bowels of this hotel, in a sewage type area. It turns out to be a burnout nest, or feeding ground. Lots of bits of body lying around. The game tries for  some Dead Space style scares here.
I come to a cauldron of glowing green stuff.
A large boss burnout appears however it falls in the cauldron, it might be dead, but I think we are going to be seeing it again soon.
We crawl through some rubble and out into the hotel type area again.
A news bot here.
We fight some more skulls.
I come out into an open area and fight some burnouts and leash a bus into a gap in the street to progress.
There is something wrecking the skyscrapers around here. Looks like the thing we met in the cavern way back on the second level or so is still looking for us.
The burnouts attack again and we progress down the street. The creature appears at last and is a huge burnout boss, Trishka calls it a Hekaton.
In cut scene we see Greyson and Trishka run from the huge monster into a lift.
We come out onto a rooftop and find Ishi fighting skulls. A helicopter is nearby and Trishka flies while we use the emplaced gun.
We shoot at skulls and protect  Ishi, also the Hekaton which has a point on the back of it's head that is vulnerable. The ship flies around and eventually a cut scene starts.
Ishi saves Sarrano who is running out of ammo. The escape pod is set to self destruct and the monster eats it and blows it's head up.
Sarrano and the rest of the gang are reunited. Ishi won't let anyone kill him.
Trishka asks about her father. Sarrano tells them that a bomb which will kill everything on the planet that is living is set to go off in two hours. The problem is that the dropship is coming in three.
I need to go to the wreck of the Ulysses and deactivate the bomb.
Sarrano pushes Trishka off the building, claiming to have done Greyson a favour.
I don't think we have seen the last of her. Though I am guessing that the game can only handle two a.i. players so we needed her out of the way.

Act 6 Chapter 1
Daddy'll get you out.
Saranno tells us about tunnels that will take us under the city and away quickly and safely.
A large electrical storm has started in the city.
Basically any window or hole in the ceiling lets the storm in and gives you plenty of opportunity for electrocuting enemies.
We fight a lot of enemies here in a more fight box style of gameplay.
Sarrano tells us that the city was staffed with convicts.

Act 6 Chapter 2
Bad trouble a knockin'
We take a lift down to the prison level where there were cells for 28,000 inmates.
Seems that they also stored the toxic waste here as well.
We take a run through some toxic waste after being dumped in it by a rickety platform.
Then some burnouts appear for a fight.
Some good fun here with lots of burnouts and lots of exploding stuff to hurl them into.
We see Sarrano get knocked off a platform and we have to go and save him.
Greyson and Ishi have a little heart to heart and Ishi tells him that he doesn't blame Greyson and that he followed him of his own free will. The quest to kill Saranno was one of atonement not revenge for all of them.
We have some snipers to take out.
We go down into a large canal type area filled with radioactive waste. Sarrano tells us that the population here is probably mostly tourists who missed the evacuation ships.
We see some burnouts coming towards us, however they are actually running form scorpion type enemies.
We have a scene where the scorpions try and break a lift that we are going up in for some unknown reason, they don't attack us just the lift cogs.
We have to shoot as many of them as we can to keep the lift going up.
At the top we have too run for it before a door closes on us.
I come out onto the surface and we are at the wreck of the Ulysses.
We use a zip line to get there fast.

Act 6 Chapter 3
Ponderin' them bodies.
I get caught in the ground here by Ishi and can't escape, I have to restart the checkpoint.
We have to make our way through the building that the Ulysses is crashed on top of.
There are lots of the crew of the Ulysses lying around dead. The burnouts have been eating them.
I get into the Ulysses.
We progress through the ship with Greyson and Sarrano arguing. Sarrano trying to make him feel guilty about all the people dead on the ship and Greyson ragging Sarranno about taking down his prize battleship with a much smaller ship.
I come to some flammable fumes.
We have to fight some burnouts using only kicks and leash.
There are some handy giant fans to use.
Now we come to a large hexagonal multi story area. There is a control in the centre that turns off low barriers which have glowing pink energy on top. We have to turn of the field and jump quickly over. The enemies can be hurled into the pink field for fun.
We come to a corridor with a giant burnout, we have to push it back towards an electrical field to kill it.
We come to the bomb, Sarrano tells us that he has to turn a key when we enter the deactivation code on the bomb. I sense a trap here. Of course it's fairly obvious and I don't feel that I am clever by saying that.
Of course Saranno has betrayed us and we have now just armed the bomb and he gets away leaving us trapped in the room with the bomb.
I run around frantically trying to find a way out and climb through some ducts. They just lead to huge drops or back to the bomb. Trishka appears to save the day.

Act 7 Chapter 1
That thing is leaving without us.
We are now heading for the spaceport where Sarrano is getting picked up.
Here we split up from Ishi and Trishka and they take a lower road and we cover them from above, while also fighting people on our level.
We then come to a lobby type area with a few levels, this is a survival room, which soon fills with loads of bosses and enemies.
Now we have a two minute timer to get to the ship before Sarrano leaves without us.
Which is a headlong dash through loads of skulls. We have to get to the dropship, a vehicle explodes and Greyson is knocked down. A cut scene shows Sarrano being escorted onto the dropship.
We have to run to it in a very tight time limit and leash the ramp back down.

Act 7 Chapter 2
I don't hold you accountable.
We are now on the escaping dropship, which is filled with heavily armored troops.
Again we kill lots of soldiers by ejecting the cargo hold that is filled with them.
Sarrano again tries to make us feel guilty about killing all these people just to get to him.
We get to a door that is locked to us. Trishka goes through a vent. Ishi thinks she isn't coming back and has gone on to kill Sarrano on her own.
He opens the door by electrocuting himself again.
We rampage through the ship, these enemies take a lot more pounding but go down just as well as the freaks.
We get to a door that needs hacked. Ishi hacks it while we hold off waves of soldiers.
Inside we get a cut scene.
Trishka is holding a gun to Sarrano's head. She asks if he killed her father, he tells her that he ordered it and Greyson did the deed.
Sarrano uses a leash to hack into the robot part of Ishi and control him. Ishi beats up Trishka and Grey and we have to press B repeatedly to stop ourselves from dying in Ishi's chokehold.
Ishi resists the control and Sarrano shoots him. Sarrano throws Grey around with the leash and is about to shoot him when Ishi dives in front of the shot.
we have some quicktime to do to finally beat up Sarrano and apparently kill him.
Some soldiers appear and we see a not quite dead Sarrano eject us from the ship.
Back on the planet we are left fighting some more soldiers that got ejected with us.
Trishka forgives Grey for what he did.
We find ourselves back at the Ulysses just in time for the DNA bomb that is going to wipe out all life on the planet to go off.
We have to run through the soldiers to get to the escape pods on the ship before the bomb goes off. Some technobabble excuses why we didn't just do this the last time.
The final cut scene shows the escape pod leaving the atmosphere as the dna bomb goes off killing everything on the planet.
In the escape pod Greyson is guilty about all the friends he lost. Trishka asks what now and it looks like there is still Sarrano to go after. Bulletstorm 2 anyone?

10 hours approximately.
290 Achievement points for one normal playthrough.

Dragon Age : Origins Notes

Mages in the distant past tried to do something fairly dodgy and were turned into the Darkspawn.
They came back to the planet and started taking over. Grey wardens fought them and prevailed.
Four centuries later there has been peace. However the darkspawn is stil around biding it's time.
There are few Wardens left and they are not heeded very well. We see one fighting two darkspawn and he knows that they are getting ready to attack again.

Now character creation. Male or female. Dwarf, elf or human. Warrior, mage or rogue.
You can play with your characters appearance in many ways.
Difficulty level is next, I choose normal.

Tutorial mission
I am introduced to our family the Couslands. Our brother is preparing for a fight with the darkspawn that is rising in the south.
Our father talks about the impending battle. My character walks in, we get to speak to them.
A selection of choices is given in this idle chit chat.
A man called Howe is visiting. He has his soldiers with him. They seem dodgy.
Our father leaves us in charge when they go out to war.
The grey warden, Duncan is brought in to chat. He is interested in us as a recruit.
Conversation choices are the usual mix of middle of the road, nice or argumentative.

We are now in control of our character.

Left stick to move, right for camera.
A is interact.
Back brings up a map.

I walk out the door and find a person called Ser Gilmore
He tells us that our Mubari war hound is in the kitchen. We have to go and control it.
On the way our mother interrupts and seems to be trying to marry us off.
I manage to get to the kitchen.

The cook is angry, The dog is trying to tell us something.
There are giant rats in the larder.
I find it hysterical that after the fight the two characters are spattered with blood.
Fighting is a matter of hitting X so far. I am sure it will get more comlicated.
The cook starts of indignant still, then end up giving the dog a treat.

I am back to looking for our brother to tell him to send the army out.
I manage to find the map and get to him.

Fergus is saying goodbye to his wife and son, of course he is going to die soon, he has redshirt painted all over him.
Mom and pop turn up for a family scene.

That seems to be an end to this section.

Mission 1
A cut scene starts.
It's night time. The dog wakes us up barking.
Howe's soldiers are attacking in the absence of the castle troops.
I  have to fight a few of them.
Mother arrives Father is missing.
She joins us as we go looking for him.
Dead bodies can be looted.
There is a complex inventory system. Also in fighting skills can be mapped to the xyab buttons.
At the moment I have a shield bash. Once these are used they have a cooldown period.
Fergus's wife and son have been killed.
When you level up you can spend points on attributes.
The castle is overrun, Mother suggests that we leave and fight another day.
We progress through the castle fighting. A big fight in the throne room.
Here we meet mages for the first time.
Archers also stand apart from the fight and fire into the melee.
Father went to the kitchens.
I fight my way there and find Father bleeding to death.
He is mortally wounded. The grey warden arrives and suggests that they need to leave.
Duncan wants to take us to be a grey warden, that way revenge will come.
Mother stays with father. Duncan and Elissa leave.

Mission 2
We meet a king, who is unaware of Howes treachery.
He pledges to help.
The king seems to think they are winning, he is even disappointed that there isn't any arch demons.
We have a joining ritual to perform.
We are left to explore a little first.
The stat screens are daunting in their complexity at first.
I enter Ostagar and explore.
There are mages practicing that can't be interrupted.
I meet Wynne a mage, she tells us of the fade, which is a realm where spirts dwell. There is a dark city there which is the source of the darkspawn.
I find Duncan and need to find someone called Alastair.
One of the wounded soldiers is despondent after a fight with the darkspawn.
I find a deserter in a cage, he needs fed, I have to ask his guard for food for him. He won't give me any.
The quartermaster can supply us with weapons.
I eventually find Alastair, he is a new Grey warden too, I go back to Duncan with him.
we meet Daveth and Sejury. The joining is a test of skill.
We have to go out into the woods and get a vial of darkspawn blood.
We have also to find scrolls left in an abandoned outpost.

Mission 3
I go out into the Kocari wilds.
I fight some wolves.
I find some soldiers who have been attacked.
I save one and Jury get scared because a whole bunch of soldier got killed, what chance do four recruits stand.
Alastair tells us that Grey wardens can sense darkspawn.
I find a camp filled with them it's a hard fight and once over only one of my team is left standing. The rest get back up but they have injury flags.
I find the archive, a woman appear who is named Morrigan. After much banter she tells us that her mother had the scrolls we seek. She takes us to her, and she gives us the scrolls.
She also fast travels us back to camp.
The joining ritual is explained, Alastair takes us to the old temple.
We have to drink the darkspawn blood and master the taint.
Daveth drinks it and dies. Jory does not want to do it and Duncan kills him.
I then take it and survive. I see a vision of a large dragon.
We have to meet the king next.
I give a flower I found in the wilds to the kennel master to cure the dogs.
I can now buy the meal from the guard to give to the deserter.
I find the king.
The king wants to go on the frontline, his advisor does not want him.
The Orlesians it seems are an old enemy, The king wants to unite with them against the darkspawn, the advisor is a staunch traditionalist.
The king wants us to light a beacon during the battle.
Logain the advisor seems dodgy, or is it the foolhardy king that is going to be the problem.

Mission 4
We have to go to the tower next.
A cut scene shows the army awaiting the Darkspawn attack.
Duncan and the king are confident.
The darkspawn appear in large numbers, snarling and orc like. Giants and dwarves amongst them.
Archers and hounds are set loose.
Then the battle is joined.
We start at a bridge we crossed entering the city and have to cross it under fire.
When we get across we are told that the tower has been taken, the darkspawn came  up through the sewers.
I get into the fight, here i experiment a little more with controlling other characters, I have a mage and ranged fighting is fun.
There are traps here, which explode or produce clouds of gas that slow your character.
After around three floors of tower we come to the top and find our first boss battle.
A large Orge appears and it is a close fight.
A cut scene shows Logain retreating on the signal rather than attacking. We see the king slaughtered by and Ogre which Duncan then kills single handed. He can't win though huge numbers of Darkspawn overwhelm the army and kill them all. We see our gang being attacked and our character being shot with an arrow and falling.
She wakes in a bed naked and Morrigan is there.
Morrigan tells her that her mother saved them. She fills them in on what happened at the castle.

Mission 5
I meet with Alastair and Morrigan's mother who reveals her name as Flemeth.
The dicussion her centres on what to do next. Loghain has obviously betrayed the king for his own ends. Alastair wants to go to the Arl of Redcliffe who was the kings uncle. He thinks that he will bring Loghain to justice.
Flemeth suggests that the Grey wardens have treaties with the elves, dwarves and mages which bind them to aid in times of trouble. Flemeth suggest that an army be raised to fight the Darkspawn.
Morrigan is tasked with joining the grey wardens in their quest.
I now leave Flemeth's hut and come to a world map.
Here we can choose to go to certain places. Though only one of the icons is available.

A cut scene shows Loghain talking to a crowd. Loghain has declared himself regent for the new queen.
A crowd member challenges him on his withdrawal and policies. The queen defends him.
We come to a bridge on which thieves have set up an ambush. I kill them. They inform us that grey wardens are traitors and there is a bounty on our heads.
We have a discussion amongst the party, seems we need to visit the elves, dwarves, mages and human's to seek their help.
I am now in a village. There are arguments amongst villager over food and lots of lost children and begging people stripped of their wordly goods by the flight from the Darkspawn.
I find man called Sten in a cage who it seems will join us if we get him free.
I find a man called Donal who tells us that the Arl of redcliffe is ill. It seems to be a magical poision that is affecting him.Possibly Loghain is to blame.
An urn of sacred ashes might be able to cure him.
I meet the priestess in charge here, she won't give up the Qunari until I exhaust all option other than threatening to kill her. what the hell.
She gives us the key.
I release Sten and he joins us.
I can only have four in my party. I get rid of the dog.
On leaving the village I find some dwarves being attacked by darkspawn.
After leaving a cut scene shows a dragon and loads of darkspawn. It is a dream and Alatair talks to us after we wake. Seems that the dragon is the archdemon.

Mission 6
I find myself in the county in a small camp.Seems that this is a base hub, it has the two dwarves in it as a shop. Though there gear is expensive.
Naughty Naughty, I find a man offering to send me on a quest to an old warden's keep, after a bit of chat about it I find that it's dlc and get sent to the buy page when I accept the task. Sure have DLC, but only mention it when people have bought it. it's a bit jarring to be given an in game advert for something, especially early in the game.
I take myself out of the camp and have to select my party. There are a lot of options here.
I decide to go to redcliffe to get the human contingent to help.
On the way I am ambushed and have to fight some darkspawn.
Alastair reveals that he is the bastard son of the king. The arl of Redcliffe took him in, until his wife heard rumours that he was her husbands bastard. Alastair thinks the arl will help him now because of this.
I enter Redcliffe, seems that monsters are coming from the castle at night to attack the villagers. We are taken to a leader to learn more.
We meet Teegan, who was the man we saw disagreeing with Loghain.
It seems zombies are attacking from the castle. I agree to help defend the village.
Murdoc is the mayor and we have to go see him to aid the village.
The blacksmith is despondent and depressed and won't help. We have to get him to help.
I have to break his door down and he has been drinking.
In conversation with him we learn that the arlessa is involved with black magic and may be responsible.
The smith's daughter is in the castle and this is why he is so despondent.
I promise to save her and he will do the work.
We have to speak with Ser Perth as well. He is one of the knights sent looking for the urn which may save the arl. I have an argument with the priestess who won't lie to the troops and tell them that the maker is protecting them.
I then trigger the fight with the undead. Night falls and they attack.
A horde of undead come from the castle and fight. Then we have to run back into the village and defend against a flanking attack.
Once done we see the villagers celebrate.

Mission 7
Teagan tells us of a secret passage into the castle which we can use to investigate.
Isolde the Arless appears, she wants Teagan to return to the castle with her.
There is an evil in the castle, a mage released it.
Seems Loghain hired him to posion the Arl.
Isolde and Teagan will return, he wants us to use the secret passage, while he distracts the evil.
Inside the passageway we find some corpses, then the mage in prison. He tells us that he was hired to poison the arl, but has nothing to do with the evil demon.
Isolde hired the mage because he was a disgraced mage, outside circle or apostate.
Just like Morrigan. He thinks that the son has opened the veil to the fade and let the demons in.
I let him out.
Inside the castle there is more fighting with the undead and new enemy, the ghostly lesser shades.
I find the smith's daughter Valena, she goes back to her father.
After some more corridors we come out into the courtyard and find a new enemy, a revenant.
which is killing me dead with ease, hmmmm. I manage it without any real change in tactics, seems luck is a big factor along witht the ai of your enemies and allies.
I enter the main hall and find that Connor the son is possessed by something.
After some chit chat we fight with the posessed guards and Teagan.
Then have a chat with Teagan, the mage and Isolde about who is to blame for all this.
The mage may be able to break the demon's connection.
However, he will steal someones life energy to send another mage into the fade to kill the demon. The merits and demerits are discussed.
There is a way to avoid death, if more mages are sought. I take the option.
Jowan and Teagan will stay and keep the demon at bay.

I go back to camp and organise weapons and armour.
On the way to places in fast travel it seems that ambushes are regular.

Mission 8
I go to the mages tower, a guard gives us grief before taking us across the lake to the tower.
I find the leader of the templars in the tower and it seems that things have gone wrong here as well.
The tower is also brimming with creatures escaped from the fade.
We have some chit chat, the templar agrees that if we clear out the tower he will join us against the darkspawn, of course he does not expect us to live.
Inside I find a mage called Wynne, we met her earlier.
We join with her to go into the tower.
After a fight on the first floor we get to the second and find Owain, he tells us that blood mages are involved and someone named Niall is setting out to fight them.
I find a mage and fight them, once defeated we chat. Seems the mages involved wanted rebellion against the templars and the Chantry.
Aldred is their leader and he has gone mad.
I find a love demon who has a man in it's thrall. It's a hard fight but I kill it.
We are given the opportunity to just walk away here, as it seems like the man is getting everything he desires. Of course the demon will be free to enslave others if we do.
I come to the boss of the baddies here, it's an abomination of flesh, crudely shaped into a man.

Mission 9
It uses magic to get into our minds and tries to make us sleep. I find myself in my dreams.
I find myself with duncan and some other grey wardens in a warden castle.
Duncan tries to make me think that the war is over.
I obviously know not to trust him.
I fight him and the other wardens.
A portal takes us to another place. Are we in the fade?
I find Niall who was also fighting the demon. Seems he is caught in the fade as well.
We have to break through the fade world to get to the demon and fight it for real.
I find a mouse who grants me the ability to shapeshift into a mouse.
I can then enter small mouse doors here in this strange landscpae.
I enter the burning tower and after a few fights find a templar who gives me the power to shapeshift into a fire immune form.
I go through a portal to a place named the mages asunder.
I find mages attacking here, at one point a  bunch of them attack each other rather than me.
Servants also attack, I can pass through fires using the fire shape and also fight with fire.
Lots of loading screens in this game.
There are places here where instat death can easily occur, gangs of mages can hit you with spells that see it impossible to even stand up again and all you can do is watch as your health plummets to zero.
I find a mage under attack by mages and stone golems. Once he is saved he give me his pwoers.
He has the ability to turn into a stone golem, which gives me some good strentgh and health.
I move through the mages area some more and fight more golems and mages as a golem and get some nice loot and bonus stats. Then onto the Templars nightmare.
Now the Darkspawn invasion. I move through more corridors and find a templar attacked by darkspawn and save him to get his power. This is spirit form which is good with magic and can see hidden things in the fade.
I come to a large boss named something the crusher, it's is a big horned demon, running in circles and waiting until your golem powers charge is enough to kill it easily.
They increasingly seem to be taking the piss with the difficulty here.
I find a door in templars nightmare that can only be seen with the spirt form.
This leads to the boss battle with one of the love demons.
I go back to the burning tower, since I have the ability to enter the blocked doors I can now go and find the boss there.
I find the demon Rhagos in the burning temple.
Back to the mages Asunsder to find it's demon.
I do and that is all four guardian demons destroyed.
I can now access the three nightmares that are surrounding the circle of islands on the map.
These are the nightmares of our companions. Looks like we will get them back to help at last if we can release them from their nightmares.
I find Morrigan arguing with her mother. After killing the mother Morrigan vanishes.
Then Sten and Wynne.
Now we can reach the inner sanctum of the demon and have a boss battle with it.
It's a hard fight but I manage it. It takes four forms and each one has a health bar.

In cut scene Niall appears. He tells us to take the litany of Adralla from his body. Niall thinks the demon has been feeding on him for too long and he will die if he wakes.
He does and we find ourselves back in the mage tower.
We fight more of the demons and then find a templar called Cullen in a cage. He is being tortured it seems. The other mages that are left are being tortured as well.
The templar wants us to kill everyone of the remaining mages.
In the tower Uldred is torturing the mages until the turn in monsters in his service.
I have a fight with Uldred who turns into a large demon. Using the Litany seems to prevent his spawning extra enemies.
I kill Uldred and speak to Irving who goes to speak with the templars to tell him that the crisis has been averted.
Gregoir is happy to see Irving and stands the templars down from nuking the tower.
Irving pledges to aid us against the darkspawn.
Wynne joins our party.
I ask for help at redcliffe with the connor possesion.

I go back to Redcliffe to see if the child has been freed from posssesion.

a cut scene is triggered and we see Loghain being given bad news. Seems some people aren't buying his story and are going to stand against him. He is also told by Howe that there is still Grey wardens left. He sends an assassin after us.

Mission 10
Back at redcliffe castle we find Irving and his gang in the throne room.
We get to choose who goes into the fade to kill the demon.
In the fade the landscape is familiar, there are ghostly people wandering about who do us no Harm. I find arl eamann. He is lost in the fade as well.
I find the boy and he turns into the demon and after a little fight it flees.
It makes us run around for a while before seeing that we aren't going to give up.
We then get a boss battle with the demon.
I kill her on the second attempt but it is close.
We see the castle being tided and bodies being sent out on burning boats.
Teagan and Isolde chat, Connor is fine and remembers nothing. Teagan asks what is to be done with Jowan, the mage who poisoned Eamon. I leave it up to him.
We have to find the urn to revive Eamon.

On the way to places seems to be the excuse needed for cut scenes showing exposition.
I see Loghain, Howe and his daughter chatting. The daughter seems to be realising that Loghain is screwing things up. It appears that we are being asked to feel sorry for him, maybe even suggesting that the king got what he deserved for being an airhead. However Loghain is trying in his own way to be in charge and the civil war coupled with the darkspawn seems to be making double trouble which is maybe more than he can chew.

On the way to the next map location the assasin Zevran appears with an ambush and I manage to kill him.
We get to chat, seems he is only loyal to whoever is paying him. Since he has failed his masters the Antivan Crows will kill him anyway. So he may as well tag along with us.
I accept, though I will probably regret it later.

I find the dalish Elves and get taken to their camp by a rather hostile guard named Mithra.
Zaphrien is the leader, he tells us that the elves can't help and shows us why.
Werewolves have been causing them big trouble.
Looks like we have some werewolves to kill. A great wolf called witherfang is the source of the curse. If witherfang is killed and his heart brought back to Zaphrien he may be able to undo the curse.
I explore the elf camp and find that the elves hold deep seated grudges towards humanity. Seems that humans once enslaved the elves. The chantry and the templars freed them and since then the elves have been at war with humans and lost. Over the the need to worship the Maker.
There is an injured animal that seems to be a side quest. along with an elf who might join us later.

Mission 11
I enter the brecilian forest and it's only a few paces in when we are attacked by wolves and werewolves. Seems very fable like here.
I come across a bunch of werewolves who want a chat. They are angry sounding and really hate the elves. They seem to be ambivalent towards our gang and give us the chance to go. When I continue to try and chat they seem to be hard of thinking and decide to just attack anyway. After a few second beating them up they retreat telling us that the forest will make us pay.
I find some more werewolves to fight then some ent like trees attack.
One of the trees  is willing to chat an elder oak. It apologises for it's younger more aggressive kin.
his elder oak wants it's acorn back, which was stolen.
I find an empty camp, which is a trap and a shade attacks.
Then I move into another area of the forest. There is a mist blocking a path. entering it makes you come back out the way you came in.
I find a mad old hermit who stole the oaks acorn. With some chat I get it back in return for a silver ring. He won't tell us how to get past the mist though.
I try and take the gear, but he has very powerful magic. I leave him to it after getting the acorn. I find a dying werewolf. It is one of the elves sent here to find Witherfang. It asks me to tell her husband what  happened and want us to kill it. I refuse and it attacks forcing our hand.
I take the acorn back to the oak and it gives us one of it's branches. This will allow us to pass through the barrier.
Inside the barrier I find the werewolves from earlier, they profess that witherfang keeps them safe here and that they are the ones who are being preyed upon. However, they attack us anyway when I make every indication of just wanting to chat about the problem peacfully.
As before during the fight when I am getting the upper hand a cut scene starts. I see a white wolf appear and knock over one of the party and allow the werewolves to flee.
Another set of wolves appear and flee, saying something about going to protect the lady.
I find some ruins and enter.
Inside are werewolves and giant spiders to fight. The werewolves have barricaded a door.
I come to a large church like area and have to fight a dragon, it isn't that hard of a fight though.
There are dead knights and dwarves lying around.
I find a small ghost boy, he is looking for his mother, he does not seem to be hearing us.
Skeletons attack here on mass and it's a hard fight, which is at odds with the ease so far.
I move on through this long and now hard dungeon. Lots of fight, too much loot and eventually a pool of water which I presume we swim under into the werewolf lair.
This is more corridors filled with werewolves.
I come to swiftrunner and he finally seems ready to talk, since we are at the door of his secret then he has no choice. We are taken to meet the lady of the forest, who is a naked half woman half tree. She tells us that it was Zathrian, the elf leader who made the curse of the werewolves. Long ago humans and elves lived in the forest. However, the humans raped his daughter and he took revenge on them by creating Witherfang. The plan worked and the werewolf curse eventually drove the humans from the forest.
The werewolves found the lady and she helped them. They went to Zathrian in the present to ask for his help. However he refused and they only attacked to spread the curse to the elves to force Zathrian to undo his magic.
The lady wants us to bring Zathrian to her, to talk. I agree that this should happen.
I leave the ruin by a new door, and find Zathrian waiting. He is still angry, he tells us that Witherfang and the lady are one and the same.
He agrees to go down into the lair with us and talk.
In the lair the lady reveals that Zathrian needs the curse too, it is tied in to his immortality. He won't end the curse, the wolves are getting restless and the lady has nothing to add. It is down to us, a choice. Killing Zathrian seems to have no point, he is stubborn, however his pain is just. The wolves are talking, but they are still very savage. The lady offers no plan. I can't really choose. I have to though, so I go against Zathrian. Both the lady and Zathrian will die when the curse is ended. This seems the best way.
I challenge Zathrian and have to fight him. Once done we see Zathrian end the curse, her dies and the lady vanishes. The wolves all become human again.
They are happy and leave to go and join society again.
I go back to the elves and they are happy that the curse has been lifted. The new keeper Lanaya, pledges to help us in the battle with the darkspawn.

I go back to the camp.
Morrigan tells us that she read a book we found in the mages tower. It tells us that Flemeth has managed to stay alive for centuries by basically having a daughter then when she dies posessing the daughters body. She is bascially an abomination.
Morrigan is angry and want to kill Flemeth.
She tells us that we need to go to Flemeth's hut without her and kill her. Morrigan will need her grimoire to prevent her return and her own possession.
I go to a new locationa and am attacked by darkspawn on the way. Wynne collapses, she makes light, but tells us that next time we are at camp she will tell us what is going on with her.

I find a merchant named Felix, he has lost his mule. This is more DLC being introduced as a tasks to accomplish. A bridge too far here EA/Bioware.

I go to Denerim, a city. I am to find a scholar regarding the urn.
Brother Genetivi has went missing on the search for the urn.
Weylon tells me he went to an Inn near lake Calenhad.
I go to the inn. The Innkeeper is very dodgy when asked about Gentivi. Nothing seems to work so I leave the inn and am attacked.
Looks like an ambush. Back inside the innkeeper tells us that he was threatened to keep quiet. I don't know what to do next. The quest log tells me I have to go back to Weylon.
Weylon is a cult member he attacks us and dies very quickly for his trouble.
I find a book in his room which tells us to go to a village called Haven.
In the village the guard is very hostile and basically tells us to leave.
Sten decides we aren't doing a good job and challenges us for leadership.
I fight him alone and win, he then gets back in line.
I find the village shop, the shopkeeper gets angry when I look around the shop.
He seems to be hiding something, when I go towards a door he attacks.
After killing him I find one of eamon's knights slain in the back room.
Outside in the village a gang of cultists attack.
I go to the chantry and find their leader, He suggests that they are guarding something important, presumably the urn of Andraste.
They all attack and it's a good fight.
I find Gentivi behind a brick wall that moves.
He wants to help, though is injured.
I go back out and make sure the villagers are all cleared out before taking gentivi with us.
We arrive at the temple, Gentivi lets us in using a medallion taken from the cultist leader.
Inside the temple Gentivi lets it slip that there will be loads of traps, he wisely wants to hang around by the door and lets us do the hard work.
Inside the temple is lots of corridor and dungeon, some keys to find and lots of cultists.
Then we have some caves, with cultists and dragonlings.
There are and awful lot of caves, and drakes and cultist, a bloody army of them.
Now they want to talk, why do they always want to talk after I have killed every one of their soldiers and am about to slit their throats.
The leader here tells us that andraste has risen again. Though a guardian of the urn of her ashes is keeping her at bay. He wants us to kill the guardian and if she drips some blood on the ashes she will gain her full power.
Whether this is really Andraste or not is the question, seems like blood magic and a demon posing as Andraste.
This is an impossible fight, two mages raining fire from a distance and three heavy hitters make short work of my party despite a few different attempts at strategy.
No matter how I play it Kolgrim still survives and kill what is left of my party.
I decide the ony way forward is to choose the other option, to side with Kolgrim.
I do and Wynne and sten disapprove strongly. Morrigan is ok with it though.
Kolgrim lets us pass and we go out onto the mountain top and the temple.
The Dragon is here and Kolgrim stops it toasting us.
I try fighting him here again and it's just too hard. I don't have the correct strength or party mix to kill him.
This game is unsure of it's difficulty curve, easy easy hard easy hard hard. With no consistent system.
I can only go forward, it's either that or abandon this quest line.
I suppose I could go and do something else and return once levelled up a bit.
I decide to try with an alternate save to see what the guardian says in the temple.
Maybe he can get rid of Kolgrim for me.
No, I won't be dictated to by this character, this is a game about choice, and I want to choose to kill this Kolgrim character.
I am leaving to go and do another quest, hopefuly to come back and melt this guy next time I face him.

I go back to camp to heal my many wounds.
Wynne tells me that she died during the battle in the tower, she was saved by a demon and brought back to life. Apparently this spirit is keeping her alive, it may be a good spirit. Wynne reveals that this spirt is weakening and she is living on borrowed time.

I do a side quest where I go and see what happened to a caravan. They are all dead, slain by genlocks.
Then one to help a settlement in trouble.
Another to investiagte what happened at a battle, both armies were wiped out by wolves and bears.

Mission 12 possibly?
I go to the frostback mountains. There are bounty hunters outside that are a tough fight.
The dawrves look down on surface dwelling dwarves, though they are needed as ambassadors for the underground dwarves.
I come to the main doors and find a dwarf barring entry to one of Loghains men. The dawrves have lost their king to illness. They are in flux about choosing a new one.
Loghains man gets stroppy and we fight them.
The dwarf lets us in.
Inside the first hall are some statues called paragons, a scholar tells us that the dwarves don't like to be seen to be in disarray by outsiders.
I enter the main area called the commons. In a cut scene we see two sides clash and one dwarf is killed by the others.
There are two sides vying for the kingship, both are using proxies to do their dirty work.
Bhelen is the son of the king who was called Endrin, however it appears that Bhelen is a bad egg and may have organised the deaths of the real heirs to the throne.
Lord Harrowmont appears to be the one who should be king.
A dwarf commander won't let us down into the mines, apparently there are darkspawn down there.
There is a place called the proving grounds where disputes are settled in the dwarf world.
I eventually find the diamond quarter and Bhelen's helper. He wants us to out that Harrowmont has bribed two people to vote for him, with the same money. Obviously he does not intend to pay.
I speak to Dulin, Harromont's aide. He wants us to enter the proving in Harrowmont's name.
I decide to go with Harrowmont.
I go to the proving grounds and have to fight a succession of one on one battles.
Once done I am champion of the proving. The ancestors are now said to be in favour of Lord Harrowmont.
I have to find Dulin at tapsters Tavern, he now knows we are on his side and takes us to Harrowmont.
Harrowmont wants us to clean up the slum called dust town, this will seal his way to becoming King.
Jarvia is in charge of Dust town. I find some of her men after asking around, they try to kill us. I take the key from their corpses to jarvia's hideout. There is a suspicous door in the dust town main area.
Inside the door is a labyrynth of caves filled with carta members. I eventually fight my way through this lot and seem to have murdered more dwarves than there is in the city above.
I eventually come to Jarvia and kill her.
Back at Harrowmint we have more issues. The vote has been asked for and now the assembly is locked for days. The only way we can get a decision forced quickly is to find a lost paragon called brankha, who went into the mines and has got lost down there.
More dungeons to crawl eh!
Brankha's drunken husband Ogrhen wants to help find her.
Brankha was looking for the anvil of the void, which can be used to make Golem's.
I go back into mine door towards the deep roads.
Here I find tunnels that the darkspawn have dug into the dwarf mines to attack them.
This cardins cross is a big area with lots of darkspawn to clear out. New enemies are shrieks, and darkstalker, they are like little dinosaurs.
I enventually find the road to Ortain Thaig which is where branka is meant to have gone.
On this road there are lots of darkspawn corpses, seems the spiders down here have no love for the darkspawn.
I find evidence of a long disused dwarf settlement. A golem attacks here along with indignant spirits.
A dwarf runs away from us and tell us that this claim is his.
I find his camp and he won't believe that we aren't there to steal from him, he attacks and we have to kill him.
I find Brankha's journal and the spider queen for a boss battle.
The journal tells us that she is deeper into the mines.
The dead trenches starts with a cut scene, we see the darkspawn massive army and the arch demon itself. We are in the heart of enemy territory.
I find some dwarf suicide warrior cult down here fighting the darkspawn and help them out.
The dead legion leader isn't much help but does tell us that Brankha is dead.
I come to some large gates which seem to be an old dwarf structure.
we start to see the fleshy growths again which were seen in the mages tower.
I find a mad woman called Hespith, who is reciting a grisly rhyme. She seems to be from Branhka's party.
Looks like something nasty has befallen them.
I come to a shrine, or what looks like a church. There are ghostly dwarves standing around, however they don't react to our presence, yet.
I find a key on an altar and then the spirits attack.
Seems Hespith's pal lauren was forced to eat the males that were with them by the darkspawn.
She became a brood mother and made more Darkspawn.
We see a cutscene and find a monster made out of tits and tentacles.
I kill the broodmother by hiding up the side of it's cave and using area effect spells using Morrigan.
Hespith tells us something about the darkspawn but it's garbled ravings.
seems they need humans to make broodmothers to make more darkspawn. Brankha may have had something to do with the creation of this one.
I come to a new area aptly called the anvil of the void and we meet Brankha, she seems grumpy.
She tell Oghren her husband to turn back and is flippant about the needs of the dwarf lords.
She is preoccupied, in trying to get the anvil. She thinks that it can create an army of golems to aid against the darkspawn.
Seems that the person who made or last had the anvil has set a lot of traps.
Brankha has been making darkspawn using the broodmother in order to get past the traps.
The traps include a room full of gas and golems. Which need the gas valves to be switched off before you can survive long enough to fight the golems.
Then a room with loads of golems.
We then reach the anvil. It is a large lyrium vein with four anvils around it. Enraged spirits appear and fight you, once they are downed you use an anvil and it shoots at the stone statue that appears to be producing the spirits. It seems you have to do this an awful lot before winning. I used a glitch which sees the spirits leave morrigan alone if she was far enough away.
I enter a room with a lot of golems, their leader approaches. He is Caridin, one of the dwarf Paragons.
Caridin tells us that he was once a dwarf who created the anvil. The anvil turns anyone put on it into a golem. The king of the time used volunteers for his army at first, however soon people were forced into it. Caridin was as well, however he retained his mind as he has no control rod. The anvil was sealed away by Caridin, now a powerful golem, and he has sought to destroy it. He asks that we help him destroy it. Brankha is nuts, she may have wanted the anvil for good reason, but her means have not been good.
I decide to help Caridin destroy the anvil. This of course puts us at odds with Brankha.
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Brankha fight is very very hard, she has a huge amount of health. She has around four golems on her side. My team are decimated almost entirely in seconds.
There is no way to go back out of here and come back at a higher level for the fight which is a cardinal RPG sin. Bioware should know better.
I work on my strategy and try hard to defeat Brankha, she just kills my team as quick as I can heal and revive them, I am not taking her health down fast enough.
This is an admission of defeat and it makes me hate the game, but I have to lower the difficultty level to get past this fight and progress. I turn down the difficulty and win the fight almost without trying.
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After Brankha is defeated I speak to Caridin, he makes a crown for the king of our choice. I then destroy the anvil and he jumps into the lava.
I find a golem registry which shows the names of all the dwarfs who were turned into golems.
I take a tracing as Oghren thinks it will be valuable.

In cut scene back at Orzamar we see the assembly
I get to choose who to give the crown to, I choose Harrowmont.
Bhelen tries to fight his way out of losing and he gets taken down easy.
Harrowmont pledges to aid us against the blight and we get a staff from him.

I go back to the guardian on the mountain, hoping to kill Kolgrim, however, I can't fight him as he is locked out of conversation. I have to go and speak to the guardian.
The spirit asks about our parents and is happy when I say I am guilty about leaving them to their fate.
Sten and Wynne and Morrigan are asked questions as well.
I pass the guardian and then find a locked door and eight spirits who have riddles for us.
If you get the riddle wrong you have an enemy to fight. Correct answers open the door without a fight.
Inside the door I meet Elissa's father, who gives a gift.
We then have to fight invisible versions of ourselves.
Now we have to make a bridge appear by placing party members on floor tiles.
We then have to get naked and walk through a fire.
I come to the urn and take a pinch. There is no way I am going to do what Kolgrim wants.
I come out to meet and enraged Kolgrim and it is very satisfying to takje him down.
I have a go at fighting the high dragon and it's too much.
I find Genetivi at the door and tell him that he can share the discovery with the world.
I go back to Redcliffe and meet Teagan, he starts a cut scene where we see Eamon being woken and told about what happened.
He pledges support and gives us a shield. He then discusses the future. He feels that a campaign against Loghain is a waste of life and counter productive when darkspawn are attacking as well. He suggest alternative means other than direct conflict.
Loghain's sister has claim to the throne, however Alastairs is much more direct.
He suggests a meeting of the nobilty, where the matters of who is to lead can be judged in strict council.
We also have to decide Jowan's fate, the blood mage who started all this. I play for his life and Eammon sends him to the mages to decide his fate.

I decide to go back to Flemeth's hut and do Morrigans quest. No I won't, she turns into a dragon that is beyond me to kill.
I go back to the mages and do small small bits and bobs, telling the mages of the dwarf that wants to study magic etc.

The Landsmeet
I go back to the main plotline and we see Loghain meet with us in denerim.
There is a tense meeting, Howe is there and I tell him I will have revenge for my family.
Loghain tells us that we are dividing the country and that we should essentially watch our backs.
I find myself in denerim at Eamons house there.
One of the queen's maids who is Loghains daughter by the way come to eamon and tells him that the queen has been imprisoned. It appears that  Loghain is going to kill his own daughter and blame it on Eamon.
We are to go and rescue the queen.
On the way we meet one of the crowes an old friend of Zevran, he turns on us and we have to fight a large number of assassins and Zevran.
I arrive at the place and we have to sneak around back.
Some soldiers to fight then we have a hide and seek bit where the elf maid distracts the guards and we go inside.
We are disguised as guards and can move freely. Inside we come to the place where Enora is being locked up. A spell has been cast on the door. We need the mage who cast it to undo it.
Looks like scerecy is out the window.
I go to the dungeons and we find a grey warden imprisoned. I let him out and he goes.
I go through the dungeons and eventually find Howe and kill him.
I get his key to the door. Anora comes out, and is ready to come with us.
I meet a templar horde just outside. The fight is over in seconds. I am about to curse the game for yet another uneven difficulty bump when a cut scene kicks in.
The warden has been captured and Anora goes to eamon with the rest of our party somehow.

I find myself in a cell, there is another prisoner nearby. A guard comes by and we can tempt him to come in. I end up bare knuckle fighting with him and get his keys.
Our gear is nearby in a chest.
Occasionally there are long long load times after a death.
ooohh look a big difficulty spike, suddenly along my warrior can't take on two dogs and a guard without dying like a wimp.
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Again I have to knock the difficulty down to the insulting casual to take out two dogs and a guard!!!! This is how to make people hate your game!
I get to put on a guard uniform and walk about unmolested.
I find a door with two guards at it. They want a password.
Here we are supposed to find a guard commander who sends us to a patrol and then we go with the patrol. However I broke the quest by killing the two guards I was meant to patrol with.
Stupid stupid game.
I manage to get an autosave a little while back by pure luck.
I get to the commander and he sends me to the guards, the guards have done something wrong and need the quartermaster to give them their blades back.
He won't no matter what I say. looks like fighting is the only way out, so back to casual difficulty as there is no way otherwise.
There is still no way, even on casual difficulty I can't fight past the four guards that attack in the courtyard.
I officially detest this stupid game.
I go to a map location and find a brothel. I meet a duelist in here, who want to play cards.
I do some small chantry quests, which basically see you go around small areas of the city and kill gangs.
I find a gang of blood mages hiding under the city in a hideout as well.

I manage to defeat the guards at the Howe estate this time, which I only mangage due to the fucked up a.i. I hide my warrior at the end of the corridor and they all stay in the room.
I manage to lure one at a time and kill them that way.
Back at Eamons house we speak with Anora, she tells us of his madness.
Seems we will still need to get more of the nobles on our side. The elves in the alienage are all stirred up and it seems Loghain may have a hand in this.
Anora wants us to join with her and keep her as Queen. Eamon thinks that Alastair is still the better choice. Though if they were to marry and he become King with her as queen then the bloodline would be maintained.
I speak to Anora, she wants us to support her at the Landsmeet.
I try and get her  to marry Alastair.
Alastair on the other hand isn't having any of it.
I enter the Elf alienage, which seems to be a chinatown style ethnic district. There is a plauge here however. The elves are being treated by Tevinter's who have came to cure them.
There is some doubt that any curing is going on however.
I try and enter and am barred, not for long as I kill all the guards.
Inside is empty but for a few more guards to kill, a note suggests that people are being taken as slaves.
I meet ser Otto, a blind templar sent to investigate what is going on here.
I go into the back alley and find an elf who tells of the soldiders taking loads of elves away.
I find out that the Tevinter Imperium soliders have been told to come in and take the elves. They have Dispensation, maybe even from Loghain.
I cut through the many rooms and eventually find their leader. He tries to deal, I don't and take him down.
I let him live though.
I find a pool of blood that smells of rotten eggs. A beggar is rambling about bad men in the orphanage. I think this is what Otto was talking about.
I talk to him and he wants to go to the orphanage.
Inside the orphangae are rabid wardogs and ghostly children.
Oh and some demons. I clear out the demons, Otto vanishes, maybe he died.
I go back to Eamon and tell him of Loghain's involvement with the slavers.
Now It's time for the landsmeet to take place.
It does not go well. Loghain refutes our claims with some actual sense. Calen was stupid to charge the blight head on. Did Loghain really save a good portion of the army by retreating.
He also questions Alastairs lineage.
The crushing blow comes when Anora comes in on Loghains side and tells the gathering that we kidnapped her.
Thing go pear shaped and we have to fight. It's a hard fight but it seem to end if you concetrate on Loghain himself.
A cut scen shows the fight being stopped by the chantry and they suggest single combat should be the way forward. I get to choose who will fight Loghain.
No saving allowed so you can backtrack and choose a better fighter, in case Loghain turns out to be super powered.
No worries actually, Loghain is a pussy and falls to Morrigan quickly.
We get to choose wether he lives or dies, actually I really want to kill him as he has done his best to kill me and screw up the world. He really does deserve it along with his daughter.
Fuck it, it's a game, why not do the wrong thing once in a while.
Riordan the Grey warden intervenes and suggests making him a grey warden.
The joining would either kill Loghain or make him at least sympathetic to the cause against the darkspawn.
Alastair disapproves of even thinking about it. I am trying to navigate an good path here and it seems there is no winning if you try and be merciful. Time for Loghain to die.
I name Alastair as king, then execute Loghain.
Alastair locks Anora up rather than execute her.
He makes Eamon regent until after the darkspawn. Now It's time to take on the blight.

I go to Redcliffe and find the darkspawn already there.
At the castle we have a big battle in the courtyard.
Inside we meet Riordan and Eamon. The horde are  not heading to redcliffe. They are going to Dennerim.
The archdemon is at the head of the demon army.
We now have a choice. Worry about redcliffe, March to Denerim with army we have? Is it possible to reach the city in time? Do we even have enough forces to do the job.
I ask a side question and Alastair decides anyway.
Looks like we are going to Dennerim to take the blight on head on.
I go to meet with Riordan, who tells us of the Grey Warden's real role in ending a blight. It seems that the Archdemon can body hop when it's body is slain. If A grey warden does the Killing then they can absorb the Archdemon's soul. The Grey warden will die in the process finally killing the Archdemon. If anyone else kills it then it will come back again.
I go to my room as directed and Find Morrigan waiting.
She gives us a new option, she can perform a blood magic spell which will see her having sex with alastair and conceiving a child with him. This child will have the taint as it is Alastairs, essentially a grey warden. Morrigan is convinced that the child in her womb will be chosen as a target by the free soul of the Archdemon. She thinks that the child will kill the Archdemon and not be destroyed itself. She then thinks that this child will grow to have the power of an old God.
Morrigan reveals that flemeth planned this from the start and that is why Morrigann is with them.
I agree and am urged to go and speak with alastair.
Who takes a little Persuasion but the deed is done.
A little cut scene shows Morrigan climb into bed with alastair and blow out the candle.
A cut scene shows the armies gathering and leaving for Dennerim.
Then alastair  making a rousing speech, we see the battle start and our group enter the city.
Inside the city we fight alone with lots of allies against a horde of Darkspawn.
after that we speak with riordan and he tells us the plan. The army won't be able to take out the darkspawn horde, it's too big. The Archdemon must be the target adn quickly.
The plan is to lead it to a fight and kill it. It will call it's generals to it. If we take them out first then we may have a chance.
I get to choose my party.
Now inside the city we fight hordes of orges, however we can summon around 12 of each army to help us in the fight.
I then switch to the other three team members who are guarding the gate and have to stop an influx of darkspawn.
A cut scene shows Riordan jumping on the archdemon's back and stabbing it before falling to his death. He has wounded it severly though.
We have some large scale fights leading up to the royal palace. Then onto fort Drakon.
Inside are some more fights, what would you know, I never expected that.
After much fighting we come to the  roof of fort drakon and the Archdemon. Inn cut scene we see it making a mess of about twenty soldiers.
Now it's our turn to fight it.
Boy this is going to be hard, even on casual.
Each time I get so far and it calls in some aid. I thought I had taken out the aid. Obviously not.
The question is will I be able to go back and get them or am I stuck again. This is casual you know?
No I can't get back out of fort Drakon, again unexplained and unhelpful design has ensured that I can't progress.
I manage to find a glitch, if you get yourself far enough away from the battle the a.i. stops, if you can't see the fight then it isn't happening. This means that the horde of darkspawn and soldiers are simply paused.
I use the ballista to pound the dragon, it takes ages and eventually it goes down.
We see some congratulatory scene's Alastair gives us a wish. I ask to keep on keeping on.
We go down the hall chatting to everyone then out to meet the adoring public. A series of images accompanies text telling us what happens next. While some of it is good the dwarves seem intent on making a mess of things.
The credits roll.

430 Achievement points
48 hours on the in game timer. Though I think it may acutally be more than that.