Here it is: the final entry in my Game of the Year series. Once I finish this, I'll be making my actual list where you can view all of them in one place. For those who care about spoilers, this will be the only blog of mine that has them. If you want to see my other blogs about my list, please check out the links below:

#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10 and HM

Dragon Age Inquisition

Here we go. Let's talk about Dragon Age: Inquisition. This is the best game of the year, for me, and it wasn't really close. I loved Origins but never played 2 because everyone who I knew that played it really disliked it. When reading up and watching video of this game, I was reminded of how much I loved Origins. That was enough to convince me to buy it.

As I'm playing the game, I am continually distracted by random side quests, collecting random flowers and rocks and just other things that continually popped up. This was more than enough to cause me to not play the story missions for at least 20 hours of playtime. However, the true strength of the game is the characters that you are introduced to throughout the game. My team at the start of the game was me(Rogue), Varric, Iron Bull and eventually Vivienne. This was a time when I was dying a lot while playing. I eventually went to the forums here and started poking around to see if I was doing something wrong. I learned that I only needed one Rogue, myself, so I added Cassandra and was then able to start rolling through the game. With all of these characters, I felt they were the best characters to hand around with. Varric was terrific because he always was sarcastic and awful to those around him but as you got to know him, he turned out to care for everyone and was the way he was so people would never get close to him. When Hawke returned, you could see that Varric really cared for him and was all about enjoying his time with him.

Iron Bull is probably my favorite character in the game. With him and Vivienne in my party, the banter between the two of them is my favorite bits of conversation in the game. The respect and admiration that he treats her with, especially when he gives everyone else around him crap nonstop, it really endeared him to me. The other part of their relationship that is hilarious is that he'll do everything that she tells him to do, no matter what it is. Cassandra is a wonderfully done character because her sincerity and devotion was something that really spoke to me. The reveal that she is a fan of Varric's smutty novels was so well done and it was hilarious to see how embarrassed she was once you found out about it.

Now, the time to talk about the actual gameplay is here. The combat is weird for me. I loved the tactical feel of Origins but when I tried to do that with this game, it really fell apart for me and the AI was well done enough that I was never feeling like it was just me fighting everyone of the field. I know that some people don't like the hamstringing of everything but I feel that it works for how I'm playing. I do wish that I had access to more than just 8 abilities but I've realized that it won't change just because I want it to. The flow of combat seems to work real well with how they have the game set up for you and I really enjoy it.

The story is one that I feel works well and there are some pretty good choices that I really had to think about, including the Hawke choice where you are learning what actually happened inside the explosion at the beginning of the game. Now, I have not beaten the game yet so I don't know what the ending is like. I just finished the Well of Sorrow quest and pissed Morrigan off since I was the one who took the Well for myself. I am still taking my time through the game since I am finishing off the third of three dragons at Emprise du Lion right now.

We have now come to the end of this year's look at the best games of the year. I want to thank all of you for reading and joining me on this journey.

HT101