Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

It took about 45 hours of gameplay all up, but I finished Assassin's Creed: Origins on Thursday! (By comparison, Dragon Age: Inquisition took me about 300 hours -- the general estimate for most players was 150-200, but I'm a completionist, and I also died a lot.)

( Impressions of AC:Or )

Now I'm replaying Dragon Age: Origins, this time as a dwarf noble/dual wielding rogue. Who would really like people to stop accusing her of crimes she didn't commit, and if the humans could stop assuming she is familiar with their weird worship of a lady they set on fire, that would be great, too.

(The advantage of the silent player character, I've realised, is that you can imagine her dialogue, which in this case is haughty and often mildly sarcastic.)

I have to say that, if anything, combat mechanics for DA:O are even worse on Xbox than on PC, although at least I'm not constantly sending my characters off to stand in places away from the action. Bioware definitely made some choices.

My plans this time around:

• On my first playthrough, I recruited Wynn really, really late into the piece because my mage didn't go back to the circle, and I didn't even realise I had another party member to collect. This time, I'm gonna do the circle first.
• Then I'm getting Shale. (Thank heavens the Stone Prisoner DLC is still available in the XBox store, and free. Life without Shale is not worth living.)
• I'm honestly not sure I want to romance anyone. I love Alistair with all my heart, but I don't think my Warden is into humans. Zevran is too sleazy, and Leliana is too overawed (and also, my warden really has doubts about the whole Andraste-Maker thing; she is far too polite to express them, but, you know).
• (I can't believe it took me this long to realise that Bioware did the "overawed female love interest who evolves into a ruthless, brilliant spymaster" thing twice with Leliana and Liara.)

I'm at the start of a four-day long weekend, and although I have a fairly terrifying to-do list, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to finish Dragon Age: Inquisition in this time. ( Help me choose! )