Finally beat Dragon Age: Origins last night, but I totally cheated. I moved the difficulty setting down from “Normal” to “Casual” for the final boss after getting annihilated 6 times. My guys didn’t stand a chance.

The whole game was difficult due, in part, to my unwillingness to spend the time fine-tuning what the game calls “combat tactics.” It’s essentially a list of circumstances you have to set for each player in your party that instructs them when to do what. For instance, if a player hits 50% health, then they should use a potion.

Some RPG players may like the depth of play, but I found it way too cumbersome in this particular game and stuck with the defaults. In the end, I spent 50% of my battles in the menu deciding which health potions I should use.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the plot. There were some pretty cool “oh, shit!” moments and I took my time making decisions that I new would greatly effect the outcome of the game. Deciding whom to support for king, for instance.

I realize World of Warcraft is the RPG standard, but Bioware borrowed I little too heavily from the Blizzard title in my opinion: things as small as a “rogue” class with an ability called “feign death” and as large as calling the evil guys “the horde.”

Just found out this morning there’s releasing an expansion. If it’s downloadable via Xbox Live, I’m sure I’ll play that as well. But not until I take a break from Dragon Age to play and beat Dead Space or Assassin’s Creed 2.