Well I finally finished it the other night, I can say I completed most of the side quests and my final time was just over 80 hours. This was such an amazing RPG, definitely ranks up there with the best I have ever played. It was a little tough at first and there was a bit of a learning curve getting used to the combat and trying to think tactically more than I usually would for this kind of game but the experience has been truly rewarding on so many levels, from its combat to the very rich and in-depth story. The story was very enjoyable if not a little typical and formulaic but its implementation of how you fit in the world and how the choices you make can change it was something much more engrossing in Dragon Age than any other Bioware game I have played, though keep in mind I haven't played anything from Bioware pre-KOTOR.
Anyhow, theres lots of big stuff that happens in the end that can really fuck with you, decision wise stuff. You can go to the Bioware social network stuff and see all the choices I made as it even tracks all that which I thought is pretty neat. But I'll explain my reasoning here.
[spoiler]So all the major shit goes down starting with the landsmeet, and the big decision is whether you want to keep Alistair, or take Loghain. That choice was brutal for me, but the thought process of it was that Alistair was a character I never really used much, nor did I really learn anything about him except for the fact he seems more to be of a passive personality. In the end I really couldn't pick him as King over Anora, and the punishment for Loghain to take the trial of the Grey Warden seemed fitting to me. Though betraying Alistair still made me feel like shit and was seriously considering reloading and taking it all back, though I guess betraying is too harsh of a word because I didn't really betray him, it was all his decision to leave so I stuck with it viewing it that way.
Then theres the issue with Morrigan, that was an easy one for me, I turned that bitch down flat, the idea of her having a god child to raise on her own seems like the most foolish thing I could possible think of considering she was raised by such an evil witch of a mother. I just couldn't seriously trust her. So she leaves, like a selfish bitch, to have all of us deal with the darkspawn without her, which made me even happier about the decision.
Then at the very end when the other Grey Warden explained the consequences of killing the arch-demon, it automatically clicked after that, Loghain will redeem himself through this, and that was the plan I had wanted. So it all fell in place after that and I was pretty happy with it.[/spoiler]
