I’m writing this about a week ahead of time (I’m still slowly recovering my buffer) and I have no idea if I’ve gotten close enough to the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition that it might be a reasonable goal to finish it before the fourth game in the Dragon Age Franchise, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, comes out. That was my initial goal, months ago during the summer when I first made these plans, but so much has happened to derail that plan that what felt like a decent amount of buffer space has slowly slipped away from me. I mean, I even had a two-week period where I barely touched the franchise because I was so burned out from a mixture of sleep deprivation and work demands that I couldn’t over my dread at the thought of returning to Inquisition for the first time since 2017’s failed attempt to replay the game. I’ve overcome that, though, as I’m writing this (technically I overcame it weeks ago, but I’ve also overcome ALL my hesitancy to play the game), and am approaching the one-hundred hour mark (I’m in the mid-seventies right now). It actually feels like clearing the whole game and its DLCs might be achievable now, since I can absolutely melt every boss I encounter and I’ve made it through the biggest of the world maps in the base game. I don’t know how long the three DLC pieces are going to take me and I am saving them for a bit further down the plot line, but I think it might truly be possible if I can actually use my final weekend well. Still, all I’ve got is a pile of plans and the desire to feel hopeful about literally anything, so this might be wishful thinking on my part. I’m sure the version of me editing this the day before it goes up will have a better idea of how achievable that goal is [I don’t], but right now it feels like it might be within my grasp despite my fears of the week prior. Especially because I’m taking days off and can spend more time than usual playing video games in the last three days before the game releases since I won’t be doing any overtime.

Currently, at least so far as I can find, there is no announced release time [the EA app now says I can download the game at 11am on October 31st]. The date given is October 31st, which is a great day for a game to release, but I don’t know if that means 12am Eastern Time (which would be 11pm on October 30th for me) or if it means 12am Pacific Time (which would be 2am for me). It could also mean that it’ll release at some point during the day on October 31st, but that seems unlikely given how many games have changed to being primarily (or even entirely) digital these days [but hey, good on BioWare for being different, I guess]. Why hold midnight release events when the people who want them can just start playing the game at midnight from the comfort of their homes? I do know that the game will be available for pre-download starting on the 29th (which is yesterday for all of you reading this) on PlayStation, from earlier this month if you’re playing it on an Xbox, and not at all if you’re playing it on a PC. I don’t really pre-order games anymore, at least not in the way it used to mean, but I’ll often buy the game a day or two ahead of the release in order to make sure I can either get a physical copy without hassle or pre-download the game, when that’s an option, so I’m not waiting for hours because everyone else is ALSO downloading the game. I kinda wish BioWare would put out some kind of demo or character creator so I can get that two-to-three hour process finished ahead of time, but I’m sure I’ll somehow survive. After all, I’ll have a four-day weekend to play the game, so I’ll be able to avoid the binging that often comes with playing a game under a time constraint.

I’m hoping to take my time with this one, especially after three solid months of playing mostly Dragon Age games. I’ve got a few things going on in that four-day-weekend that I want to get to on top of playing Veilguard, so I’m hoping having stuff planned every day will help break up my potential marathon play sessions. I’ve got a Halloween party on the 31st and then another one on the 2nd, so I’ll have a reason to leave my apartment for at least a few hour on each of those nights. I also need to get a blood test done at some point and a day off is a really good time to get one day since I have to fast for twelve hours before then and can take myself out to a nice breakfast afterwards (though that would use up my one weekly takeout meal, which would mean not being able to order pizza or Chinese food to eat while playing the game in classic style). I’m also definitely leaving my apartment during the day on the 31st for my next physical therapy appointment, so maybe I’d do the blood test on Friday, the 1st. Really just spread it all out. Because then I’ve also got my usual Dungeons and Dragons game to run on the 3rd, which means I could easily have at least one event per day to pull me out of the depths of Dragon Age.

I also plan to pre-write a couple extra blog posts to cover my days off playing DA:TV, but you can expect some early thoughts on the game on either November 5th (if I feel they REALLY need to jump the in the publication order for my blog) or November 11th if I don’t want to rush out my feelings on the game. I will probably wind up interrupting everything that week due to the election and its results no matter what, but I’m really hoping this game can provide enough of a distraction and enough blog topics that I can keep my mind off whatever is going on in the election’s aftermath. I have absolutely no idea how that’s going to turn out and the presence of all this Dragon Age in my life has been a super helpful distraction from the stress of wondering if the US is going to spiral into horrible, hateful fascism or if we’ll get at least a four-year reprieve from that potential future by electing our first woman to the office of the President. I may not agree with many of VP Harris’ policies, but she’s a hell of a lot better than Trump. Still not, like, objectively great on a lot of incredibly important issues, but she’s better than the alternative by at least the distance from here to the center of the sun.