After BioWare bid farewell to the Forgotten Realms following the modders' playground that was Neverwinter Nights, I—a fantasy-obsessed 19-year-old—was beyond excited to hear that it was building its own fantasy realm. The first screenshots of Dragon Age—which bore no resemblance to the game we eventually got—instantly became my desktop wallpaper. It took a long ass time, but when Origins finally materialised, it convinced me that it was more than worth the wait.
I was 24 when I at last got my hands on the RPG I was sure would reveal the future of the genre; the same year I decided to stop trying to find a real job and instead embarked on my questionable career as a videogame critic. Dragon Age: Origins was everything I'd hoped for, but I would have perhaps been less enthusiastic had I known that it served more as the conclusion of an era of exceptional CRPGs.
