That there's Peachy Keen. She'll cut you.
The reason my husband has not yet written a review of Dragon Age 2 is that he hasn’t been playing it. Instead, he has been running around in Nightfall with the new alt I rolled for the purpose of duoing our way across Tyria (the world, not the continent). I never realized how difficult it would be to take a screenshot of two characters and their pets until I tried it, which is why you only get to see yours truly above. Mr. Randomessa’s pet crocodile, Tusky, is camera-shy.
I don’t see it mentioned often, but playing through Nightfall I am reminded that ArenaNet had been toying with branching storylines even then. While the personalized mission was nothing new, and we had already seen how faction could take your story in one direction or another with Factions, Nightfall took things even further with the irrevocable (until the end of the story, at least) choices you have to make regarding hero selection, and, occasionally, storyline branch. If you choose Jin, you can’t have Sousuke. If you choose the Master of Whispers, you can’t have Margrid.
In my previous playthroughs of Nightfall, I had always chosen the Master of Whispers, and with him, the Rilohn Refuge and Dzaganur Bastion missions. Mr. Randomessa wanted to take Margrid, and so I am experiencing brand new content, not only for him, but for me as well.
I am curious as to why ANet backed away from the “this, not that” options in storytelling when they got to Eye of the North, only to re-instate it, newer and shinier, with Guild Wars 2. Was it a time restriction? Were they not pleased with the way it was implemented in Nightfall and they wanted to give it another pass or ten before implementing it again? I’ve no idea, but I’m glad now that Mr. Randomessa and I started with Nightfall. I think it’s an excellent primer for what Guild Wars 2 holds in store.
Casual Is As Casual Does 
You have a giant flamingo as a pet. I do not know what to say to that. Can you play hedgehog croquet with it?
You know, I thought about it, but my husband had a hedgehog pet and I thought it might be rude.
Hmm. Didn’t we have it on royal authority that the hedgehogs don’t mind it at all?
O.o o.O
My ranger is named Dire Was Flamingo!
…and she did originally have a flamingo pet. But 😦 As a Beastmaster, it’s really, really, ridiculously easy to lose your pet when it gets stuck on terrain (are you calling me fat?!) or otherwise blocked.
So I changed it to a rainbow phoenix, which is SO freaking HUGE that when you lose it, you immediately notice. (Though some might say I lost it ages ago and have yet to notice.)
^_^ It’s still named Flaming-O though!
Side note: I really wish ANet would improve the pet interface, it’s soooooo clunky. But that’s doubtless not much of a priority. Makes Pure BM a pain to run effectively though.
Love the flamingo 😀 I named mine Floyd. (makes perfect sense if you think about it for a bit)