I see, I understood it as a targeting mechanic, but as a camera positioning mechanic I guess it would work, if the camera reverts to a player-controlled character after the spell/skill is activated.

I want to try the demo on the Xbox but it has been saying content unavailable for three days, convienient as my subscription was renewed the same day, still got access to online gaming ect (which I never use) just no online content like demos video music ect.

Since they're going to release umpteen billion DLCs for it I'd say GOTY edition for sure. Also, perhaps the PC version will be a proper port by then, what people have said so far has me worried (though I suppose at least it's not as bad as Bulletstorm on PC, seemingly).

I did pre-order The Witcher 2, I am more than a bit excited by the idea of playing it.

I agree and that's definitely my issue with DA2, the way it's designed to be played is not the way I enjoyed to playing DAO. :(

Minor spoiler below:


Who dies if you pick thief? I don't feel like playing through a 3rd time.

If you're playing Mage Hawke it's the mage sibling (Bethany) who dies, if you're playing Rogue or Warrior Hawke it's the Warrior sibling (Carver) who dies.

This was acknowledged on the social site as something they where addressing, suggesting its still in the gold master. That is, if you're referring to the difficulty of specifically clicking the ground and having to place the mouse cursor between arms and legs etc. The impression I got was possibly something like WoW's click through setting. In PCGamer Uk's podcast one of the guys has played the review release (30 hours, 60 minutes) on the PC (obviously) and it contains the free-moving AoE camera that was inexplicably not present in the PC demo. The AoE camera moves freely with the spell/ability as focus, you can free move it all over the battlefield just like the isometric camera from DAO on PC.

Once you click to target the AoE ability or cancel the ability (esc) the camera returns to the selected party member. He admits to using this to free roam the battlefield and get an idea of things.

I have every confidence this camera could be modded (simply by adding a no effect AoE ability, even) to effectively give you a free roaming camera on demand.

It runs fine excepting high details settings (shit performance), but all the parts are there. The problem is the gameplay is designed for consoles...PC is an afterthought in that department.

A translated review:
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/101745-dragon-age-ii-german-review-tidbits.html

There are some worrying points like:
-Main Quest takes 12-15 hours, you can double that number "if you take your time and explore everything the game has to offer".

Considering I spent about the same time to complete the campaign in Magicka, this is bad.

-The game does not feel long or epic, and the central conflict (mages vs. chantry) is not as dramatic as the reviewer would have liked. But although it doesn't have anything comparable to the Battle of Ostagar or the final attack on Denerim, it still has some very tactical boss fights.

8 daaaaays! I'm 99% sure I'm at the end of Awakening now and bought the three smaller DLCs that actually seem worth my time. I know those won't last me the 8 days of waiting so I might play around on one of my other DAO characters until the time comes for DA2 to come out.

My latest copy of PC gamer had a review in it. They gave it a 94 which is pretty good in my book. I read most of the review but didn't completely take it in as it was early morning when I read it. Basically as long as it's longer than Awakening (which has been confirmed and I feel was fantastic for an expansion pack) and the story is good, I know I'll be happy.

I do still hope they aren't completely throwing the Warden away in the DA timeline. There's probably only so much they can do with the character but I'd like more continuation of the story. Hopefully there will be a DA3 though, so it won't be like KotOR1 and 2 with Revan and the Exile in the outer rim and fans knowing nothing more of their stories. :(

Well I got it into the downloads que and it got to about 45% and then went screwy and back to 1% and then to add insult to injury all the contect vanished again with a f***ing error code.

Dragon Age 3 is all but confirmed. Dont expect the Warden or the Champion though, the Dragon Age games are about the period of time not nessesarily about the individual stories. There are also plenty of other places in Thedas to explore like The Anderfells, Orlais and Antiva.

As for KOTOR i'm pretty sure the Exile has been retconned or at least ignored but Revan will be mentioned in The Old Republic.

That's true. It becomes a little hard for me to keep becoming attached to characters and then never see them again. I suppose BG kind of spoiled me but then again much like ToB, DAO has Awakening.

I did read over the Dragon Age wiki a little bit this weekend and I think I read that BioWare is considering having Cassandra playing a big role in DA3 (they of course followed that up with "It's not officially announced yet but we have ideas!"). I'm very much hoping to go to Orlais come DA3, as that's probably the not explored fully place that I want to really get to know better.

Poor Exile. :( I do prefer KotOR2 over 1 so that does make me sad to know a character I really liked and connected with is basically being thrown under a rug. I personally won't be buying the Old Republic cause I'm not much of a fan of MMOs, so I'll probably end up reading about what they say about Revan if it's ever posted.

Awakenings is horribly short, I hope it's way longer than Awakenings.