Sweet, cant wait to get off work and DL this!

Ok, impressions on the PC demo:

(just a quick heads up, assume anything I say should have 'as far as I can tell from the demo' in huge letters infront of it. These are my impressions derived from the demo, not the full game)

Bad things first:
Some of the voice acting is...suspect, main offenders being Hawke's brother and Aveline's Husband. Maybe it is just me, but they just sounded a bit off. All the main characters sounded fine.

Was the redesign of the Darkspawn Hurlocks and Flemeth really necessary? I mean, they look ok, but what was the point? If it part of a greater aesthetic shift, then I am ok with that, it just really threw me off. (Also, the Hurlocks now remind me of something I cannot quite place, and it will surely bug the crap out of me until someone puts me out of my misery.)

Good stuff:
The combat, to me, seems mechanically more or less unchanged. The battlefield simply now feels more visually interesting, more kinetic. I really like the new specialisation and ability system. It feels more fluid, and as someone who ALWAYS plays a mage, it feels less restrictive, like I can mix and match my spell types a bt more. Whether that will be true in the full game is another matter. The only other thing is the difficulty. The menu was telling me it was on normal, but playing it tactically, pausing frequently, made it almost a cakewalk. I would have liked to have tried it on a higher difficulty, as I suspect normal and easy (if the game has it) will be for those who wish to play it in real time. EDIT: Forgot this, no isometric camera. Could be a deal breaker for some. I don't mind.

As far as the graphics go, I had no issues, although I have a sneaking suspicion one or two people will. I was just happy it ran on medium settings in dx9. Visually, it is a step up from DA:O although it clearly an upgraded version of the same engine.

As far as the dialogue system is concerned, I think it is too early to tell. Whilst it is nearly identical to the Mass Effect dialogue system in terms of implementation, because it is not using the absolute morality of Mass Effect, and therefore not arbitrarily punishing you for deviation, it feels like there is a greater scope for flexibility the dialogue choices you make, rather than 'oh well i'm making my char a paragon so i'll unthinkingly go with the paragon choice.'

So all in all, I really liked it. Roll on March 11th.

Played a little the demo....

Of course the only thing that really interested me was if it was possible to play "strategically"... its definitely impossible to tell from the demo, its stuck in normal difficulty with friendly fire off.

You are so overpowered that its kind of ridiculous, I played as a mage but I killed most enemies hitting them in close combat with my staff. (I guess the reason why there is no arcane warrior is because all mage are kind of arcane warriors by default)

The lack of control on the camera is annoying especially if you want to tell one of you companion to attack a distant enemy, another thing that bother is how it's hard to control your companions, at least in the demo. The combats are so fast and the enemy so weak that you give them orders they execute it and immediately start doing what they want, spamming fireball everywhere and jumping into the enemy while you wanted them to stay behind, you have to switch their tactic to "passive" if you want to control them but in this mode you have to pause every second to tell them to attack another enemy after they kill one.

I really wished that let us change the difficulty, it's no fun in normal...

Also finished the demo now.

Good things:
I like the new art-style. It has s strong resemblance to JRPGs and the combat plays and looks far more fluid than in DAO. The character models also have taken a step forward, although I must admit that DAO with Mods looks much better. But one could only play it on medium so I´ll have to wait how it looks on higher settings. Faces and lightning is nevertheless much improved.

The voiceacting is okay, though I like it more in DAO so far and Hawke´s voice is not as cool as Shepards in ME.

The ability system seems to be more or less the same as in DAO, it just looks different.

Bad stuff:

I really don´t like the whole Interface. You can clearly see it was developed for consoles and it all looks and feels this way. No more beautiful menues journal entries etc.

There´s no real inventory any more and it all feels very unpolished to me. Whats most annoying is the missing of the tactical view. Sure, combat looks nice. But combat control is clunky and it plays like a hack & slay with pause option. There´s no strategic thinking or planning involved.

Level design (at least in the demo) is pretty straight forward. One way to go with nothing to explore.

I cannot say I´m disappointed because it turned out to be excatly what I thought it would be but I will not buy it until I see more and until there´s a ultimate edition. So far it clearly a step down from DAO and as nothing to do anymore with Baldurs Gate and co. It´s more like Jade Empire in a different setting and a bit more complexity.

You have the blue angel wings and the red fist.

I know that there is an inventory and that it is locked in the demo, but from the looks of it it seems to be more like in ME and not like in DAO or BG. I´m an old-school RPGler so maybe thats why I don´t like it. But like I said, from what I´ve seen so far I´m not impressed.

True but they don't seem to be in every conversation like they were in ME2. In ME2 there was Paragon, Neutral, Dickhead. There are a lot more options at least in the demo of DA2.

While it is apparently the ME style wheel (I say apparently cause as of right now I'm still at work :'( ), I'm kind of hoping the dialogue works a bit more like Jade Empire and it's Open Palm\Closed Fist methods. I know some people will want to angst about JE not being good, I personally love it so for now just keep the baaawing away and just give me a moment:

While Closed Fist could be considered the "jerk" path if you will, I honestly really enjoyed playing along that path cause it was more about having power and making those around you find that power in them, not depend on others to protect them forever. It didn't always work that way but the example that always springs to my mind is the case of the kidnapped mother and daughter. Open Palm path is to basically do all the work to free them and have them be grateful, Closed Fist path you tell the daughter to take a nearby knife and *earn* her freedom.

I think that kind of attitude could work well within the DA universe. Yes there is a Blight and yes many people are suffering but as a lot of the Origins in DAO showed, claw your way up from the bottom instead of waiting for someone to come along and help you.

I've rambled a lot and really it's all just what I'd like to see without having first seen the demo.

Wait......

PC demo is locked in DX9 with "Medium" settings?!?!

WTF?

Arrrrg, I wanted to see DX11 maxxed out damnit!

Im confused as to the reasoning for this? Are there seperate texture files for DX11? Would it have made the DL much bigger?

Sounds like just another alignment system like Paragon and Renegade, and ends up the same. Forcing players to abide by abstract philosophies does not work, and would not fit in with a supposedly grey world that DAO was trying so hard to be, better to just let people choose as they will and let the rewards/punishments be the consequences of their actions, not some arbitrary morality bar.

No there is no alignment system that I can see. The only thing affected by your responses are your companions who have this friend-rival meter.

I hear you. Totally underated game in the Bioware catalogue.

Jade Empire is like Deus Ex. When you mention it someone will install it. Now where is my JE box....

That's good to hear, while the approval system in DAO was broken (primarily by the gifts imho) it was at least good in principle, so glad that they haven't ditched it to go back to a alignment system at least.