What engine is this running on? Looks pretty, but basing my guesses on the sysreqs, it sure as hell ain't the Unreal Engine 3.

Aliasalpha, I accuse thee of treason!

I think the key marketing problem is that they have gone so much into the graphics and action side, with far less on character and depth. Now I don't mind the odd heavy metal blood trailer - its going to be part of the game, not all, but a part, so it does not worry me.
However I do worry that EA has its claws into bioware, so top of my list I wonder:
1) how much marketing hype we have been fed - EA marketing are good at expanding things and hinting at possibilties that never make it into final release - and if they do they are often lesser than we expect
2) testing - EA are just pure bad at beta testing games I find, some are ok, but a great many just feel lacking
3) support - past a 2nd patch EA tend to offer no post release support. Bioware might get away with more since they seem to be a more intact unit then many which get taken over by EA, but its still a risk that they won't give us much after release
4) expansion cutaway - most games add things in expansions, EA games tend to feel like things were cut out of the original specifically to be added in at later stages. I am sure its common practice as well, but EA tends to leave that first release feeling bitty
Of course EA has been trying to change their tune as of late as well as the fact that Bioware seems to be more intact as a working group than many others so there is a chance that they might operate a bit more to their own rules (I hope). But I remember that Spore was their showcase released ---- -- and now its heading for a 3rd person space adventure game....

Mass Effect used Unreal Engine 3, but Dragon Age uses an in-house engine called Eclipse. Unfortunately, the ridiculous recommended specs indicate that many systems that ran Mass Effect won't be able to run this.

Aha then I counter-accuse thee of not reading posts properly, like when I said "Then again the 360 version will probably look better than anything my poor old lappy can render"

Well I for one have no problem with high res lesbian aliens! ;)
I'll probably end up getting the Xbox 360 version of this game. Console game prices drop so much faster than pc game prices, especially if the game is a big seller. I have plenty of games to play, so I can play the waiting game. And I really don't trust EA as far as DRM is concerned. I know in my heart, they'll find a way to screw people over. Sad to say, I find myself buying the X360 version of a game more often than not because of DRM issues.

I can see why. Especially with places like GoGamer and Newegg and even Pricewatch, you'll find tons of deals on cheap and new console games more than you see them for PC games. A bummer too, because Bioware was really a PC dev until a few years ago, and I wouldn't be surprised to find the PC version gimped in favor of the 360 version.

No. I am sorry, but Bioware games just haven't been interesting to me since some time now. It is too much a repetition of the same story times and again (from all I've seen, read and heard - I haven't played any of theirs since Kotor). And sadly - characters that are nothing more than just cliches with badly written dialogue.
-Mnemon

They had the same plan for Sims 3 and I've had no issues whatsoever since buying. There's a disk check thing designed by SecuROM peoples (they wouldnt reveal the vendor til release day), but nothing is installed on my system so I'm all good.

20gb? I'm actually going to have to brave the outside world and buy the physical disc, there's no way i'm waiting for that to download.

Yeah, until speeds get crazy, I think piracy is going to undergo a major downturn for awhile, for that reason. I know I didn't pirate GTA IV cause of that..didn't buy it either, of course. :P

i wasn't talking about pirating it, i'm assuming it will come out in digital format
but i see your point. i've been downloading a lot of games from sites like gamersgate and even a six gig download means almost two days of painfully slow internet as my game computer chews up the bandwidth

Dragon Age has been in development in some form or other since at least 2004, so it actually predates their use of Unreal Engine (back then they always used in-house engines). To make things even more confusing, it is very likely that Mass Effect 2 will use Unreal Engine 3 again due to building upon the original game.

I think we may get to a point in the near future where the ability to download new games is severely reduced.
Blu-Ray is slowly but steadily gaining ground, and perhaps in the next few years we will see games released on the newer format, rather than using multiple DVDs.
I never thought we'd get to a stage of multiple CDs, let alone DVDs, I still remember when games came on a single 5.25" floppy with room to spare...