In baldur's gate, the nearest party member to the NPC was the one who was talking. If you look at the portraits in a conversation, the party member who is having the conversation has a little mouth icon.
The only thing that prevents them from taking this route is the somewhat ridiculous "need" to have "cinematic" conversations.
I'd prefer to cut out or reduce such cinematic conventions (these aren't films after all), and retain a more zoomed out, top down perspective. But I'm not exactly in the majority.

Never noticed that. So does that mean Minsc might have been talking to Irenicus? Nifty :p
And honestly, I think that going back to not having "cinematic" conversations would be like going back to the old dungeon-crawler style screen, or going back to the Wizardry method of having to type the spell's name. A step backward.

My opinion is that it would be a step in a different direction, not backwards. Just a different way of doing things, without having to borrow heavily from cinematic convention.
First person RPGs take things in one direction, surely there's room for some top-down RPGs? I know Diablo 3 isn't an RPG in the same style, but Blizzard are retaining the isometric view and I would be suprised if they dealt with conversations with an over the shoulder camera viewpoint.
I was never fond of the interface for Wizardry or Eye of the Beholder, but I've no doubt it would be possible to make a similar game (first person, party based) with a better interface. Just because it wouldn't necessarily be popular, wouldn't make it backwards.

on a side note, for north america buyers, direct2drive has this for $39.99 right now

eh, finally gave in a bought the game. of course, issues with the DLC.
I can install/activate the game just fine, but when I try to log into my account from in game (as in start the game, try to log in to download the DLC) the 'Log In' button is grayed out even after i enter my email/password. It's really aggravating, and I can't find anything on the internet as to how to solve the issue. I just can't click the button to log in.

I seem to recall reading a solution on the bioware social website forum, might be an idea to look there. It MIGHT have been just "pm an admin and we'll sort it"

Yea I posted on the bioware forums, i'll check if i got a response when i get home, blocked at work.

I am overall very very satisfied with the game. It's not without it's issues, but calling it a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate is an apt description.

since i didn't play the game before the patch, did the patch make the game a lot easier? From what people were posting i was expecting a challenge in even normal fights, but I'm doing mage and I basically breezed through the game so far, just finisher ostagar (granted still early on).
Cone of cold + stone fist = OP. That ogre at the top of the tower went down fairly easy, i just kept cone of colding/winter's grasping it. It spent half the battle frozen.

Mages are rather powerful, especially with that Shattering combo.
That being said, the patch did make the game easier. A lot easier? I don't know (I am used to manually positioning characters).
And also, Ostagar isn't too bad. Wait until you start getting to some of the random encounters :p

so... the question is...
is it Baldur's Gate 21st millennium edition?
or just KOTOR 2009?

While I'm really enjoying it, it doesn't stack up to BG for me. I never played KOTOR though, so can't compare with that!

It's more like NWN 3 with an over the top dialog / decision-system partly borrowed from KOTOR / Mass Effect.
It's a great game and all, but Baldur's Gate revitalised CRPGs and how you perceived them completely. And I don't see this happen with DA:O.

It's not a giant revolution in CRPGs but it's still probably the best game I've played this year