Let me preface this by saying that I did enjoy the 360 demo and I am going to buy the game

BUT

Combat wise its not really anything like the original dragon age anymore. You press A to attack. Each and EVERY time you want to swing your sword, just like in a beat em up. Also the enemy in the demo seem to be the massed cannon fodder variety, just like in a beat em up. Playing it well is not going to be a simple matter of button bashing but sadly I can imagine the possibility of finishing it by a combination of button bashing & bloody minded persistance (I fully expect it to get a lot harder down the track). The weirdest thing is for the core of the combat mechanic they've only really changed the attack from an automatic to a manual but it makes a heap of difference, especially to a person who already had sore thumbs...

The story, however, looks to be good and thats the real reason to buy a Bioware game for me so as I said, I'm still getting it.

Also I don't know if its the demo but the radial menu seems weird, as if you can't queue actions anymore but have to execute it then immediately pull the trigger to open it again

The PC version looks different and I'm tempted to try the demo of that just to see what its like but I fear I'll have to stay on the xbox road now since I want to import saves and such and I'd sooner not buy the PC version of DA1 and complete it in all the ways I have the 360 version.

Ahh why the hell do they do that? They have subtitles on in the cutscenes and finishing video, when it comes to screens with text on, they put up subtitles of the text. As if 12 point subtitles of the text "A refugee who became a champion" could be of even the slightest value to someone who could't read the in-video text thats FOUR TIMES LARGER! Thats the second game I've seen in as many weeks that did that, turned the subs on for Alan Wake and and the end of episode one where it says END OF EPISODE ONE in gigantic letters, it has 'end of episode one' in the small subtitle text

We have known about the A button attack for consoles for a long time now it's a change to consoles only thankfully. PC retains auto-attack. Nice to hear the story is good though.

Yup, it's old news. Luckily, it's only the console versions that have been dumbed down to the typical boring button mashing action RPG. Not that I care for the console version.

PC version from the previews and videos, it still looks exactly the same with DAO except with flashier combat. Thankfully they kept it the same, else I would've stuck to my word and boycotted it.

I'm only playing Dragon Age series because it's hailed as the Baldur's Gate successor and I'm a BG fanboy so I probably wouldn't tolerate any dumbing down of the game.

http://leakerz.net/wp/2011/02/21/dragon-age-2-review-from-pcgamer-screenshots/

A scan of the pcgamer review. Kinda hard to read in places. If (big if) this game is as described in the review, I can see me really enjoying this. Found this in the comment section on the demo post on RPS. Contrasting opinions on the 360 demo in the comments.. Sorry if already posted, I am posting this from my phone and I can't easily check the page.

I'm not buying it. The first DAO was a massive disappointment, the second one is going to be the mother of all of disappointments.

I'll probably wait till they release one with the expansion packs/goty version I have a lot of games to plow through, plus I always miss the additional content as if I pick up an rpg on release I lose interest in the story in the 3-6 months the expansion comes out afterwards.

Skyrim will be an exception to that rule though.

I am still hopeful about DA2, PC Gamer seemed quite positive about it in their review, for whatever that's worth. I do have a feeling Geralt will open a can full of kickass on it come 17th of May, though.
Hopefully, they'll both be great games.

Still waiting for the PC DA2 demo myself.


Edit:
Thanks for the impressions, by the way!

I am wary about DA 2 - I know that I am in a minority when I say that it seems (From the videos they have shown, including the 55 minute PC gameplay/QA) that they have Mass Effect 2ised it [in regards to the changes from ME 1 to 2 and the increase of "twitch" or action based gaming and lowering of RPG values [OPINION mind you, this is my OPINION. You don't have to agree :)].

The fact that you cannot change your companions armor (you can only add "upgrades" to it) makes me sad. They know how to get money though, and the people who like more action oriented play will love Dragon Effect 2.

Demo comes out in ~20 minutes for PC so I will check it out, but I think that the DA series is out of my "must play" lineup. Awakening was the first step away from what made DA:O great [again OPINION here] and DA 2 just takes it to a level that doesn't really appeal to me.

I know it's only a demo, but I'm going to be putting a LOT of weight on it, as I'm already thinking I won't get the game due to the proposed DRM scheme. But if the game changes turn out to be something I really don't like, then it's definitely going to be something I pick up in the bargain bin months down the road. And that's too bad, as I love BioWare's games.

You'll have to wait for the 'Alternate Appearance Pack' DLC's ;)

Okay, DLing now. Have to go to work, so won't be able to play it until tonight. :(

The whole thing is down for me atm. Not just the DA site but the entire social bioware.

I would download the demo... but apparently the entire bloody world noticed it was available and the site is down for me :)

Maybe in a few hours [or weeks] I will actually begin to start downloading it.

Ok, it seems they fixed the overload issue, everything is back up and the download link works now.

Download speed is shitty though but then I guess that's to be expected.