DA2? I really am not seeing it as a primarily PC game at all.
But yeah...holding out. It might not be as bad as I fear if they clean it up before launch. Seems unlikely though.

Well, it's running on the same engine as the original, development of which was primarily focused on the PC. And that also explains how quickly they can get the sequel out.

I've met with and talked to some of the BioWare devs (not about DA2, mind you) and gotten a little insight into game development and marketing. I doubt that what we've seen is anywhere near the final build and likely isn't even near their most current build. Don't quote that as gospel, but it's my hunch.

True enough. But the engine is only as useful as the people using it...kind of like Bethesda/Obsidian and their version of the Gamebryo engine. That's pretty PC focused, but look at Oblivion, New Vegas, etc. I get the impression they're using it quite a bit differently.

Well I certainly hope not...but it's three months from launch and they decided to show it off as is, with no disclaimer. Publishers are generally completely paranoid about showing off assets, gameplay, etc. until it's as good as it can be, and then sometimes with screenshots they are doctored. To me, this looks really shoddy, so I hope for their sake they bring it up to par.

I can't find the link I had but they are doing the ME2 model again. There will be a 'Cerberus' package of free DLC for people who buy the game and there will be paid DLC but it will be less frequent than DA:O's just like ME2 with really high quality. Personally I thought Overlord, Stolen Memories and Lair of the Shadow Broker were FAR better than Witch Hunt, Darkspawn Chronicles and Golems of Amgarak.

TBH the only DLC for DA:O I thought was good was Shale, Warden's Keep, Ostagar and Leliana's Song. The last one simply because I like Leliana so much.

Well at least it's not Starforce, but a 2 activation limit is a 2 activation limit no matter how it's enforced.
From what I gather, the UK will be getting the same version at roughly the same time.

Also Divinity 2 Dragon Knight Saga is quite nice. :)

Did we or did we not just see the PC version for the first time? Was it different from the console version? YES. Nothing annoys me more than people making up shit and calling it news.

I'm waiting for more gameplay videos. Likely I'll buy, but just the normal edition. As long as the gameplay and combat is same, I'm pretty much ok with it. Hopefully it's not dumbed down, and has FF on the harder difficulties. I'm seeing the player in the video happily spamming fireballs and firestorms in the middle of the party but I heard Bioware has confirmed that there is FF.

I just hope they don't bury or even remove Dragon Age's strongest feature. The customisable tactics. The very best mod for Dragon Age (imo) gives you 25 slots from the get-go and you can program up some awesome behaviours. Sure its a learning curve to get them working just right, but its a fun learning curve and talk about rewarding.

I really hope this returns in DA2 and isn't so buried/hard to make a good return from (investing character points in it? seriously?).

Having played Drakensang recently I can't stress enough how much I missed the tactics (and area effect magic, ffs) from Dragon Age, given how much else is similar between the titles missing tactics was like taking off two limbs.

Haha, I just disable tactics except autoattack, not used to them. I micromanage everything in DAO. Got used to it because of my multiple playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 2.

Not sure if I can find the post, but the devs indicated there was no friendly fire on Normal, but it is implemented on the harder difficulties.

I guess it depends on how you play the game, I played the game in hard and nightmare (usually I play most games in "normal" but for DAO case the normal was just too easy) but I also played it on normal and even on console and it definitely felt like a completely different game.

When you can spam fireball and tier 3 spells without having to care about your character being damaged in the process the game suddenly become a lot more action oriented (not to mention a lot easier) and you feel a lot more "badass", I guess a lot of peoples might like that too.

You can turn it on (even thought it's not clear if you can turn it on any difficulty level or if it's only on on higher one) but that's missing the point.

The issue the journalist had was not that the friendly fire was disabled by default, no, his issue was that it was no longer to "aim" precisely the spells like it was possible in DAO, and that that added to the limited camera un-zoom made it very difficult to have any real strategical planning like it was possible in DAO.

And when he asked Mike Lailand about it his answer weren't "it's just a beta version aiming will be added back in final release" nor "there are others spell with precise aiming", no his answer was : the lack of aiming is not a problem because friendly fire is disabled by default.

(I know that it's just a "pre-release" version and that things might still change, but if really they planned those changes why not... you know... say it?)

If friendly fire was "important" and made thing more strategical in DAO it was because spells were "thought" to be used with it enabled as it forced you to carefully position your characters and carefully aim your spells (especially ice cone). If in DA2 the "area" spell are no longer aim-able but have a basic circular area zone, enabling friendly file might not make things more strategical but just makes most spell useless.

If you want a comparison it's like enabling Spell friendly fire in Final Fantasy VII, if all spells or summon also damaged your characters would it make things more interesting ? no it would just make those spells completely useless because they weren't created to be used with FF enabled.

Well having them saying that the PC version was the most expensive one and yet the one that sold the less or having them saying that the "reference" version for DA2 will be the x-box one, kind of contradict your statement.

(Yeah I know that some will say it's just an evil marketing ploy to attract more console gamers ;-) )

I've got the core game. It's pretty damn fine as it is but I'm now waiting on the save-game-breaking megapatch.
I think I'll just wait for reviews and some final PC footage. It's not like I'm going to pre-order it anyway.