This time around we're focusing on BioWare's announcement regarding the development of the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins.

I had to go 3, myself. Mainly because two of my favorite elements of Origins are changing. The art style (it's going to take on a more cartoony, illustrative look) and you'll control a single predetermined hero called Hawke (rather than creating your own of several different and interesting origins). These were what made the game for me, and they're changing the best parts IMO. These were two features which definitely were NOT broke, so why are they fixing them? Maybe it'll make sense later, but for now I'm pretty disappointed.

At the risk of looking like a fan-boy, I went with 5. I know there are some changes that are being planned from the original DA, which are concerning many out there, but, Bioware has earned my faith in their ability to put out a sequel that well surpasses the original. I don't have enough information about the impending changes to have a valuable opinion in a positive or negative light, so I'm just focusing on the track record. If DA2 far surpasses DA, which I expect that it will, than ooh boy, this one's going to be good!

I went with 2. Cartoonish graphics, and not being able to create your own character kind of ruins ALOT. Whatever happened to DA being the spiritual successor of Baldur`s Gate?

From the screenshots I saw, the graphics don't look all that different in style/cartoonish.

A 3 for me, I'm definitely interested but I'm not excited. Besides there are some things that turn me off (no non humans as main characters, full voice over, outrageously silly name and speech wheel).

A 2 for me. Would have gone for 1 but I'm still somewhat interested.

As for why... all the little things. I'm rarely really excited about unreleased games and know it will be a while before I get to play it.
Also, I don't like change in general and am not convinced that DA2 will be as enjoyable. Still, we'll see.
It could turn out to be great.

2

I still have not finished 1. I often loose interest in games. I did finish divinity 2 and mass effect1.

if it is good, and the reviewers give it a good score fine, but if they do to it what they did to Mass Effect1/2 I will fish it from a budget bin.

I really hated to give this a "2". I absolutely LOVE DA:O, finished the game twice and am currently on my 3rd character. I squealed like a 10 year old girl when I found out that DA2 was coming out next year. But when I found out that they were basically changing the core of what DA is supposed to be about (Spritual successor to Baldur's Gate) and going for a more "Mass Effect" feeling, it ruined my excitement like a kid on Christmas who found out he got nothing but clothes.

Will I get it? Depends. I'll wait until after the mag and gamer reviews come out but i'm very very dissa-mofo-pointed.

Not excited at all.
Predefined PC?
It's really like a medieval Mass Effect.
Could be nice to play once for the sake of story.
But then again, when the story of ME is pretty good the one of DA has been mediocre so far.
No I have do admit, I'm desillusioned about all future projects by EA Bioware.
I was still hyped about every newer game, and while all have been decent to good they are lacking brilliance.
I've got the impression that Bioware games are slowly undergoing an evolution towards more streamlined games accommodating to design issues which stand for commercial success.
But if I look at some games which have been greatly successfull financially, I could care less.
The point is, I guess, I like well designed complexity in games, and sice the trend is less complexity, I'm a bit disappointed.

I'm actually really excited by it. None of the "criticisms" so far seem like bad things to me. Not necessarily good, just different.

First thing - the dialogue wheel. I really liked that about Mass Effect - it kept the flow of the dialogue, rather than breaking it up and having you read each of the dialogue options for the exact wording. I'd generally worked out what I wanted to say while the other person was talking, so having that wheel appear before that person has finished was great. Sure, it doesn't tell you exactly what you'll be saying, but the gist is pretty clear. Honestly, of Dragon Age and the Mass Effect games, it's only been in Dragon Age that I've misunderstood what the dialogue choice meant (and Wynne was obliterated by Morrigan as a result). Done well, the wheel is fine, and with fully spoken dialogue, can be superb. It's all down to how well the dialogue is written, and this is of course a Bioware game. Not a problem.

Less customisation - it's all down to what you prefer I suppose. I'd rather have a strong narrative written around a well-built character than a story that could apply to any character you could dream up. Sure, a story could be written that could apply to anyone, but it's certainly easier to write one for one race, and I'd rather have more depth than more options. But we'll see what Bioware comes out with. I don't think Mass Effect suffered at all for forcing you to be a human character, and the story definitely required a human. Not saying it'll definitely be great, just that complexity does not necessarily mean or require more choices in your character's design; we'll have to see how they deal with the dialogue in that respect, but as above, this is Bioware we're talking about. Dialogue isn't a problem. Summary: we'll see.

Yes, Hawke is a silly name.

The graphics didn't look hugely different to me from the screenshots, but any improvement would be nice. Graphics of course aren't the most important thing, but Dragon Age was rather underwhelming in that department.

It's a 4 from me.

a 4 for me. But if the graphics are like the DA:O I'll have to wait until the guy who made a graphics mod for DA:O does one for 2. Unless I manage to get much better glasses. Miracles do happen. So they say.

I enjoyed DA:O but would never again pay full price for a DA game. Steam or wait for an Amazon special/used game.

Completely uninterested.
DA:O had its good points and its total deal breakers, and that alone is enough to stem any gushing forth of interest, but what I'm seeing so far about DA2 only leads me to believe it's going to be even worse than the original.

The use of a predefined character can indeed make for more immersive story telling, but I wonder how well Bioware can pull this off. DA:O's story wasn't exactly a shining star in the firmament. If this was The Witcher 2, I might be able to get excited about it, as those guys at least understand what 'real-life' choices might look like, whereas Bioware never seems to be able to go beyond the standard good/neutral/evil options.
My biggest problem with the use of a predefined character, however, is that it is so completely different from what DA:O does. DA:O goes as far as to offer you 6 different first levels, each with their own backstory and some consequences later on in the game, and then for the sequel they do a complete 180 and completely crush that variety and set you up for a single character, a single background. What were they smoking? Did the marketing department get hit on the head and name this game DA2, when it should have been ME2: Medieval Edition?

Anyway, as long as I don't hear from several people - that I know also found DA:O's combat severly boring and tedious - that at least the combat has been much improved in DA2, I remain massively indifferent towards this game.

Please review the screen shots before calling them cartoony. The graphics are between but not as dark as before. We all need to realize that Dragon Age is not all about the blight; that was just the first game.

Premade character >.<

I won't be buying it so I gave it a 1. The first one was such a let-down after it took what - 4 years from announcement to release? Certainly didn't seem worth 4 years of hype - and now we know why. They were making a year's worth of premium cash-cows to throw at the players as quickly as possible after release, and now - less than a year later, announcement of a sequel!

Quel suprise.

I probably shouldn't be surprised about all the angst regarding the pre-made character. To some extent, I get it.

That said, I hope that we are remembering that another of the most popular CRPGs, Planescape - Torment, had a premade character. I never hear people complaining about the lack of character options in PST. Why? Because the game is great, and frankly, it gains a lot of it's greatness BECAUSE there is a single, central character.

Obviously we need to reserve judgement on Hawke until the game is released, but for all the guys who seem to want to be immediately upset by anything that looks different than Dragon Age Origins-- hey, you might just be pleasantly surprised.