"Who asked you to play the game on normal? Origins on normal is a cake walk as well. Seriously dude, if you're such a "hardcore gamer" man up and play the game on hard or nightmare" Already done that. I always play rpgs on normal first, and had to mention that bit about the final boss because it was a microcosm of how *difficult* this game truly is. Hard wasn't that more difficult to be honest, and nightmare was comparable to hard in Origins if you ask me. The combat is more difficult but not more challenging since it requires little adjustment save for more potion use.

"The combat in DA2 is more challenging than it is in Origins (played both on hard). And a 50 hour demo ..... really?" You've got to be kidding me! Final showdown on normal difficulty, 1st try wound up slaughtering everything, not a single potion of any kind used and not a single healing spell cast. I've never experienced that in ANY RPG game, let alone Origins. This game is pretty and dumb and offers no challenge at all to most veterans. The only noteworthy fights that require some skill are Xebenkeck and (to some extent) the High Dragon.

"So Bioware, were you planning on finishing the other half game? Or just sell us the second half through over priced DLC?" Mike Laidlaw: "Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five,,, not six,,,,,,, not seven....." Uh, prepare yourself for an onslaught of DLCs, the majority of which just as disappointing as Dragon Effect 2 Solid.. "Hawke Eater" "Blades of the Templars" "Apostate's Creed: Sisterhood" "Qunari Souls" Good RPG stuff..

"DA II is a huge departure from that. Why, I ask?! If you've done something well enough that people love it, why would you not try to at least honor that?" Because of the huge hit that is Mass Effect 2, EA thought they could "mass effects" DA:O and duplicate another hit, forgetting the audiences for the two franchises are different, and that ME1 was more of a hybrid shooter with RPG elements unlike DA:O which was a throwback to cRPGs, so making DA2 more arcade is certainly much more of a departure from its prequel, and they added insult to injury with a dysfunctional story and weak game world and design development. Pretty sure Bioware are thinking lesson learned by now.

"Its only true key performance index is how well the game sells" While some brilliant games like Torment hadn't sold well in the past, they made a name for the companies that made them, a reputation for making quality products almost bordering on reverence. Even if Dragon Age 2 sells as well as the original, which I doubt it will, Bioware's reputation takes a hit and future products suffer sale-wise because of fans losing trust in their efforts and second-guessing the quality of their games. Why do you think there're so many pre-order requests for Blizzard games? Trusted name to deliver quality titles. I wouldn't have liked *this* DA 2 anyway, but I'd at least have respected Bioware had they decided NOT to release it for PC out of respect for the discerning RPG fans.