I know I wont be picking up dragon age 2 or any other Bioware RPG until they get back to what makes you enjoy an RPG.  When did upgrading armor become something I didn't want?  I want a complex battle and frequent in game pauses to make critical decisions that affect the outcome of my party, that's what a good RPG does.  I kept reading about how Bioware listens to it's user base, there is no way in hell there user base is asking for this dumbed down crap.  I realize crap is a strong word, I'm sure the game is ok, but why should I or anyone else settle for ok.

I did pay attention to the reviews; why is it so hard for people to understand that different people have thier own opinions?  Though perhaps you are being facetious, my sarcasm meter doesn't always work on forums.  Regardless, we can disagree on something and that doesn't make you any more right then me, or vice versa.

What bothers me is that gamers bitch about movies based on films sucking, we bitch about the "casual" and how they will ruin gaming.  We berate studios for being formulaic then ignore games that try to break out of the mold.   We complain about the metascores, and review scores in general, then quibble over them as if they absolutely defined a game.

We are the problem with gaming and we can't open our own eyes to it, because we are too busy trying to prove how hardcore we are, or how much smarter I am for spending $300 on console X when you chose console Y (or how consoles all suck compared to PCs).

What you might miss in this whole rant is that I honestly don't give a crap about DAII, if it succeeds or not.  But this thread is indicative to me of everything bad about gaming. 

"Oh they casualed it!"  Game is crap!  IT can't be good!  What happened to Bioware! The sky is falling the sky is falling!!  It is ridiculous.

You mentioned review scores specifically in your post but that's not what I'm talking about. A reviewer can give a positive impression (and score) of a game but someone can read and know they won't like aspects of the game. Alternatively, a review can be negative but can still give enough info for people to decide that they may actually like the game.

In this case, myself (and a number of others) know that even with positive reviews, that many of the mechanics described have been simplified or altered to a point where we see it as detrimental.

Take the PC Gamer review which gave the game its highest review so far (a 94). From reading the details in the reviews I know there are aspects of the game I'm not going to like, even though they had a hugely positive review.

What an great post.  Posters use data(reviews, sales, etc...) when it suits them and blows that data off when it's a counter argument.  I'm glad someone else sees the idiocy. 

For some reason I enjoyed Darksiders more the God Of War III and was called retarded.  In no way did I insult GOW or say I didn't like it, I just stated I enjoyed Darksiders more.  Opinions are opinions and folks enjoy different things but some people just can't grasp that.  I play Bejeweled and love it, then I'll throw in some Geometry Wars, then Ninja Gaiden then Uncharted then Dragon Age Origins and enjoy each one for what it is. 

You guys speak of Mass Effect 2 like it's a bad game. I don't care if it's called an RPG ,a TPS or even a sports simulator... It's simply one of the greatest games of its generation,and for many people it's even the greatest.If the game was a clone of the first Mass Effect,people would whine about it having "no innovation" and "nothing new to show"...I say who cares if it's different from Mass effect?It's a way better title overall.

As for the line I saw that Dragon Age was the "spiritual successor" of Baldur's Gate,give me a break.If Bioware told this,it's for marketing purposes only. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are both on my top 10 list of all time,along with titles like Ocarina of Time and Half-Life, while Dragon Age was just an interesting game and nothing more.The year 2009 alone had way better titles.

it's a good game no doubt but it should have been more than a good game. I haven't read this particular review but from the GT and IGN review they have recycled alot of assets (e.g., same dungeons over and over again) which is a huge negative for me -- I can't stand trawling through the same environements hour after hour. 

I'm not sure who's decision it was to release this game in March (presumable EA) but it was clearly made simply to make a quick buck of the success of DA:O. 

Still worth it imo, especially if --and there better be--there will be an XPAC that corrects the limitations of DA2. 

Double Post - Please delete. Thank you!

Indeed ME2 is a worse RPG than the first, but it's a better game, and that's what matters in the end. And ME2 is only a TPS if you ignore the 50% of the game that is conversation and paragon-renegade choices that are actually improved over the first game. Indeed, I hope the third game offers a little more experience points to awarded on different specialities, but hopefully they keep a lot of the improvements of 2.

In the end of Mass Effect I spend more time converting all the stuff I found to multi gel because the inventory system sucked so much.

Different people with different preferences. That's all there is, really.

As for me,  8.0 isn't bad at all. I'll grab a copy of the game, play it and enjoy it. There's nothing stated in the reviews that sounded discouraging to a non die-hard RPGer/Baldurian/Fanboi like me. Life is fun. Learn to enjoy it.