Another thing ill mention is the combat. I'm playing a Dragonknight built around tanking and if you just go and slash/skill your way through you die. You must learn to interrupt, block, and roll dodge (double tapping A or D) its so fluid and rewarding which makes the PvE aspect of question instantly more enjoyable than just waiting for CD's.

Skyshards encourage exploration by giving you skill point for finding 3. Questing is par for the course, save these people, get me these skins, go close these caves etc. But just like in Elder Scrolls games i find myself just gathering, questions, exploring, and crafting with a lot of enjoyment.

You get to focus on stamina, magicka and health on level ups, allowing some freedom to your builds but i cant say enough about the skill system.

My biggest complaint is no trade channel/auction house. You can join 5 guilds at once and then can use guild banks to auction gear. I have read that if your faction controls a keep you will have access to guilds auctions with 50+ players. The thing is though is you dont feel dependent on other people for loot. Between random drops and vendors I have never felt the need to buy things from people or had to in terms of being stuck.

I find better gear from mobs and quests than i see in /zone chat. Crafting materials are plentifully found throughout zones so there is really little need to buy them if your playing the game unless you want to quickly power level a specific carfting skill. The thing is though, is instantly you can mine ore, wood, pick herbs, fish and do everything without "training" allowing players to engage with the environment right out of the gate so there is no need to "focus" on a profession.

Sure there is the rare legendary or epic but with the ocmbat system its more skill based than gear dependent and the game does a great job of gearing through playing versus buying.

So much great potential in this game. I am going to need PvP and dungeon content to keep me going long term, but my friends that are mid 20's say they love the dungeons and the controlled chaos of the combat is refreshing.

800x600 is the max for the original versions of BG I and II, there were some community patches but it was quite a mess and lead to artifacts, stretched shadows and texture issues upon transitions between different areas on the map.

I loved Dragon Age, the first one anyway, I consider it the last truly great game Bioware made.

I would have been in, if it weren't for the outrageous sub fee. And don't tell me it's required to give the users a great experience, they're still making you pay for extra races (Imperial), so it changed nothing. Guild Wars 2 showed that MMOs without subs were perfectly viable, Bethesda is just trying to milk the userbase for a few months before they make it free-to-play and infuse it with micro-transactions. I wish more companies would adopt the Guild Wars 2 model.

Yeah, Bethesda is trying to milk us a bit (but they're also stuck between a rock and a hard place, forced to go FTP sooner or later due to market pressure), but com'on, join us man. You could afford that fancy PC, I'm sure you can afford a measly $15 per month for dozens of hours of entertainment!

I really want to, missed out on the imperial edition though, but I might pick it up later this month if it gets great reviews. I'll just feel bad supporting a sub format, but hey, if it's that good, I'll binge.