This part bugs me: Reads to me like they intentionally nerfed DA to sell DLC. Also, "logging into your account"? WTF? Achievements suck. See any GFWL game (ie, FAO3 for pc is much better played offline).
You can play the game offline. They encourage you to create an account so you can get patches, updates, ect. Sure there are extra items, but we knew that weeks ago. Instead of huge $40 expansions to a game, now there are incremental expansions. Creating accounts also helps to fight piracy. People sharing the game over BitTorrent will be caught if their version shows up under 200 different IP addresses.
I found that bit scary too - the scars from Steam may never fade... So those horrible pix are from a Flash game? Well thats something - I am a bit short on bandwidth, so I haven't watched the videos yet.
I have just finished watching the video. It was long. It looks very graphical, which is not news by any means. The first fight they showed was a party of 4 or 5 characters fighting a dragon. While not seeming like the epic kind of feat it should, the fight was lengthy with each character drinking healing potions every 5 seconds or so to stay alive. They went on to show some other fights. It was kinda cool. I'm still going to give it a shot because videos cannot capture everything good and bad about one's person's review. The only real things I found disturbing was these.... The dwarven capital city is named Orzrammar. Orzrammar. Orzrammar. Too reminiscent of World Of Moneycraft, the world of ten year olds and techno music run rampant! The main orc city being Orgrimmar. And the last? Gamespot. G-Spot. Coincidence? I think not.
I got it and after recently discovering ToEE, the only thing I can say about the game: Dumbed down console adventure game. I don't know if I'm getting old or what it is, but it feels like Bioware is doing more and more simplier and more adventure focused games... I miss true rpg elements and starting a game with only three character choices feels a bit limited and dull.
They say the console versions (xbox ps3) are more hack and slash while the PC verision is supposed to be more tactical. I don't have a good enough video card (Intel 4500MHD) in my laptop so I cant buy it anyway.
It's pretty good. Just played for 4 straight hours as a human noble warrior. Pretty linear plot at the moment. Tactical combat takes some getting used to but you can see the potential. Definitely Hack 'n slash right now, but a great immersive story; like I am playing a movie.