It is the Age of Dragon (P2)

Thirty some odd hours into Dragon Age and here are my pro's and cons:

Cons: There really is no way to control targeting enemies except to generally point in their direction, but since they swarm (alot, except the archers and mages), that's not always effective. Z-targeting would be nice!

Generally travel over the main map is an invitation to get jumped. For some reason just about every time I have traveled from one point to the next has been an attack, which sucks if you didn't get a chance to save. It would be nice if the game saved every time you traveled as an auto, as opposed to the few times it does.

The side quests can be way to easy, and are sometimes just glorified go here, talk and come back missions.

Combat can be inconsistent at times, You might get wrecked by something once, but steamroll it the next time.

The game needs a way interface to swap characters in the group town, not just at camp, and if that's impossible, then at least a way to equip members of the group that aren't in your party at the time. It's frustrating holding on to something you want to give someone, while you have to throw so much stuff away.

The inventory could be better. Mainly because we have to hold on to so mch small stuff it seems that it just overwhelms.

Pros: The story. There's no question they spent some time thinking about the stories of these people. Just about everyone has a side quest (that's I've seen so far), and the character interactions feel more natural here than any other Bioware game I've played. the choices are alot closer in line to what I would actually want to say in such a scenario.

The damage, despite the inability know who you're targeting in a hectic situation (or why your character feels the need to start moving for no real reason), the Area of Effect (AoE) attacks are wonderful. It's wierd seeing numbers like 12 and 25 go up, considering how high we are used to health bars being, but those are good numbers and they only get better. I played a rogues this time and with 2 weapons attacks he's fairly nasty. My mage(s) are really rocking everything else.

The combat tactics are fantastic once you tool around with them. It takes a while to get, but once you balance a group to think like you, then you can really get in there. The reward here is also that when you get wrecked by surprise, you can slow the combat down by swapping toons on the fly and dropping commands.

The friendly fire is interesting to me. I can't imagine it at higher dificulties, but even on normal, there are some effects you can't avoid. Somethings like the earthquake spell, hit's everyone, and knocks them down, which can be nice if the enemy is at a distance, but will suck badly for you if they pass the physical check and don't fall down when you do.

The choices this time around are alot more in depth. While I still don't just murder for no reason, the decisions aren't as black and white as they have been in other games. It really lets you have to justify your actions in your own mind, and sometimes you can solve something without combat!