A few things have changed which PC fans might be upset about. First, you can't quite zoom the camera as far back to give an overhead view of the battlefield. There are reasons for this, as BioWare gameplay producer Dan Lazin explains. "We were kind of limited in Dragon Age: Origins because in order to pull the camera back that far, all of the rooms had to have a top we could slice off. This way we get much more varied environments. Lots of stuff to look up at, really good vistas, that kind of thing."

Pausing and zooming around the battlefield still plays a big role in Dragon Age II. Against multi-stage bosses and grunts alike I found freezing the action and issuing heal and special attack commands made a big different in effectiveness. Like Origins, you're still limited to queuing one command at a time. That means you can't order a heal, a fireball, and a frost arc blast all during the same pause. You have to wait for the first action to be executed before ordering a new one. The only reason I bring this up is because in BioWare's past role-playing games, you could, in fact, queue multiple combat commands to multiple party members at once and then watch the automated fireworks. It was a cool feature because it let you plan ahead, anticipating enemy attack patterns and layering multiple buffs and debuffs.

As might be expected, the game looks better on a nice PC than on consoles. The art style, which I was extremely skeptical of after seeing the initial screenshots, is an improvement over Origins. Everything from the armor sets to the animations and environments have been improved, making for a world that looks and feels more natural. It seems as though BioWare is taking Origins, which was super nerdy and very specifically targeted players like me, and giving it a graphical facelift so it can appeal to a wider crowd. You know, the crowd that doesn't know what a Gate spell is and isn't instantly apprehensive when someone mentions a Beholder. Here's hoping the final version doesn't lose anything in the transition. At the very least, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners should be getting a smoother and ultimately more playable product.