Dragon Age 2...NERD RAGE!!!

Im currently near the end of Act two through Dragon Age 2 and am beginning to start to see why everyone is complaining about this game.

I am on my first play through as a female Hawk of the mage class and am playing every single quest that i can possibly do. Thus the 19 hours or so gameplay in just under a week..

Negative points:-

The fight scenes are so repetitive its highly frustrating, even though the combat speed has increased hugely since Origins; and the constant wave after wave of shitty enemies just takes the piss.

I also didnt understand why everyone on the Dragon Age Podcast hated Anders soooooo much? He was a great companion in Awkening and soo cute with his cat Ser Pounce Alot..until now! He is a whiney basterd that wants nothing more than to dig at my other party members and kill everyone in the chantry for no apparent reason but for shear boredom. However, due to him being the only healer I'm forced to bring him along with me, like "oh yep thats great, lets bring the prick along"

Now being a mage there are two characters who really grind my gears to the point where i wish i could slit their throats. These two characters being Fenris and Hawke's brother Carver. Carver is a spoilt brat who in the game you automatically have a rivalry with, but even after many attempts to become friends he is still a stubborn ass and therefore he has joined the Templars (kinda wish id killed him in the cave right now.. Oh sibling love!)

Fenris on the other hand when i first met him seemed pretty epic with his lyrium like vains and his great voice..then he actully joined my party and became a complete and utter douche bag with his negative comments ALL THE TIME even after helping him in his quests. I can see how people fall in love with Fenris if they dont play a mage but so far i hate his guts!

I also really hate the cheap copy and pasting of all the maps in the game, it makes nearly every quest identicle beside the odd imaginary wall blocking off parts of the level.

Now before I go onto the good points id like to complain that the downloadable content was pretty awful.. However, the bonus content you can get from the game on Facebook is pretty good and Sebastian Vael one of the downloadable party members is also one of my favourite all time characters. However, I would have prefered him to have been in the game already and maybe the character of Isabella as a downloadable content due to the hilarious and powerful Shale of the previous game. Isabella for me would have been an equally funny downloable content, where as Sebastion is not.

Good Points:-
The General gameplay for Dragon Age 2 is alot better than Origins with faster combat.
The combat has been improved massivly with the moves looking more advanced and 'realistic' and the shuffle has been replaced with a leap or a sidestep which allows the player to move around quicker.
Each and every party member has their own unique attack tree branch, leading to more interesting fights and makes you choose carefully who would be best suited for the quest you  are currently on.
The party members are also, I find, more easy to like or dislike in this game, you get a sense of real life personal opinions of a higher depth than you did with origins. You tend to role play alot more with this game.

As you can tell the cons outweigh the pro's quite a bit for this game but I cant help but play and enjoy this new experience of the Dragon Age franchise and the world in which it contains.

Overall as a huge fan of the Dragon Age franchise I like this game and would like to see maybe another two books from David Gaider, as I enjoyed the background to origins through The Stolen Throne and The Calling. Maybe the books can lead up to the third game which i really really hope BIOWARE take their time on and regain their fans respect!

I believe that they should maybe bring out ONE expansion like Awakening but for alot cheaper to make up for the poor game on BioWare's and EA's behalf...

Who knows? maybe the effect Dragon Age 2 has left us all feeling may decrease our expectation of the 3rd game so we can be blown away?

Aww im currently playing the game now whlst writing this and iv just witnessed Sandel and my Mubari Warhound having a good old barking competition... It's soooo cute to see him actually saying something other than "enchantment"