Yeah, if they go this route I’ll be disappointed. ME2 was a fun enough game but DA was obviously tailored to the PC more.

It doesn't bother me as much as long as they maintain a good variety of classes and skills. I mean, essentially, they're only making you use a name. Everything else is still yours.

Edit: As far as the Origin Stories, let's face it, most of them were more or less gimmicks that didn't affect much of anything. I did a Dwarf Noble story, and when I was doing the Dwarven quests in their city, I got recognized once or twice during the plot, and it made no difference whatsoever.

That's pretty disappointing to hear.  That system isn't necessarily bad but it just doesn't fit with the first game.  The first had so many options and even had a different beginning for many of those choices which was so original and refreshing.  They are basically throwing out one of the best features of the game (in my opinion) to try and appeal to a wider audience and speed up the development time.  Bioware is still a good company but I see it slowly drifting in the wrong direction for my tastes and I have a feeling in another few years their games will just be average.  We'll see.

Not only that but I was hoping to be able to keep playing my original character in the sequel.  I assumed we would revisit him and get to explore what happened with Morrigan and her baby (assuming you made that choice).

I guess there's that, yes. And I made similar decisions. But gameplay wise, the origin stories made no difference. The way the plot unfolded as a dwarf was the exact same as if you were any other race. They just didn't capitalize on a lot of opportunity to really make Origin stories matter in the game, not just to you the player.

There's an article on CVG today that says DA was more successful than ME2.

Here you go:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=255062

yeah, I was surprised too. There’s a lot more to DA than ME.

Only one playable race. No origin stories. That's much more like ME than DA. 

...

What?

Awesome gameplay? At first i liked it. But pretty soon i realised how ME1 worked: You take AR, put best mods to it, and run forward and shoot everything (and use throw/lift). Character development had no meaningful choices, you just maxed out a few skills (i refuse to call them talents) and you're good to go. In battles, there are no tactics involved or anything. I have played it on insanity starting with a brand new character, no challenge anywhere.

Exploring with the Mako is sort of fun... for a couple of times. Afterwards, it was chore, but thankfully totally non-essential and optional.

Oh and the weapon skills worked idiotically (increasing accuracy, yet you still have to point and shoot yourself) though i'm still not quite sure whether it is better way than what Oblivion did, skill=weapon damage.

And there were Charm and Intimidate skills. Not saying anything about them, in general, every BW game i have played has idiotic persuasion system. Morrowind speechcraft is still the best persuasion system, and it wasn't very good...

I don't get what was so unique in ME1. Gameplay-wise. Forget dialogue (wheel), story, graphics, places, setting, whatever else than character development and actual gameplay. Not that story was that unique either...

AND DON'T GET ME WRONG! I loved ME1. I actually voted for it in some GOTY poll rather than Halo 3, which i had expected so much and liked well.

ME2 character development is so much better, you have to actually think whether you want this skill or that, since you don't have enough points for all of them (unlike ME1... you could get all the essentials and have left-overs) and you need to decide whether to take low ranks now or save for higher ranks. Of course, in the end, cookie cutter builds are obvious, and there isn't much point in many skills, EVEN on insanity. Which, by the way, once again, didn't pose any challenge save for a couple of bosses.

Classes in that game are more distinct and weapon system is consiredably better than ME1's where you use the gun (and everone of these is identical within the weapon type...) with most damage, unless you're a noob.

I think Mass Effect works better as more pure shooter with character developement and dialogue RATHER than Action-RPG having shitty character development and wannebe-shooter gameplay that fails.

And now on-topic. DA2.

New combat system? Good, assuming it's more action oriented (eg Morrowind or Oblivion). If it's still party-based, well, i hope you can queue actions now.

Pre-determined character (as in species, name (or part of it), backround)? Well most (RPG) games with these seem to work just fine... and let's think of classic RPG: Fallout. Yeah, it works just fine. (Except that Fallout ain't that good as HC fans make it, i know as i have played it through).

Dialogue wheel? I don't know. ME2 still had moments where the choice doesn't do what one thinks it does. I doubt that BW will eliminate these. Also, i sort of like to know what i'm going to say beforehand, besides, i skip the line after i've read the subtitle. Reading is so much faster. But since i mostly liked Mass Effect's system, i have no real issues with this.

More cinematic game? No problems, as long as there's STRONG illusion that what i do affects the world and there is a shitload of choices, always, not just chaotic evil, neutral and lawful good choices (like ME's do, and DAO mostly (well it felt like that)).l

(PS I still think that if someone really wants a real RPG, stick to PnP games. Imagination has more processing power than any computer or console, if you need cinematic graphics. Embrace cinematic action games with character development and dialogue choices!)

On the whole Good vs Evil thing, I though that was a let down in DA.

I was usually friends with everyone in DA (which is odd since there is the curel and the kind split in the party), and on a saddistic playthrough I didn't have enough fun since everyone was ethier dead or didn't say much to me (even though they were at -100 its no different than -25 or so which is a TINY bit different than 10).

Usually my evil females are the most interesting and fun playthoughs that I do last but this time there simply wasnt any content to see for that path...

RPGs are about the story. As long as they craft a good story (and the game is good too), it'll be fine. Reducing characters options is not so bad as it allows more detail (allows voices, more branching possible as there are not various races plus genders for each). Only need that would worry me is if they were to make it as "simple" as Mass Effect 2 (which I love, mind you, but I prefer Dragon Age). That and that I hate the customization for the character in Mass Effect, so clumsy!

And we play "the baby" in Dragon Age 2.

Or maybe not.

I guess everyone has different opinions but I found ME2 borderline boring.  It was an actual struggle for me to get through it which is a first for a Bioware game for me.  ME1 had it's issues but it held my attention the whole way through.  I even started to play it a second time which is almost unheard of for me.  The Mako planet searching was the only part that tried my patience.  ME2 got rid of that but replaced it with planet scanning which is even more boring.  At least the Mako had terrain, items to find and occassional enemies.  Scanning was just boring through and through.  ME2 just simplified things to such a degree that it became uninteresting.  The whole game just felt like a formula they were following.  Each planet felt similar, each combat felt similar, quests made you do similar things (goto to planet A and recruit member A, goto planet B and recruit member B, ...).  The story and characters where pretty good but the actual game play bored me in many respects.  For me this was the worst Bioware game ever made.  At least from the RPG's I am familiar with.

I liked the idea of Origins in DA:O, but I found that, even with these, the game had much less replay value than The Witcher with its single character.

Any replay of DAO seems pretty similar (well, until you play a mage, at which point subsequent runs as not a mage seem like masochism).

If DA2 offers in-game options that open several roads to tread and offers more replayability/choices, I'll be happy.

I couldn't care less about the voice, as I play all games with sound turned off.