7? I think you miss-counted, my friend. They have 5 mostly, except Varric who has 4 because you can't change out his crossbow. They don't have multi-pieced armor, so no gloves, boots, or helmets/hats/hoods. Companion armor comes as a one piece uniform, of which I've only found one upgrade for and that was Avaline, which when I found the upgrade, didn't change her look at all. So far, all my companions (which I'm pretty sure I have them all as I just got the prince to join me), I can change 2 rings, 1 belt, 1 amulet, and for most of them I can change their weapon. Varric can't change his weapon, so he only has 4 changeable slots. I wish I could change 7 of their items though .

I definitely miss being able to change their looks. It shows a sense of "progression" that you don't get if they look the same all the time, lets face it, some of them look pretty boring, like Merril.

I think this game is sort of a mod or in best case recycled product. Besides some maps which like some said before are multi purpose and they contunie to repeat themselves.

There are Mass Effect copies or borrow if you want as well. Rune crafting resource colection are from there there is even some music that wasn't changed at all from there........

In my opinion this is just resufle and repack of theirs previous products  .

In my opinion its certanly not worth money they are selling it for.

Some of my thoughts just after getting into act 2:

- I really don't like how the basic auto-attach animation can add up to a several second delay when using spells/abilities.

- The repeated areas are getting anoying but the mini-map showing areas I can't even access is even worse.

- The junk item system works well.

- It is nice that a damage rune in Bianca scales with the crossbow.

- What I have found out aboout the Amell family so far feels makes me glad I imported my human mage save from Origins.

For the $40 it cost for the Signature edition(it was $50 for a bit plus 20% coupon from Stardock) I think it was money well spent.  I do not think I would spend $60 on the normal version though.

Also, just as a heads up, Reclaim Your Game did a detailed breakdown of the SecuROM they found in the retail version here.

I took a look and under(Windows XP) C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp I found the same mtka_temp folder they refered to with almost the exact same files.  I started a thread asking Stardock to look into it here(thread was started before I found the detailed breakdown).  If other people who got Dragon Age 2 from Impulse find the folder and files on their computers I would appreciate you posting in that thread.(what I mainly would like Stardock to get answers from EA about is if the files are required to run DA2 or if they can be safely deleted.)

It's 7 if you count that they have one main hand slot, one off hand slot, one companion armor slot, 2 ring slots, one belt slot and one amulet slot.

Now I suppose if your using a 2-handed weapon it's 6, although everyone loses a slot for that.....main character or side character. And you could say that it's 5 if your using a 2-handed weapon and you don't count the companion armor slot.....but I think you do have to count it. It can be upgraded and have runes installed....it's still something you have to pay attention to and make decisions about even if you can't change it for a new item.

As I said though I would prefer to have all 10 slots (or 9 for a 2-handed user). But in the end it's not that big of a difference, it's not like a game needs to have 9-10 equipment slots to be good. There are plenty of positive changes in the game which overrride that minor negative.

I've been lurking in the Bioware forums for a while and it's really interesting to see how the situation is evolving. Reminds me a lot of what happened here with Elemental.

At first only a few dared to speak ill of this title (granted, some were very vocal from the beginning) but many of the regular users defended the game fiercely: if you have already bought the game, it's hard to accept that it was a poor move on your part (happened to me with Elemental as well, so I know the feeling). Gradually, though, the ratio has begun to shift, as users have started to become more and more aware of the game's shortcomings.

You might not be immediately upset by some of those issues, but lazy, rushed game design doesn't fare well with an audience that is keen on multiple playthroughs... things like repetitive encounters, monsters spawning in front of the party (no less!), overabundance of reused layouts, general lack of options and so on get too annoying for the game to be replayed or defended.

Bioware's reputation is suffering a massive blow with this release (a well deserved blow, if you ask me).

So yes, they should be ashamed, as RavenX "gently" says in his review. But even more than Bioware, professional reviewers should be ashamed. It's unbelievable their role in trying to "cover up" this failure.

I hope that some sense of legitimacy and respect for the costumers will find its way back in the gaming industry. And I hope it'll start from Stardock: they have the chance to prove that being respectful of the costumers pays off in the long run, even after a giant mistake.

I agree that you may have cut several quest lines early. Part 1 took me around 10-11 hours and Part 2 took about 11-12 hours. Did you go through at night and fight the bandits in the various night zones, for instance, the invisible sisters in part 2's hightown. There is actually a few quests that you can only get by finding non-glowing items during the various quest?

All of the first companion armor upgrades are available for purchase from various venders during part 2.

That's pretty interesting. It really does seem like they wanted to get something out the door quickly without taking the time to do it right, which explains the massive repetition in asset use.

If it's the same one I'm thinking of (let's call it a certain kind of golem so no spoilers), it got me too the first time I encountered it. I got it on the second try though .

Pro tip, when it's about to explode that energy all over the place, tell your party to hold possition and stand behind the pillars.

I agree with most of this.  I'll find out once I sit down and play more but after reading a recent interview where a developer actually defended repetative use of the same cave or encounter area it really is making me ill.  SO glad I didn't pay full price.  

I think I need to go back to my vow of never buying a game new and always waiting a year or two for the "GOTY" edition on sale.  Only time I've broken that vow is Stardock games (which Elemental has about busted for me), Elders Scrolls games and Dragon Age since it was from Bioware.  Origins was awesome and restored my faith in good games.  But DA2 looks to be a huge disappointment.

And I'm almost not sure if I blame Bioware totally sine you know it's EA calling the shots and telling them what to do.  EA kills all the small studios like this.  I for one will swear off EA games now unless in the bargin bin and stick with indies.

Skyrim had better not disappoint in the same way as DA2 or else I'll have to write off yet another company.  Stardock gets one more chance to keep the faith.

I might install DA1 again when my SSD comes in but I haven't decided.

LOL! Yeah, each part of the game has a end section sort of deal which wraps up the major plot point. One of the better parts about the game is how the choices you made in each part come back in the next section.

I also wanted to make a quick point about companion equipment. The companion armors do in fact change, though this is usually as a result of doing a companion's side quest. While one still doesn't have as much control over their equipment as in the origins, it really helps define the various characters in relation to the story.

Honestly, I don't blame Bioware or EA. At its core, Dragon Age 2 is a solid game. If we are going to blame someone, it should be gamers. Many hardcore gamers defend themselves saying "We were on the forums, screaming and prodding the developers to listen to reason." Yet, these hardcore gamer are ultimately make up a fairly small amount of the overall customer base of a product. Most game developers and publishers do not make game for hardcore gamers, but instead, produce games for the average gamer. A good example of this is the madden series. This series has stayed true to form for years simply because the average madden customer does not require real innovation in the product when deciding whether or not to buy the product. If the average madder player stopped buying this series because of lack of innovation, EA would not simply churn out another similar iteration but would, as any business, work to produce a more innovative product for their customers.

Just finished game....

Not sure i will ever load it again but lets hope DA3 will be more like DA Orgins 

In the end they are implying that DA2 is just prelude story to what is happening in DA3

I dont mind the gameplay decisions.  I didnt find that they really dumbed down the game in a bad way.

But there are other problems.  I've completed the game, and the main story is VERY weak throughout.  Some of the sidequests are nice, but the main story is just weak.  It doesnt feel epic in any way, and frankly its about the quality of sidequests in other bioware games.

The constant reuse of settings gets old after a while too.

RPGs are supposed to be about exploring a fantasy world while having some kind of epic quest.  In this one, you explore a fantasy CITY and have almost no interaction with the larger world and your quest is definitely not epic.  When you combine this with how linear the game is, its just not a good effort.

Its kind of perplexing really.  They seemed to have spent a lot of time redoing game mechanics (which, like I said, I found about as good as they were before although quite different), but left out the story and the settings. They really could have done better by redoing no mechanics and coming up with more content and story.