Great... I can't understand what the guy is saying in English because they are dubbing over him in German...
Why must Germans always be evil ;)

I was surprised that there wasn't any friendly fire in the demo.
To me, fireballing your entire party without any negative effect is just so wrong...

They really made sure the demo was do-able even for the dumbest people out there. Yet, the Bioware forum is full of people who said they died against the ogre.

I played Riviera back then on the GBA. I was ok.
Worth its money, but not special enough to be remembered.

I'm just afraid this will be Mass Effect 2 instead of Baldur's Gate 2 =/

I remember launching the game with DeJap's translation and my jaw dropping hearing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haG-PiysN_I

Well... that's a semi-good reason to consider getting rid of XP for 7.
Worst is my video card is DirectX11 compatible... not my OS though.

EDIT:
Guess I'm not alone in finding the camera too dynamic and not practical.

« You can't zoom out far enough to see what is shooting you from off screen. It felt like I could see 10-15 feet around me. You can pan the camera left and right but not up and down so that doesn't really help. »

« hope that the final game will have the option to zoom out further, mimicing the tactical camera on PC in DAO, and that we may map middle mouse button to tilt camera view. »

« The camera. I found myself fighting the bloody camera throughout the whole thing and it really killed a lot of the fun for me. »

« The camera during backstab is really awfull which is a shame as it's a great move. »

« The camera. It's horrible. I want to zoom out. »

Is it Bioware that hates my computer or is the demo also limited to either "low" or "normal" level for graphics?

...

Escape -> Character -> Abilities -> Select ability tree (dual weapon, archery, etc.) -> Learn ability

Sorry, but this was made for people with no mouse & keyboard. Prove me otherwise.
This was made so much for consoles that you can't even hotkey submenus (or subsubmenus), only menus (which are probably buttons on the controller)
I'm not saying the game is terrible... just that 'Jack of all trades, master of none'.

Yes, my point of view is from the PC, but that's because I'm just used to playing Bioware on the PC. Problem is they are going backward in functionality (Click on the minimap to move somewhere? oh, we can't have that anymore! Move your butt with the WASD keys there buddy!)

Just finished the demo with a rogue on the PC.

Rogue
- New interesting abilities
- Some abilities are not friendly. Ex: one ability that increases critical % with each attack performed (max 10). Another can be linked and its damage depends on how many stacks of the first ability you've accumulated. How many stacks do you have? Nobody knows, nothing tells you.

Combat
- Controls are fine overall.
- Playing with hotkeys is a must.
- If you start an attack pattern, you are stuck there until it ends.
- It seems you can't target an enemy for an AoE, you have to select the zone. If the enemy moves, too bad. (might be wrong here)

Social
- Camera change, surprise combat and loading times make conversations clunky.
- Retard proof social choices with icons telling you exactly what will happen if you say something.

Camera:
- Can't zoom out enough to see the entire battlefield.
- Always centered on a character, no free camera.

Graphics:
- Character models + equipment are really wonky. (floating swords...)
- First area of the demo is very plain, not even a valid background.
- The new darkspawns make me think He Man will jump through the screen yelling I HAVE THE POWER!

Interface:
- GOD AWFUL INTERFACE
- Clicking the level up icon on a character brings you to the menu to level it up, but when in the menu, if switching characters and pressing the level up portion of the portrait, it closes the menu (WTF?)
- The tactics interface is a bitch, if you click anywhere else other than the tiny "I validate this" area when selecting something, it CANCELS THE WHOLE THING.
- So many menus with submenus that have subsubmenus... FFIV all over again.

Story
- Very few said, most of it makes no sense
- Very large plot holes against DA:O
- Lesbians again

Verdict
Yet another "Console version killed the game"

I'm getting worried here =/
Installing right now.

... and anyone else think some troll organization will try and bust Bioware's bandwidth for their "We want one MILLION downloads!"

Are mages still super overly broken in the way that not making your hero a mage is gimping your entire party?

I'd say to play them in the production order, that way you'll know the cameo characters/boss as they come.
Phantasia -> Destiny -> Eternia -> Symphonia -> Abyss

and the GBA version of Phantasia is apparently the easiest. Some guy hacked it and did every boss fight with a full party at lvl 1 successfully. So that should be a quick and easy playthrough.

Sounds fair except


That game was awful and I feel like I just lost both my testes announcing I played it =/

Indeed, great reading.
It's fun also to see how both side reacted to the matter.

A strong contender. Here's what I have on 1998. I'll update as a deepen my search on some lost gems.

RPG
Baldur's Gate
Fallout 2
Final Fantasy Tactics
Parasite Eve

Non-RPG
Half Life
Metal Gear Solide
Starcraft
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Unreal