Thoughts offered include executive producer Mark Darrah's musing "If you're telling a dark fantasy, you don't want combat to feel like you're playing a chess game with a friend." Unfortunately, when I played twenty minutes of the Xbox 360 edition earlier this year, it felt like poor and dated beat 'em up combat had been bolted onto Dragon: Age Origins' tactical stylings. This time, "the new shit" is more than marketing.

Dragon Age 2 is due out for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 8, 2011.