People that have actually played it seem to love it. An acquaintance of a friend was slagging it off the other day saying its been dumbed down. Suffice to say he'd never actually played it. What specialisations did you go for?

Again I agree. DA2 is an all around more fun game to play. I liked the epicness of DAO more but the gameplay in DA2 is much more fun.

you should try the console version, it's the dictionary definition of a button masher.
because you have to keep tapping x or a, with absolutely no skill or timing involved.
just tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap

that's dragon age 2 for the majority of the game.
it's pointless, if it required skill then it would be different, but it's just like that to make it seem like you're in direct control, but it's still all about the numbers, what percentage chance you have to hit, damage values.
now i like that sort of rpg, but trying to dress it up as though it's some sort of beatemup just makes the whole thing bloody tedious.

either make a beatemup or an rpg, or do a proper combination of the two like some other games manage and DA2 totally doesn't.

Yes I can agree about the cool characters, Garrus, Legion, and Wrex were my favorite out of the whole bunch. However, when you compare the story of ME with ME2, it's all about getting through the OMEGA relay and getting your companions to be "loyal". It was a nice idea to make the side-quest a bit more meaningful. Still there was no big antagonist in the game. I don't know if you've played the first one but Saren was a really good bad guy to have you play against. The reaper thing was a big bombshell when you talk with sovereign. I wasn't fully drawn into all of the loyalty missions. Personally I found Jacob to be a bigger pain in the @ss than the bigot Ashley still I did his mission.

ME2 just lacked the bad guy for Shepard to have arguments and a bigger physical confrontation. I enjoyed the final mission until I found out that I didn't get to have 1 SINGLE confrontation with harbinger or the Collector General. Instead, I fight a massive t-800 terminator, which wasn't nearly as challenging as killing saren. Gameplay wise I wasn't too wowed. I didn't have problems with the previous way the game worked. I don't see why we went from cool-downs to ammo, kinda stupid to go back in technology. Still I'm trying to keep hopeful that BioWare will bring back the rpg elements from the first one as well as the story.