To start off I must include the following caveat: I'm a role player, one of those terrible basement dwelling misanthropes from the dark, dank, dust covered realms of pen and paper games. Now that Dragon age II has been out for a week, people have been able to digest the new content and styles and I've managed to gnaw through the title twice, I think we can better come to grips with the game without emotions getting in the way of merit.

The plot is not the epic that its predecessor was but rather a back alley romp about a decade in the life of Hawke, Kirkwall's newest refugee. For one the new story is a lot more low key on the whole. The 6-10 hours of scrambling at the beginning is frustrating when you've played through it only to realize it's not all that different any other time either. It's the end where the story really picks up steam with a more political tone and switches over though it does feel like a combination of several tales and not one unified story. Hawke is a human and a voiced protagonist. On one hand some of the sarcastic replies can elicit a chortle or two but at times serrah Mulberry Hawke esquire sounds a little too wooden for his own good. The tone doesn't lend itself to the more burly warrior type or tenor ranged swashbuckler which diminishes some of the differentiation between playthroughs. The female voice is marginally better but sounds like Morrigan lite. This leads to a problem in the volume of response options compared to Origins because of the voices.

The combat is flashy, if a little too quick paced making some of the more thought out tactical choices rather difficult to really doll out to party members. The overall style has certainly abandoned traditional western style and adopted a much more spiky Conan and eastern JRPG frame of reference. It bothers me as between that and the darkspawn from awakening suddenly showing up in Lothering there's a real disharmony in verisimilitude in the overall atmosphere that means nothing looks familiar even when it should. On the console version the non inclusion of auto attack it means the game overall feels more like Devil May Cry or a typical arcade fighter than a full fledged RPG. Aside from a few scripted events, there's no finishing moves for the big scary monsters. Being as there's more than a couple that's a tremendous disappointment when the game is priding itself on being a stylistic cinematic experience.

Predominantly weak or sketchy AI, unfinishable quests, and poor graphics enhancements in some categories overall show a lack of polishing on the finished product. There's quite a few enemies who just stand there, taking heaps of damage and never moving a muscle. Player and party members have taken a step up graphically at the expense of environment variety. Because of it most of the areas suffer from a distinct feeling of saminess that has nothing to do with the ham-fisted stone walls and broken wagons to block off chunks of the 5 total dungeons which make up almost the entirety of the games non city areas. This is perhaps the most telling developmental issue and one which the producers are being crucified over, each of the dungeons is the same with the very notable barrier being linear obstacles that channel the level. Running around the city for 30 hours really does feel like 30 hours, the breaks in pace are welcomed but the levels rarely stray far enough from home to feel refreshing.

Overall the game lacks a certain charm and character that its predecessor possessed. While there were a few technical improvements most of the key aspects that worked for Origins were scaled back to what I felt was a decidedly poor product. One can't help but feel that the core of the carte blanche projectionist or creative role playing experience is dramatically lessened because of some of these and other implementations made by Bioware. It seems as though it was produced in too short a period of time with direction from a small number of staff that were resting on their laurels to create what they imagined was a sure hit. Unfortunately Dragon Age II overall can be reasonably described as a mediocre title.

Where Eagles Dare, oh dear. Picked it up and decided to watch it thinking 'I've heard good things'. Lies, lies and deceit. Well, for the most part, then again maybe I'm just no 'fun'.

Frankly the premise was good as was the intrigue. Most of the main plot and sub plots were all workable and I was interested in seeing the 'how are they going to do it' escapes from such a smart numerically superior force like the elite German Wehrmacht. Simple answer, they don't really. The plot gets twisted up in the action but that action was atrocious. I guess a lot of people can like five hundred pounds of explosives, Richard Burton, and Clint Eastwood and see it as a true movie masterpiece of war. If you like the actors you'll find it's pretty much all the same, Clint Eastwood is Clint Eastwood as Morris Schaffer.

But it wasn't the thin then disregarded plot, but the action which made it frustrating. From the high explosive armored Kubelwagons to the thoroughly incompetent German soldiers it managed to subvert any sort of tension in the film itself. With unlimited munitions and laser accuracy that would have put Rambo to shame it was dodgy at best. So if you like the gratuitous violence and stunted inhuman behavior of your favorite 'tough guy' cast then you'll probably like the film. Likewise if you enjoy just watching hundreds of Nazi soldiers die and can cheer simply for that fact then it's a film for you too. For me it was the solitary movie that managed to make me dislike seeing dead Nazi's, enough is enough, I'm done with it, can we move on and call it a day? Thankfully for the most part we have.

Basically if you're looking for an engaging espionage film, cat and mouse chases, human characters, and close calls, you're going to be disappointed. If you expect realism you'll be all but slapped in the face. In fact the only thing more out of place would have been a sudden jig at the end, jazzed up with a heart felt, "Shazam, the Germans are dead Hooray!" because after all, it amounts to the same thing. It's a sixty's and seventy's era movie and back then it would have probably netted four or five stars but looking at it I'll say what it's worth to me without any rose tinted illusions, the film is just one of a dozen other shoot-em ups. So with that I'll go back to watching war movies like the Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, Patton, or Tae Guk Gi.