normalpants

" I feel the same. There is only one game that it has right now that I am interested in. THe rest of the games are reboots or children's stuff that i have zero interest in. TO me, it's a novelty item. For others it's the new hotness. "

I waited 45 minutes in my car before Best Buy opened this morning just to see if I could get 3DS and to see if there were other people doing the same thing.  I was the only person waiting for Best Buy to open, and when I finally walked inside, it looked like they had 30 or so on display, but I'm fairly certain they had more in the back-- I should have asked an employee.  I grabbed a black one and tried to decide which game to buy.  None of them looked good.  The more and more I tried to decide the less it made me want a 3DS.  I ended up putting the damn thing back on the shelf and walking out.  Thirty minutes after opening, I was still the only person in the store.  Is this a typical opening day for a Nintendo handheld? Maybe everyone is still at church...

" Yeah it kind of still sucks but at least they don't appear out of nowhere. "

Either way, the way I remember DA:O is when a battle started, you had a set amount of enemies to clear before battles ended and those baddies could usually be seen as you enter the area.  Occasionally a demonic creature or summon would appear as combat was happening, but for the most part I felt like I knew what I was getting in to and could be tactical with my party accordingly.   All of that planning is meaningless if unseen forces always show up midway through a battle at unknown locations  and in unknown makeup and numbers.  introducing a crazy wildcard like that breaks tactical play styles-- pure and simple. 

You have probably already seen my Dragon Age II rant.  It's a rushed game that doesn't live up to the first game's promise by any stretch of the imagination.  But I would have finished the game if one thing was fixed: 
 
ENEMIES RE-SPAWNING OUT OF THE GOD DAMN GROUND DURING COMBAT 
  
I played the first Dragon Age on Nightmare, pausing very, very often (as you might imagine) .  Playing Dragon Age Origins tactically and slowly was a lot of fun.   
I tried looking past all of Dragon Age 2's horrible missteps to see if I could dig in on some difficult tactical combat, but in every single fight I can remember, more enemies will appear out of nowhere during a fight, which makes playing with a strategy totally pointless.   If they would go back to the way it worked in Origins, the people that played this way in Dragon Age Origins might be able to get back on board.  With this awful change it is totally unplayable for a sad panda like me.   How many other people got screwed out of our preferred play-style? I can't imagine it was the majority, but I can't believe I was the only one.  Any work-arounds I can try?

" @normalpants: Erm, why is this not a review?  "

" Don't tell me what to do. You ain't the boss of me!
I'll waste money on Dragon Age 2 if I WANNA! "

"it makes the story more concise and tighter, giving a semblence of realism"    

"The enviorment variety argument is also tired. Yes they recycled things, but all games do it."  

" @normalpants:  Not to criticize or anything, you're welcome to your opinion...but you liked FFXIII and you're complaining about DA2 having a narrow funneling? 0.o FFXIII could have taken place in a hallway. "