So a few days ago, I was able to download and play the demo for Dragon Age II. My first impression was "This is really stripped down." I wasn't surprised, as this is a demo. So I watched the opening cutscene, and thought that was decent enough. Then the game started. When I first started controlling, I noticed a serious flaw: The mouse does not rotate the camera unless the left mouse button is held. The problem with this is that the left mouse button is also your action button. You attack, move, select and do more with it. This may not seem like a huge issue, but when the enemies are constantly moving away from the screen, the only way to reliably adjust the camera for attacking is to pause the game. While this is a fairly common feature in Bioware games, this scheme was incredibly awkward. If I so chose, I should be able to actively control and fight without having to pause the game to readjust my viewing frustum. There was no such option that I could find. I can excuse the lack of customization since it is a demo, but the control scheme is a battle to use effectively.

In the presence of arms, the law grows silent.

Since I haven't posted yet, I'm going to inaugurate this with a bit of Science Fiction fanaticism. Namely, I'm going to take you through my favorite franchises and such. At the end, I'll include a top 5 list with my favorite Science Fiction shows is order.

The title of this blog, the translation for which is in italics, is the title of an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, my favorite Star Trek show. Why is it my favorite? For starters, it has deep, convincing characters and incredible plot arcs. It dives into Trek mythology deeper than any other show has, especially with the Cardassians and the Bajorans. It is also one of the few shows where the status quo changes after every episode. If there was significant damage to a runabout in the previous episode, odds are you won't see it, and will likely hear Chief O'Brien complaining about it.