So there's apparently an annual gaming convention in Moscow; who knew?  At this year's con, called the Igromir Games Expo, Bioware brought along a build of Dragon Age II, the hotly anticipated RPG follow up to Dragon Age Origins.  They were even nice enough to show a bit of gameplay, which was promptly captured on film by an astute convention goer, and subsequently uploaded to the YouTubes.

As a fan of the previous game, I can say I'm simultaneously excited and worried about the footage.  It's not because of the dark fantasy setting, which seems to be perfectly intact.  It's the combat.  Dragon Age Origins was a highly tactical game, with somewhat long delays between inputting a command and having it actually play out on screen.  This gave players time to jump from teammate to teammate, adapting strategies as the fight goes on.  This footage seems far more action oriented, with quick, responsive attacks.  While I like the idea of the combat being more fluid and real-time, I worry that the game's tactical aspects may be lost in the transistion.  With four months to go until the game's expected release date, it's too early to start speculating about what differences we'll see.  Then again, this is the internet, so speculate away.