BioWare is clearly making a play for a wider audience with Dragon Age II, hence the faster combat, the lower camera angles, the more action-packed presentation of content so far. On the console versions you will be tapping buttons for attacks, using six mapped special moves with a combo pulls of the the right trigger and presses of the other three face buttons. That's actually not new, though the motto the BioWare rep shared for this new game did sound like a shift. The creators of the game want to ensure that each button press makes "something awesome happen."
You can still pause combat. On the console or PC version you can stop the action, transfer from character to character, assigning their one next move (you can't stack commands). Strategic fighting has not been eliminated, just not shown much to the press. BioWare, the rep explained, prefers to show off a more exciting, fast-moving play style for the sequel, even though they support the old-school turn-taking approach. That faster style is what they want to hook Fable fans with, what they think even a Borderlands fan might dig.
