For the past week, I've been immensely enjoying Dragon Age 2. First Dragon Age I've ever played, too, though I am considering hunting down Origins in some discount bin.
Anyway, it appears a number of things have been changed story-wise, and some fans are Not Pleased (though when is the entirety of any fanbase ever satisfied?). I've been reading about the retcons, and they don't seen all that horribly RUINED FOREVER to me. Then again, I
am a Warcraft fan. The amount of retcons I've accepted between
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and
WoW: Cataclysm has probably done a lot to desensitize me for such things.
Anyway, I daresay that even if I had played DA before, and even if I did find the retcons objectionable, I'd still enjoy the game. Because
Varric's chest hair is mesmerizing the characters are so great.