As we announced last week the winners of the Dragon Age II pre-order competition were Nigel and Andrew. I caught up with Nigel this week to see how his trip to Canada and BioWare studio was.

How was the weather in Canada? Was it cold?
Canada was amazing. It was my first time in that part of the world and I got to experience cold like I’ve never felt before; the temperature was lowest at –32°C.

What was BioWare Studio like? Was it how you imagined a big game developer would be?
Everyone at BioWare was really friendly and cool, pretty much exactly how you’d expect a big developer to be. Pretty much everyone had a console of some sort near their desk. It seemed like an ideal place to work (if you can deal with the cold).

How was Dragon Age II?
I’m so very excited for Dragon Age II now; they’ve made some really cool changes that improve the gameplay on the console (particularly in combat), and being a BioWare game the story is really good.

Did you get a sneak peek at any other titles at the BioWare Studio?
We tried to sneak in some Mass Effect 3 stuff but they’re keeping that under pretty tight wraps right now.

What else did you do in Canada aside from visiting BioWare?
Aside from BioWare, I checked out the West Edmonton Mall, which is the world’s biggest indoor mall and contains both a theme park and a waterpark.

Did you sample any Canadian cuisine?
I tried all the local food and drink I could. I tried to avoid pretty much anything that’s commonly available in New Zealand.

What was the highlight of your trip to Canada?
The highlight of the trip would be a toss up between getting to play Dragon Age II and the absolutely stunning view of the snow-capped mountains on the flight home.

There you have it. It sounds like Nigel had a great (but freezing cold) time over there. Next week we'll catch up with Andrew to get his thoughts and more photos from his trip to Canada. By the way if you click on any of the images above you will see some more photos (thanks to Andrew) in the lightbox including one of Nigel and Andrew playing Dragon Age II. Jealous?

Dragon Age II is coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 11th. Pre-order now and receive and receive a bonus in-game code for Fadeshear sword and Lion of Orlais shield!