well the ending of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> sucked
To be fair, the Larians have already said they pretty much ran out of time after the gong strike. The wastelands and everything that followed was hastily put together to give the game an ending.
I'm sure the actual ending the Larians had in mind would've been much better. But we'll never know.
I got to act 3 in less that 15 hours because without fully realising it, I was doing the main quests to advance the story before I did the side quests. Especially difficult to be aware of this in act 2 where the 'main' quest doesn't have any hint in it that it's leading you to act 3!
Why that's just not true. The chieftain's son already said he'd help you "leave this place" if you helped him find the alchemist who could cure the sick imps. That seems like a hint to me.
Tovi 
