After a nice long look at Dreaming Cities I can say I really like it, not as much as Ex Machina but its a great system. The one gripe I have is that character creation is very-very involved. There is a big learning curve, mainly because there is more than one way to build the same character.
For instance if you want a character who can cast spells you could take the Dynamic power attribute or Power Flux or build them into an item of power or about a half dozen other things. Why? Its all for flavor. But a lot of people may not like it or understand why they would build a game like that. The point costs are all different, for an effect that is basically the same.
The Tri-stat system is definitely a cooperative system between the GM and player, one where character is very very important. This is a good thing because character development can be a little slower than other games.
Dreaming cities has some cool setting info, but only one setting I think I'd want to game in. Its called The World at Twilight and it takes place as myths and legends come flooding back into the mundane world after the destruction of the world tree. Character types range from the aware mundane to the embodiment of gods and legends. Want to play King Arthur or Little Red Riding Hood then go ahead.
Ex-machina isnt too different than Dreaming cities in the rules dept. but it more than makes up for it with some amazing settings. In fact 3 out of the 4 settings are so cool I'd play them tomorrow.
