Races will be retrofitted to have ability score choice in Essentials, like the PHB3 ones.
Ravenloft where you actually play the vampires and werewolves as well as normal races? Am I reading that right? A bit of WoD in DnD? That's actually really cool, and might serve to help break Ravenloft from the traditional "adventure" category/rut it's been stuck in and get people thinking that it actually could be a campaign setting/subsystem for DnD in a way the 2e boxed sets never did.
You can play a ghost as well!! (allegedly)