Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening Message Board

From a value perspective, it's pretty hard to deny the cost to amount of game ratio of Impulse's half-price deal on Dragon Age: Origins. It includes both Origins and the Awakening expansion for 25 bucks. Throw in the fact that it's actually a good game and, well, you've got yourself a heckuva deal.

Mac users, it's time to brush the caked-on dust from the once-shiny pauldrons of your Dragon Age: Origins party. We know you've been forced to wait patienty for months while BioWare readied the massive RPG's similarly sizable expansion, Awakening, for your particular gaming platform of choice. Your wait is over -- the add-on is now available on major digital distributors for the price of $30.

Of course, it's probably been close to eight months since your Warden's seen any combat action. We strongly suggest you do some stretches to avoid damaging your atrophied Darkspawn-slaying muscles.

#review The marauding Blight has scattered, but a new, more sinister evil rises in its wake, and once again the Grey Wardens rise to face a deadly foe in the Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening expansion pack. More »

Ah yes, Dragon Age Origins' storied realm of Thedas, where great warriors and mages do battle against the Demon Spawn, play kings and knights off of each other in political schemes, and register promotional DLC codes for in-game items. What's that? Your heroic Grey Warden hasn't done the last one yet?

Here's your chance -- Alienware is giving away some free DLC keys for an in-game shield called the Bulwark of the True King. If you only have the original PC game, it's a tier 5 shield, but apparently if you have the Awakening expansion, it revs up to a Tier 7 item. All you have to do is run over to the Alienware website, create an account in its Arena community (you didn't think it'd be that "free," did you?), and then redeem the code in-game to claim your shield.

Note that these keys don't work in the console versions of the game -- Alienware only wants you PC users. But it is a pretty easy way to get a new shield. Much easier than slaying the mad mage of Ferelden or saving the Arl of Redcliffe.

[Thanks Wayne!]

#releasedate A blood dragon-emblazoned card tucked within retail copies of the Dragon Age Origins: Awakening expansion suggests that February 1, 2011 is a date of some importance to BioWare's latest RPG franchise. Is this the release date for Dragon Age 2? More »

A Warden's work is never done.

Justice takes center stage in the latest, and perhaps last trailer for Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening (which is due out this week). Justice is actually a "person," and not the principle -- a ghost trapped in a human body by a sorceress. Uh-huh, it's up to you to help him escape this mortal dilemma.

To make things worse, Justice's "new" body is basically Christian Bale's body (and not the Batman one). In other words, he's a skeleton tightly wrapped in skin. We're surprised Justice can even lift that shield and mace! Forget Elfroot, somebody get this guy some delicious Corpse Gall to fatten him up.

Justice takes center stage in the lastest Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening trailer. It's actually a "person," and not the principle -- a ghost trapped in a human body by a sorceress. Uh-huh, it's up to you to help him escape this mortal dilemma.

To make things worse, Justice's "new" body is basically Christian Bale's body (and not the Batman one). In other words, he's a skeleton tightly wrapped in skin. We're surprised Justice can even lift that shield and mace! Forget Elfroot, somebody get this guy some Corpse Gall to fatten him up.

#gdc You can be more powerful in next week's expansion to Dragon Age: Origins. More »

#gdc You can be more powerful in next week's expansion to Dragon Age: Origins. More »

[1UP]
It would appear that the still-unnamed next project in the Dragon Age series has been given a date, as spotted by 1UP in an early retail box of Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening for PS3. Aligning with the release window hinted at by EA hinted earlier this year during a financial call, the scarcely-detailed game will arrive on Februrary 1, 2011 -- or, in the graphic's terms, "02.01.2011."

We're not exactly sure if this is part of the two years of promised content that BioWare outlined late last year, but at very least it's an extremely early (possible) release date for more content in a critically acclaimed series. We've asked EA for more information on the date and will let you know more as soon as we do.

We detail the new abiltiies to be found as you battle the Darkspawn remnants.

You know how in Gremlins 2, the Gremlins all break into a genetics lab, and they eat all of the weird gene goop and it gives them superpowers like bat wings or vegetable bodies? And remember how one of them drinks like a brain hormone and becomes Brain Gremlin and gets played by Tony Randall? That's kind of what's happening to the Darkspawn in the Dragon Age Origins: Awakening expansion, according to this new trailer.

Of course, we don't know what kind of brain goop they ate -- and they definitely don't sound like Tony Randall -- but they're all called The Disciples and are all smart and talkative now. And evil. As you can see in the various screenshots below, they've got a face only a Gremlin could love. And honestly, while you might play the expansion on March 16 "thinking you know of our kind, human," you're wrong. All they're looking for are things like the Geneva Convention, chamber music, Susan Sontag. That's right: They just want to be civilized.

Mhairi lends her sword to the cause in the Dragon Age expansion.

#bioware BioWare reveals yet another new character coming in the Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening expansion pack, as the lovely knight of the Order Mhairi pledges herself to your cause. More »

If you're anything like us, you simply weren't impressed enough by the already overabundant amount of content available in Dragon Age: Origins. No sir! You wanted -- nay! -- demanded more content. Luckily for you, you immovable demander, EA is offering a deal in its online store for the first Dragon Age expansion where pre-orders of the new content can snag the original game on PC for 40 percent off its normal $50 asking price (now just under $30).

That means you could get both Awakening and the game it's based on for a combined $70 -- just $10 more than the Game of the Year edition that's sure to come out in a year's time! It's like an early reward for being hesitant ... almost like you paused the action and arranged the tactics ahead of time. Is there something we should know? Hmmm?

We play through the first few hours of the new expansion.

The survivor Sigrun joins the fight in Awakening.

By way of G4 and IGN comes this handful of Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening videos, found after the break. In the first, meet dwarven legionnaire Sigrun, tasked with returning to the old fortress of Kal'hirol. There's talking Darkspawn, those merry band of adventurers known as the "Legion of the Dead," and even a cameo from our old friend Oghren.

The additional two videos are simply B-roll, but that means gameplay footage. You'll get a look at some of the new characters in action and even some vistas of the new environments. We get it, it's not much, but you've got less than a month until this old-school expansion pack (remember those?) slays its way to retailers.

Battling darkspawn and spirit dragons.

click to awaken the gallery
BioWare revealed one of the new venues being added for the Dragon Age: Origins expansion Awakening. Kal'hirol was once a dwarven keep, a center of learning and culture for dwarf society. At some point, however, the dwarves were driven out.

BioWare won't say what horror resulted in "the fortress's elite one day [showing] up at Orzammar's great doors, exhausted and in despair over the loss of their home," but we have a theory: a Subway opened up next door, and the dwarves couldn't stand its constant weird baking-bread smell. Either that or some kind of monsters. You can scour our new gallery for any evidence of $5 footlongs.

We usually think we're too smart for FAQs, preferring the sort of random, only moderately relevant questions that no one ever asks. But the FAQ for Dragon Age: Origins Awakening does provide some pretty useful insight. For instance, we learned that the expansion won't appear on disc for PS3 owners living in Europe. It seems like an odd decision to make, but perhaps you European PS3 fans can enlighten us. Do you guys just hate discs without us knowing it? If so, why did you let us keep buying you all those discs for Christmas without saying anything?

Less perplexingly, we saw that lovably grouchy dwarf Oghren plays a "large role" in the expansion, which is great news for all thinking people.

Velanna has a score to settle in the Origins expansion.

The second character from the upcoming Dragon Age expansion Awakening to be introduced is Velanna, whose main characteristic is that she hates humans a bunch. Also, much like Awakening's other new character Anders, she keeps her arms out at all times.

The Dalish elf is "nature's hand, an instrument of vengeance, and she will never submit" in her unending fight to avenge the treatment of the Dalish at the hands of humans. Which means your relationship with her probably isn't going to be too chummy if you're playing a human character. And by "not too chummy" we mean "she will murder you with a tree."

Felt like your copy of Dragon Age: Origins was missing something, eh? Say, maybe, slugs with demonically mutated children's faces? Perfect -- we've got just the trailer for you today, care of upcoming DA:O expansion Awakening, full of creepy-crawly things called "The Children."

There's not much in the way of an explanation of exactly what or why they are, but there are some pretty awful birth pods full of (presumably) amniotic fluid -- well, y'know, evil amniotic fluid (they're bad guys, after all). Hopefully the Children aren't working in concert with that terrifying blue dragon we saw last week. Man, that'd be just the worst! Get fully creeped out by the trailer after the break.

The children of the Awakening Expansion are one babysitting job you will never want to take.

In the run-up to the expansion's March 16 date with store shelves, BioWare has begun to make formal introductions of the new characters who'll be joining your Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening quest. First up: Anders, a Chantry mage and ... "born troublemaker." In fact, BioWare makes him sound more like Han Solo than a robed magic user, what with his lust for "freedom, a good meal and a pretty girl on his arm." We'd like to point out that there is not a single screenshot in the gallery below in which Anders doesn't have his arms raised to some degree. Gallery: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening (02-02-10)

The mage known as Anders joins your party in the Awakening expansion.

An exclusive look at one of the new party members.

If you dare to tread on her land, you will face the fearsome powers of the Black Marsh Queen.