In near record time, BioWare has already announced an expansion for Dragon Age titled, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. A bit awkward as far as titles go, but I don’t care. It’s an expansion. For Dragon Age. With DLC for the game scheduled for release this very day being postponed, this comes as more than welcome news to potentially disappointed fans.

Awakening’s story takes place, obviously, after the events of Dragon Age. Players take control of either their own created protagonist from the original campaign, or an entirely new character, either of which assumes the title of Grey Warden Commander. They are tasked with reforming the Wardens and finding out just why the darkspawn are refusing to disappear. One would assume slaying an Archdemon would take care of it, but apparently that’s just not enough for some races! Awakening takes places in a new land called Amaranthine, and features such cryptic characters as The Architect, a Grey Warden base titled Vigil’s Keep which sounds as though it will be fully upgradeable, and five new non-player characters to interact and bond with. Apparently an old friend will make an appearance too, but they’re keeping tight-lipped about who that’s going to be. I’d put my money on Zevran, but my heart would be hoping Morrigan. Players also gain access to a higher level cap, more skills and spells, and even the ability to respecialize points.

For anyone who has yet to experience the pleasure of a BioWare expansion, I can assure any doubters that this will be well worth the cost. The expansion to Baldur’s Gate 2, while maybe not as wonderful as the original campaign, was substantial to say the least and definitely closed up the narrative. Given Bioware’s tendency to go above and beyond, I honestly expect even more out of this despite the quick release. Yes, it is quick, with an announced release date of March 16th. This makes Valve’s latest expansion pack release seem long by comparison.

I honestly don’t think the Bioware chaps sleep. They started out in medical technology or something so my guess is that they’ve developed some kind of bionic method of keeping themselves awake and sustained for years at a time. It’s the only explanation for their ridiculous workload.

A few precious screenshots from the expansion below for your perusal!

Tags: awakening, Bioware, Dragon Age, expanaion

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Announcements, News, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.