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Dragon Age To Expand In March

The classic feel of BioWare's RPG continues with the announcement of a full-on proper expansion.

In this age of quick-hit downloadable content, proper "old-school" expansion packs have become something of a rarity. So when EA and BioWare officially announced an upcoming add-on for Dragon Age: Origins this morning, I sort of immediately assumed it was yet another piece of DLC for the game. But this new expansion, known as Awakening, will actually hit as a traditional, full-on expansion--on a disc at retail stores or digitally, if that's your thing. It's currently scheduled to become available on March 16 and will retail for $39.99 on PS3, 360, and PC.

The expansion will add a higher level cap, five new party members, additional spells and abilities, and the ability to re-spec your character, which is something that required you to pull down the console or edit your save files previously. The new quest will allow you to bring in existing characters or start a new one as you attempt to rebuild the order of Grey Wardens. Here are the relevant bits of the announcement for more details on the story:

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s next thread in the Dragon Age: Origins tapestry, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens. In addition to rebuilding the ranks of the Grey Wardens, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

Oh, and hey, here are some shots of said thing, too! 

Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

125 Comments

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Flurolamp

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Edited By Flurolamp
@thecleric said:
" @Jimbo said:
" Is that Ghost again in the last screenshot?  You're gonna need to introduce The Ghosties next award season. "
Modern Warfare invented skulls "
Lawl.
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demonbear

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Edited By demonbear

So basically, you'll pay 100$ of dragon age stuff in a 6 month period of time. WoW seems pretty cheap now. :D
 
That also proves they had content stashed away from the original game all along, considering how close to the original release date this is.

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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@demonbear said:
" So basically, you'll pay 100$ of dragon age stuff in a 6 month period of time. WoW seems pretty cheap now. :D  That also proves they had content stashed away from the original game all along, considering how close to the original release date this is. "
The original release date of 2006?  The game was heavily delayed to work on the console versions, which is why the original DLC packs came out on release and that this stuff isn't too far off.  And remember, a game isn't finished and then released right away, a lot of the designers and developers finish their role in games months and months before the game is out and are free to work on things like this.
 
Don't get me wrong, developers holding back content just to make us pay for later on is terrible, but that's clearly not the case here.  I also don't see how you can liken this to WoW, where you have to purchase a full price game, pay $15 a month and then still buy expansion packs such as this.
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phrosnite

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Edited By phrosnite

Awesome! I'm so buying it. Sorry DoW2: Chaos Rising and AC2...
 
 

@demonbear

said:

" So basically, you'll pay 100$ of dragon age stuff in a 6 month period of time. WoW seems pretty cheap now. :D  That also proves they had content stashed away from the original game all along, considering how close to the original release date this is. "

The PC version was finished in summer 09 but it got delayed so it can come out with the xbox version. I can't blame them... it's bioware ffs. I  would 
gladly give them my money.
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WinterSnowblind

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Edited By WinterSnowblind
@Mordukai said:
" I wonder how they will handle the using of an already made character becasue 
 
 I just hope they won't handle it in the same manner as the first ME where you had to reload an earlier save.  "
Well once you complete the game you're given a cleared save file that takes place before the final battle for doing other DLC packs.
 But it seems to be solved here simply by creating a new character.
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crystalskull2

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Edited By crystalskull2

I still need to finish Dragon age.

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Seraphim2150

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Edited By Seraphim2150

Wait did they say the Architect?
 
Are we going to meet KFC guy again?

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harrypmgaga

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Edited By harrypmgaga

God. No more DRAGON AGE BIOWARE PLZ 
 
KTHXBAI!  

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frans130

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Edited By frans130

I love how they use the exact same enemys as the original just with other skins. Think I'll pass on this one, way too many great games coming out the first 3 months of 2010
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Zaapp1

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Edited By Zaapp1

Truly, this is the age of fake-French accents, truly.

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neykho

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Edited By neykho

40 bucks on an expansion?  That is ludicrous.   40 bucks is like a new game for the PC... I know this isnt Bioware's doing but come on!

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MachoFantastico

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Edited By MachoFantastico

Give me a chance to finish the main game first Bioware, not to mention when Mass Effect 2 comes out. Insanity.

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Southgrove

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Edited By Southgrove

AWESOME!

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seakae

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Edited By seakae

It'd be nice if they included the dlc.

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jakob187

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Edited By jakob187

After I finally got to play the game...and then got the game-breaking "Attack on Nightfall" bug within my first six hours of gameplay...and then researched to find out that this bug STILL hasn't been fixed for consoles...I decided that it's bullshit for a company (even if it's a secondhand company like Edge of Reality) to allow a game to continue to be broken (even if it doesn't happen all the time) and then use the time they could be fixing the game to make more DLC and expansions for profit.  Pure...bullshit...and I'm saddened because what I played of Dragon Age was quickly changing my mind for what my favorite game of last year was.

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captain_clayman

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Edited By captain_clayman

sweet! 
 
 
...shit, i gotta buy this game, but i don't think my graphics card can handle it.

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sopranosfan

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Edited By sopranosfan
@neykho said:
" 40 bucks on an expansion?  That is ludicrous.   40 bucks is like a new game for the PC... I know this isnt Bioware's doing but come on! "
I felt the same way when I first read about it as well however I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt ......for now.  They are saying that you will be able to a retail version as well as DLC expansion but i am not sure if that just for PC or all formats.  I hope it is all formats because I don't like paying $40 for a single piece of DLC.  Second they are saying the expansion will be huge with new characters and a lot of new gameplay, they are saying it will be bigger than a lot of stand alone games.  If they live up to their promises and it is a good solid 20 or so hours of solid gameplay for $40 and if it is available as a retail expansion for the 360 then I will probably pick it up.  However if they don't live up to all of the above I am afraid I will have to pass as well.
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mattysen

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Edited By mattysen

I think it's safe to say Dragon Age had enough content stand alone to say "They're just including parts of the game that should have been there to start with". Crawl under a hole if your one of these preachers

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hpv

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Edited By hpv

Why do I get the terrible feeling that this isn't going to be discounted as a download but require disc swapping for the physical copy...

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Black_Raven

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Edited By Black_Raven

Fucking awesome, I didn't have much hope in this being released on disk but now that it is it'll be much easier for me to get.

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Black_Raven

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Edited By Black_Raven
@mattysen said:
" I think it's safe to say Dragon Age had enough content stand alone to say "They're just including parts of the game that should have been there to start with". Crawl under a hole if your one of these preachers.  "
Agreed, while I can't help but be a little annoyed when I discover a quest that needs to be paid for and downloaded to begin it doesn't change the fact that you get more content stand alone then most other games.
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psikousteve

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Edited By psikousteve

cant wait for this!! agree with the comments that id like to know the length!!

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Media_Master

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Edited By Media_Master

Nice.

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dyslekt

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Edited By dyslekt

I approve of this message !

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Linkyshinks

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Edited By Linkyshinks

 
 New Trailer