Less than a month! Especially considering the path I chose for my characater should allow me to continue on without making any changes. It would nice if a couple party members from Origins would show up though.

Well my prayers have been answered!

I always got the feeling that the simple dwarf kid in camp was going to somehow get his mind back at a later stage. And we'd find out that he was the first and only magic user of his race and because of this same reason, he would also be an extremely powerful magic user.
Unlikely sure... But if it would of been a game direction the writers were considering, we'd only later find out Whether he'd find out his power stemmed from good or evil.
 
(Sorry that last sentance was worded strangely.)

" All right yes, wait a minute March 16 oh no!!!!! 
 
 
"

Anyone else think the character in the screenshot fighting that giant fire golem is the SPITTING IMAGE of Malek from the Legacy of Kain series? Whether or not its intentional, I'd love to play as a character who looks like him, he had an awesome design.

Thanks for the info, will definitely play the expansion. 
(And I don't really mind so much that they'll rewrite the end a little bit)

" Enchantments? ... Enchantments! "

I'm happy to play more DA, but I must say I'm skeptical to throwing out the old characters that I know and love for some new ones. Knowing Bioware the new characters will be awesome as well, but I'll still miss Alistair, Leliana, Morrigan and the rest. 
@crusader8463 said:

" I will just make a new character for this expansion. Unlike the Mass Effect games where i felt a stronger connection to my Shepard, i never felt connected to any of the four to five characters i beat the game with in Dragon Age. I think it was because with Dragon Age your character is just a silent protagonist, so i never felt like my choices effected my character in any way because he/she just always kind of stood there, and maybe nodded here and there or grimaced from time to time. "  

 The dragon with the flagon has the brew that is true.

I'm totally gonna need to make a new charecter for this, I dont wanna ruin my Origins ending by having me rogue decide 'bugger chasing after Morrigan, imma gonna go do this other thing'.

Really good write-up, Vinny, I'm now officially excited.

So did they fix the problems of DA in the first place?  Class imbalance and itemization?  How about the useless skills?
 
Is there actually new gameplay elements or just more of the same things?  Even the new characters, are they just replacements for the ones that won't be returning?

Enchantment!
 
Really excited to play more Dragon Age :)

Awesome!  Nice preview Vinny!  Thanks for answering my most pressing question about Awakenings.  It sounds like you and I made similar choices at the end of Origins.  :-)

I'm looking forward to this, though I would like to see more class options. Perhaps that will be addressed in DLC, or a second expansion. I hope so.

I'm going to approach carefully.  I dropped a lot of hours into Dragon Age (and plan to put a few more in to get some achievements), but I lost interest about 80% of the way through the story.  I just didn't like how it played on the 360, and I don't have a PC that'll run it.  I'm sure I'll break down eventually, but I may wait until it's cheaper.

Yay! another game for my pile 'o shame! ^____^ I can't wait

I have yet to finish DA:O, that game is sooo damn good but sooo damn long!  Splitting my time between ME2 & DA:O is brutal! I <B Bioware!

I really like the idea of playing the new Orlaisian Warden, in Ferelden... which is fortunate I suppose.
 
Also, Vinny needs his time freed up so that he can write more often.

thanks for the write-up, Vinny. Really looking forward to this.

As only a good RPG and completionist  type of pler i logged over 120+ hours on DOA and i still want to go back and play again. Cant wait for the new expansion.

  The retcon sucks but it makes sense.  Creating changes based on decisions made in the first game is time consuming and if they were going to do that they might as well skip the expansion and move straight to a sequel. 
 
Oh, and how dare you insult Sandal!    

I haven't even completed the game yet! LOL. That's ok though because I love it and I'm looking forward to any and all content BioWare wants to throe my way.

Enchantment!

Enchantment!

I'm callin' it. Architect = Darkspawn party member.

Hi I'm from Orlais, which is France in french, here to help you with your darkspawn problem and screw any good looking males/females you might have.

 I think either Awakening is not cannon (which doesn't fit BioWare quite) or that the character is supposed to be a new one - which the option to import your old character just because (1) you might want to continue with your skills and such, and (2) because everyone is crazy about save-importing nowadays.
 
Assuming that is true, I can make my peace with you being able to revive your character - without any explaining at all - becuafse it's non-canon anyway. 
 
Another way to see it could be that (unless you play as the Orlesian Grey Warden) the story and events are canon - but the main character is not.