EA details Dragon Age expansion

By Robert Purchese Published 5 January, 2010

Awakening in March on all formats.

EA has announced Dragon Age: Origins expansion Awakening, which will be released on 16th March for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and will require the original Dragon Age to play.

The press release cites $39.99 as the price, but no European-relevant figure was given.

Awakening will take place after the events of the main game and follow either saved heroes or new characters as Grey Warden Commander, who must rebuild the order at Vigil's Keep according to the player's desires. Five brand new party members await your call.

But more mouth-watering for returning players will be a free character re-spec and raised level cap, plus new spells, abilities and specialisations. There's a mountain of fresh, sparkly loot to uncover too.

And you'll do all that while investigating the darkspawn's reason for survival post-Archdemon; a quest that will lead you closer to a confrontation with the mysterious Architect. Your journey will be littered with greater perils, too, as "evolved" darkspawn such as the Inferno Golem and the Spectral Dragon await.

Head over to our Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening gallery for the first screenshots.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (37) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hantheman #1 2 years ago

    Excellent, another reason to keep playing and fail my degree!

  • hiddenranbir #2 2 years ago

    Now that is more like it.

    If Bioware also manage to reach that open dynamic world as well, bloody hell.

  • Turrican #3 2 years ago

    Great news, much rather this than random dlc which fits into the existing story. Having spent over 100 hours completing it there is no way I'd go back and play it through again for a few extras.

  • Machetazo #4 2 years ago

    Great to see that the expansion wasn't just a rumour, after all.

  • space_ace #5 2 years ago

    origins, awakening... next: birth, beginning? :)

  • UberFrog #6 2 years ago

    Keep....'em....comming...

  • the_dudefather #7 2 years ago

    "Five brand new party members await your call."

    ye gods, will probably end up ditching all of the vanilla game regulars then :p

    should get around to finishing this game soonish I guess

  • darc #8 2 years ago

    $39.99 expansion? That's a sequel price.

  • darc #9 2 years ago

    I wonder whether they'll hold to this date now that Return to Ostagar has been delayed.

  • NewbieZilla #10 2 years ago

    It'd want to be pretty fucking substantial for that price.

  • actionfitz #11 2 years ago

    Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    I've just cleared through the main game once (with more planned) and Lost my Xmass :'(
    Between this and ME 2, Bioshock 2 and new WoW content... I am Fucked.

    /weep.

  • actionfitz #12 2 years ago

    @ Darc
    It's not that bad
    unless EA totally rape the EU again.
    -- though I should note that my pre-order from game.co.uk with a £5 redeemed points meant I got the original for £20 :D

    exchange rates at 2010.01.05
    15:31:02 UTC
    39.99 USD = 24.9008 GBP
    United States Dollars United Kingdom Pounds
    1 USD = 0.622676 GBP 1 GBP = 1.60597 USD

  • Murton #13 2 years ago

    Haven't gotten Dragon Age yet but it's near the top of the list once I have the cash to spare. Will probably wait for this to release first and then get both.

    Cheers Bioware, the only company still interested in making proper indepth RPGs.

  • Machetazo #14 2 years ago

    The press release also explains that the pack adds a brand new area called Amaranthine.
    Edited by 1 at 05/01/10 @ 15:38

  • SirScratchalot #15 2 years ago

    /Creams pants...
    The Baldurs Gate expansions were imho better than the games proper so I hope they get a bit jiggy with it..
    My own portable headwuarters in a parallel dimension in Throne of Bhaal was a particular favorite.

  • Liam64 #16 2 years ago

    I've missed expansion packs. :)

  • DanWhitehead #17 2 years ago

    The Architect?

  • greenllama88 #18 2 years ago

    Wooo 5 new party members sounds perfect... if they could include a second non magic origin story for a human then all my Drangon Age wishes would be fufilled :)

  • darc #19 2 years ago

    @DanWhitehead - I was thinking the exact same thing.

  • Yossarian #20 2 years ago

    MIIIILLLKKKK. GLORIOUS MIIIIIIIIIILLLLK.

  • ParanoidZombie #21 2 years ago

    That would be 3200MSP on Xbox Live, I think Shivering isles was around the same price when it first launched 3 years ago. I hoped the GTA epsiodes would set a new standard for DLC pricing, that's too bad.

  • Rack #22 2 years ago

    This is awful soon. I'm guessing there'll be about 2-3 hours content in this expansion.

  • mikew1985 #23 2 years ago

    Not at $39.99 it won't. My guess is with new party members and a raised level cap that theres a significant proportion of additional content.

    The game was in development for 5 years, they've probably got a huge amount of quests and content built already especially considering they always planned to make it a trilogy. They've probably just been constantly building content in conjunction with the lore since the engine was finished.

    Basically I think this was probably close to, if not finished, at the time of the games retail release imo. With there being such a plethora of content in the original retail release though, I've got no problem with this at all. I mean theres 100+ hours in there already.

  • Chaser #24 2 years ago

    Cha.... Ching....

  • thenastypasty #25 2 years ago

    This is awful soon. I'm guessing there'll be about 2-3 hours content in this expansion.

    It's already been announced that there is over 15hrs of new content.

    I'm not too sure of the price of $40,if you look at the both GTA4 expansion packs which were both released for 1600points(about £14)which both offered 15hrs of content then EA have got this priced a little to high.

  • KillerMonkey #26 2 years ago

    So the Dragon Age world is just an early version of The Matrix? It all makes sense now, why nothing made sense in the game.

  • sarcasmoidosis #27 2 years ago

    40$ equals 30 euros.

    I absolutely loved the original game and the two pieces of DLC (one was free for PC) but 30 euros for 15 hours of play is a little too much. Especially since by that date there will also be other games out there to play. Mass Effect 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 for PC come to mind.

    However, if this game is 15 hours just like the first was "40 hours", which actually turned into around 80 for me during my first walkthrough, I'll buy it with my eyes closed.

  • VMerken #28 2 years ago

    While $40 equals about €30 these days, I'm pretty sure the store price will use the traditional $1 = €1 conversion standard, i.e. my bet's on €39.99.

  • sarcasmoidosis #29 2 years ago

    @ VMerken : Steam certainly will. The other retailers, probably not. I got my CE of DA:origins 10 euros cheaper than the normal 1-1 conversion from a local retailer in my country and i'm sure there were even better deals in UK.

  • pot #30 2 years ago

    The PC version will only be 30$ according to Gamestop, yay. 40$ for consoles it seems.

  • metalangel #31 2 years ago

    This is more like it! A proper sized expansion! Can't wait to see whether this costs more and/or lasts longer than all the other DLCs combined, should be interesting.

    Will there be any new races and such in the new area? We need sexy dark elves (the character creator wouldn't let me make anything especially drow-like) and maybe some lizardmen. Can't have fantasy without lizardmen.

  • feistycheese #32 2 years ago

    Will somebody please tell the games industry that I am not a time lord, therefore am not able to fit 100's of hours of game time into a single day.

    I mean I havent even got round to UC2 yet, am still clearing a backlog of games ready for sequels (BF:BC and Bioshock), and as a massive fan of RPG's (BG 2 was my favourite of ALL TIME) I really, really want this game and all its planned DLC. . . . . BUT WITH BAYONETTA & DARKSIDERS OUT ON FRIDAY WHERE THE FUCK AM I GOING TO FIT IT ALL IN ?!?!?

    /goes off to cry

  • KillerMonkey #33 2 years ago

    Still waiting for Morrigan-based pr0n.

  • TheTingler #34 2 years ago

    Interesting - The Architect was the main villain in the last Dragon Age novel, The Calling... but I guess I'm the only one who read that!

  • SlackMaster #35 2 years ago

    I wonder how this dlc will work with my save game. I have completed the game with a mage and then started again with the different classes etc to complete all the origin stories. When you do this it wipes your save games, or so it appears, but keeps your character data.

    I wonder if I'll have to complete the game again or can start straight from the dlc?

  • Rubarack #36 2 years ago

    They announced 15 hours of content, but I believe that might be what in marketing is referred to as "a lie" Wardens keep was supposed to have 3-4 hours of content so if this only has 2-3 that would be a consistent lie. Consistent pricing as well for that matter.

  • Lamb #37 2 years ago

    Dragon Age Origins. I am impressed with certain parts of the game like the voice acting and the fighting system (on the PC). But they made the game to cover the span of Ferelden and thus it doesn't feel as well made as battling through the five warrens of Neverwinter.

    Its very thin and generic in areas like the Dwarven slums or the fast travel settings and locations. Plus it seems unfinished in the graphics department for lots of areas.