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Maybe, "if you love intense close-range combat," you should be looking elsewhere to release your pent-up rage. However, if you love intense close-range combat using an extremely tactical power -- and don't mind taking breaks for drawn-out conversation -- then perhaps Mass Effect 2's Vanguard combat class fits well with your particular proclivities.

Still not clicking? Have you tried the Engineer? He, uh, fixes stuff ... with his killer robots.

You'd hoped that after investing 60 hours of your life, you could hang up your sword and catch a breather until the next BioWare RPG, but, oh no, the Darkspawn did not simply disappear. Thankfully, today's announcement of Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, a retail expansion to IGN's & Spike's RPG of the Year Joystiq's "4th Best of 2009," has been accompanied by this video pep talk. After all, you have quite the task ahead of you.

Awakening will be released March 16 for $39.99 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. A copy of the original Dragon Age: Origins is required to play.

Mass Effect 2 is temptingly priced on Amazon.uk at the moment, as the pre-order buy for BioWare's intergalactic epic is currently set at £30 for the Xbox 360 version (£27 for PC), a 40-percent discount off the normal retail price. Other regional competitors are currently offering the title for £40. (The standard price for a new game in the UK is typically £40–50.) Mass Effect 2 is currently discounted by 5 percent on Amazon's US site -- a mere $3.

[Thanks, Andrew]

We no longer have to rely on Google-translated rumors about retailer listings regarding an upcoming Dragon Age expansion. EA has officially revealed Awakening, the first retail expansion for Dragon Age: Origins, due in stores March 16 for $40 -- and it's up for pre-order on GameStop now. (There's no word on a downloadable version.)

Awakening takes place after the (many) events of Origins, putting the player in the role of a new Grey Warden Commander, or simply an old, imported character from the main game, taking on new monsters, like the Inferno Golem and the Spectral Dragon, in a new area of the world called Amaranthine. The expansion features an increased level cap, new items, new spells, the ability to "re-spec" attributes, and five new party members with whom to bond.

It seems odd that the DLC delay and the expansion announcements would coincide so closely, though we don't think it's a matter of BioWare trying to starve people for Dragon Age content so that the expansion would appear more attractive. We can't think of any other explanation than "it's a weird coincidence," though we'll attempt to clear it up with BioWare.

Update: Check out the debut trailer.

In a terse message on the BioWare forums last night, Community Coordinator Chris Priestly announced that the Dragon Age: Origins "Return to Ostagar" DLC, dated for release today, won't be available as planned.

"We're sorry but the planned Return to Ostagar downloadable content scheduled to launch on January 5th has been delayed for all platforms," the forum post reads. "We will update you as new information becomes available." And then there's a little "devil" emoticon, which seems to be Priestly's forum signature rather than a hint that the post is a joke. The fact that the delay applies to "all platforms" suggests that the content could arrive after the "later in January" release window named for PS3 before.

We expect that BioWare will release more details (as in, some details) about the delay during business hours -- or an official denial, if this turns out to be inaccurate. In either case, we're waiting to see if we're going to be waiting for the DLC.

[Thanks, Theresa]

Grunt and Thane are just a couple more of the intergalactic psychos you'll be adventuring with in Mass Effect 2 starting January 26. Sure, there are some relatively sane folks like Tali and Miranda Lawson along for the Normandy cruise around the stars, but just on the estrogen front that's balanced by the bra-less anger of Samara and the grrrrrl-rage of Subject Zero.

Can't we just get a Mass Effect 2 character that's big, fuzzy and easily marketable as a plush figure -- that would probably make EA happy. You'll find the clip for the even-less-cuddly-than-Wrex Krogan above and Thane after the break.

Because of Dragon Age: Origins, I realize we've been the victim of a falsehood all these years. We've been told that we've had nigh limitless choices in open-world games, but really, it's just one: Will you be evil or good?

In BioWare's latest masterpiece, you really do have choice. Since it does away with traditional morality, your decisions are based on something more than a cursory, binary choice at the outset. They're based, much like in the real world, on the way the decision is presented, on your relationship with those around you and on pure instinct.

Dragon Age: Origins may seem expansive enough, but BioWare has already proven willing to inflate the game further with DLC and talk of retail expansion packs. And according to an unidentified retailer listing spotted by Eurogamer.cz, the first of those expansions, titled Awakening, will supposedly arrive in Europe on March 19.

According to Eurogamer's summary, the expansion will star a new player character with a new origin story, new areas and enemies, for about 15 hours of new content. The expansion will also raise the level cap. Eurogamer speculates that EA will announce this expansion sometime in January, though we can't fathom how that information would be extrapolated from a retailer's erroneously hasty listing.

[Via Big Download; Blue's News]

While trailing behind what some of us might call "this holiday season" (as originally pledged), the latest expansion for BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins, dubbed "Return to Ostagar," has been given a more finite release date of January 5th for both Xbox 360 and PC. The PS3 release is slated for "later in January." Aaryn Flynn, General Manager and Vice President at BioWare Edmonton, says of the DLC offering, "Return to Ostagar represents BioWare's commitment to providing a steady stream of compelling post release content as we continue to expand the Dragon Age universe."

For just $5, and the promise of "the mighty arms and armor of the once great King Cailan," we imagine we'll be returning to Ostagar next week ... and as long as we're there, it won't hurt to find out what "King Cailan's top-secret political agenda" is, right? Check out a video of DLC expansion after the break.

The good folks at IncGamers had a chat with one of BioWare's founding medical doctors, Ray Muzyka, about the company's history of classic single-player gaming and its upcoming foray into the world of massively multiplayer with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Muzyka says that the line between solo and collective experiences is blurring: even traditionally single-player games are dipping into the vast realms of multiplayer co-op and competition through online social tools and downloadable content.

Speaking specifically, he says that Dragon Age: Origins is a good example, with online social features for what is definitely a single-player experience. And Mass Effect 2, he says, will explore these ideas through its own DLC. In fact, he outright guarantees us that BioWare is "planning more [DLC] than in Mass Effect 1." As players who couldn't get enough of the two packs on offer for the original game, that's Muzyka to our ears.

This past summer, we learned that Mass Effect 2 players could import save files from the previous entry in the franchise, bringing all of the decisions made in the first game into the sequel. But are decisions capable of decimating hordes of insidious, robotic invaders? No, boosted stats and abilities are -- and according to a recent forum post from BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly, players who import their saves will get access to these as well.

Of course, you won't be able to play as your super-high-level Shepard when you import -- however, the higher your character's level was when you finished Mass Effect, the better bonuses your Mass Effect 2 Shepard will receive. Some of the bonuses mentioned include extra money or crafting resources when you start the game. In addition, though BioWare has said that the game won't have a "New Game Plus" option, Priestly says that multiple playthroughs with the same Shepard will be possible.

There are no words. This trailer for Mass Effect 2 -- which just happens to be the expanded edition of the trailer teased during IGN's pre-VGA show -- is just completely radical. This particular video is more story-driven than the previous pieces of marketing for the game, giving a bit of backstory into the team Shepard has assembled, then showing that team going to war against a gigantic, sinister spacecraft.

We like to think of ourselves as fans of the holiday season, but we'd be more than happy to skip the next couple of weeks, just so we could be that much closer to Mass Effect 2's January 26 release date.

The previously announced Dragon Age comic series will begin next March. Penned by Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game, Empire), the story appears to revolve around rogue (the concept, not the class) mages within the Circle of Magi who "will defy the rules of the Templars and change the course of the world forever."

BioWare and TOR previously released the Dragon Age novel, The Stolen Throne, which if you're into the whole words without pictures thing, sets the stage and gives plenty of background for the epic RPG.

[Via Big Download]

January's right around the corner and EA's PR department is in full assault mode. Enter: Mass Effect 2, a video game we've heard the kids talking about around the chocolate milk line. In its latest PR salvo, EA has unloaded a video showing off the Infiltrator class, a stealth-based attack unit in BioWare's upcoming RPG shooter. While the Infiltrator isn't the useful, jack-of-all-trades type the Sentinel is or like the wussy cautious, wait-in-the-back Engineer, we must admit we've always had a soft spot for the sneaky, assassin type.

Xbox360Achievements has updated with the sweet cheevos you'll be earning upon jumping back into the captain's chair of Mass Effect 2's SSV Normandy. Some of these are certainly spoilers, but BioWare has chosen to be purposefully vague with most of them (did you know you'll be "saving your crew from an incoming attack"? No duh), so they won't completely ruin the story with a quick browse.

In fact, there's some fun in speculating just what all these points might portend. What's this "Geth technology" that you'll be obtaining? And who's this mysterious "Assassin" you could be recruiting? It could be anyone!

[Thanks, tmacairjordan87!]