I just actually started another play-through as a male human noble fighter, probably going reaver/champion, previous one was an female elf mage arcane warrior/blood mage. Game feels a lot easier on the second run through, probably most because I have tactics down now and I know what spells are useful in early game (force field, misdirection hex, cone of cold, etc). I'm definitely going to try to swing to become the ruler of the country this time around, hehe.

Nice to see a review that answers many of the questions I have about the expansion, thanks.
I actually stopped playing DA:O about 2 months ago as I was awaiting some patches to stabilise the game a bit more, then all the hoo-ha started about problems with the 1.03 patch. So I guess I'll be waiting a bit longer before I can get stuck in to the game again.
Your review actually confirms something that I long expected about this 'expansion', namely that it would feel much more rushed than the Origins section. I actually thought Origins was in some ways just an above average game, but with some outstanding polish in some areas which made it raise its head above the crowd. By sticking so strictly to the release date for Awakenings, Bioware would appear to have sacrificed some of that polish simply because they knew it wouldn't be needed to generate acceptable initial sales.
I think I'll take Lou's stance and wait for the price to drop. I mean, it certainly sounds like no Throne of Bhaal. :)

I actually picked up DAO again for a third playthrough. I hope Awakenings makes it worth it :D
Too bad there's no higher difficulty level than Nightmare. I hope Awakenings gives a little challenge when I get to that.

I have my doubts. My only real complaint so far is that Awakening seems to suffer from what I consider 'epic play syndrome'. Basically, you have so many abilities, such powerful epic gear, and such powerful spells/talents that things just aren't as challenging.
Again though, I'll have to play more to really be able to judge it, but this is the initial feel I get for it.

The epic syndrome was arleady at work in the last act of the original game. The entire section of assaulting the city/arch demon was way too easy. Not only did you have a crap load of skills/abilities that made wiping out most foes alreayd easy, they also ratcheted down the difficulty on standard foes by a visible margin. It was actually so drastic that it was noticeable and annoying.

True, Ilves, True.

I don't mind a lack of challenge if the epic is sufficiently epic.

Well in my book Epic is going above and beyond and doing the impossible. In many ways DA:O did that that with you starting as nothing and building an army, new king (or queen or both) on the throne, taking on impossible odds and doing what could not be done (surviving killing the Archdemon). Awakenings doesn't really do that in all honesty. I've done my second playthrough now and I am still not happy with the ending. I know DA:O didn't have a perfect ending just different ways to finish the story but DA:A very much gives you either or but not both.
*spoilers*
No matter what you do with the Architect the ending is not good.
No matter what you do with the deserter the ending is not good.
No matter how you deal with the peasants revolt the ending is not good.

That's so post-modern, yo.

I've always thought that the word 'post-modern' was incredibly stupid. Modern is now, post-modern is the future. You can't do something now that is post-now.

Reminds me of the George Carlin "pre-" rant. ;)

Has anyone noticed the rather obvious goof in Awakenings? Bioware said there was going to be no romance sub-plots and yet both Velanna and Anders can reach 'love' on the approval ratings? Looks like it was cut out to save time. Still can't get over how rushed Awakenings feels.

Will have to get back to you on that one.
Pre ordered Awakenigs, have it installed, but when i fired up DAO to look at Awakenigs, i picked up the playthrough i had going in DAO instead, so i didn't even looked at Awakenings yet ;)

If you have the new patch installed that came with Awakenings then expect CTD a lot. The new patch has made the game very unstable. Oh and don't save the game in Denerim. A few times when I did it caused the save to become corrupted. Leave Denerim to save in the camp and return.

The PatchNotes.txt in the game folder says 1.03. Is that the one ?
Didn't have a single crash or problem saving since i installed Awakenings, and i played around 20 or 25 hours since then. The game does feel sligthly more sluggish in some places thouhg, even if it isn't something persistent, just here and there...