straight away imported my rogue into awakening. first time i played, i only managed to get to wending wood before i met a glitch that caused my imba daggers x2 to go missing permanently from the game :C so i had to restart. but of course restarting made lots of things go onto the right track as compared to the first try, like successfully getting the sentinel massive armor set (the gheyest armor set for a tank, or even a warrior) and upgrading the vigil's keep walls to unlock yet another hard-to-earn achievement.

one of the most rewarding side quests available, battling this maginifcent looking electrically-charged high dragon: the Queen of the Blackmarsh


the limited depth within dungeons also made it a quick game to complete, as it can be finished in a day's sitting. i nearly did that if not for spending a whole afternoon reading up and discovering how to make paragon runes for my items near the end of the game, just to discover i had to stop at grandmaster level for some due to some issues about the upgrading of the keep which i plan to find out in my next visit to vigil's keep with another hero.

although the expansion had many parts that are much weaker than its main story, it is still must-play for all who have enjoyed Dragon Age Origins. the area that surprised me more than i expected would be the new skills and specializations that were introduced, which we can only start accessing from lvl 20. i tried a few, namely: guardian, shadow warrior, shadow and keeper. alot of the new specs revolve around improved defenses, like keeper, legionnaire scout, guardian and so on, not to mention the extra skills in some of the mainstream schools that also spawned new interesting skills like flicker for my scout. i became an immediate fan of this skill once i tried it. basically it allows you to blink automatically to the back of all enemies in an area (area abt as large as inferno or tempest) and backstab them. amazing graphics and for some mobs, i cleared everything in juz one skill lol, especially if i on shadow form at the start of combat, which increases my backstan damage by about ONE HUNDRED with its dedicated passive ability. i din try out alot of the defensive specs though, since my party was geared towards dps, so i have yet to experience the gheyness of skills in legionnaire scout or battlemage, but oh well, seeing the imba skills i did so far, i am quite sure these specs have alot to offer as well.

overall, the game is too fast-paced for us fans to really experience the adventure once again or at a whole new level, but the nice new skills are definitely fan-service. so if you think your character is already damn ghey in origins, then you definitely have not seen the monstrosity he/she can wow you with yet. haha, so its still fun to try it, but juz dun expect as much interaction and depth. wad it definitely did was change me into a battle-hungry berserk ravager that clawed thru the 3 mother lair maps ignoring all loots and charging at Mama straight. oh yes, and i felt it was too easy in the middle of the game and changed the difficulty setting to highest (nightmare), but actl i still din feel the change. mother was still so crisp when i trigger the unending flurry lolx...

kk.. i shall go try a 2hand warrior on nightmare difficulty now :) and i muz succeed in becoming king with queen anora this time round, ciao.