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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!]

Hey, Star Wars: The Old Republic, you know what other MMOs are doing right now? They're helping with the harvest and aren't hanging out on Tatooine down at Toshi Station, wasting time with their friends and checking out all of the power converters for sale. They're adult MMOs who understand the need for a few helpful hands to repair the units in the South Ridge. They aren't zooming around in their landspeeder, checking out the scummy alleys of Mos Eisley or stopping by Uncle Owen's farm for a friendly chat about that crazy coot Old Ben Kenobi -- not like you.

So go ahead, have fun zipping around the dunes and avoiding the Sarlacc Pits, while we're over here wearing the big boy pants, behaving like adults.

In a recent interview with CVG, BioWare producer Adrien Cho assured that the plan isn't to jettison Mass Effect 2 into the deep, dark retail space without some form of continued support. According to Cho, some of the core development team has already moved on to creating DLC for the game, which could range from new items, including weapons and armor, to side quests that might even build "up to full expansion packs." Cho added that the team has more flexibility to create DLC for the sequel than it did for the first game, explaining that add-on content "was always on our radar from day one."

It sounds like BioWare has big plans for Mass Effect 2 DLC. That is, it sounds like the plans are a bit more sophisticated than the original Mass Effect's DLC strategy: "release completely broken, partially inaccessible DLC without telling anybody about its existence."

With the game set to ship out on January 26, EA held one last hands-on sneak preview of Mass Effect 2 on Wednesday night in San Francisco. We were there, of course, intrigued by an invitation that promised we'd learn what something called "Project Lazarus" was -- as it turned out, it's a crucial part of the game's plot that makes an appearance in the first 20 minutes.

We know that because -- save for some optimizations here and there -- we played the first hour-and-a-half of a finished Mass Effect 2, from the title screen until being politely informed that we were about to enter forbidden plot territory. Which is surprising, considering that the opening of the game, apart from being one of the most dramatic we've witnessed in recent memory, is also chockablock with pretty huge plot twists.

That said, we must warn you that the preview after the break contains what some may consider MAJOR SPOILERS -- so if you want the beginning of the game and the surprises it holds to remain unrevealed until launch day, seriously ... don't read any further.

Gallery: Mass Effect 2 (12-17-09)

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After Mass Effect 2 lead gameplay designer Christina Norman walked us through the Engineer class and it's sanguinary droid last week, we were wondering how BioWare could possibly appeal to our inner tactician any more. It appears that the developer sought to do just that with this week's introduction to the Sentinel.

Skilled in both biotic skills (thats space magic, folks) and tech abilities, Norman says the Sentinel is "the only class that can blast through any enemy's defenses ... with or without your squad backing you up." With only a handful of weeks left before the game's January 26 release date, it won't be long before we get to find out exactly how adept the Sentinel is for ourselves.

Snagged from IGN's "Ultimate Holiday Videogame Guide" comes this Mass Effect 2 cinematic trailer ... well, teaser trailer may be more accurate. While the above video shares nearly a minute and a half of delicious cinematic video (read: this isn't in-game, folks) the end promises the "full-length trailer" will premier on Xbox Live on December 22, just a few days before ecksmas.

So you can take "Mass Effect 2 cinematic trailer" off your wishlist and bump up "Mass Effect 3 cinematic trailer."

[Via Kotaku; thanks, tmacairjordan87]

Mass Effect 2 is bound to have some recognizable actors, what with 90 actors voicing 546 characters with 31,000 lines of dialogue. EA revealed today that the cast includes ... oh, by Grabthar's hammer, here's the list:

• Martin Sheen (Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez's dad) -- Illusive Man commanding Cerberus
• Shohreh Adhdashloo (sexy voice lady from FlashForward) -- Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay
• Seth Green (hand in your geek card if you don't know) -- Joker
• Yvonne Strahovski (wiener lady, lust of Chuck) -- Miranda Lawson
• Adam Baldwin (a man named Jayne... or the man they call Jayne) -- Kal 'Reegar
• David Keith Keith David (Halo's Arbiter) -- Admiral David Anderson
• Michael Dorn (Star Trek TNG's Worf) -- Gatatog Uvenk
• Tricia Helfer (2020 Oscar winner after people stop treating her like meat) -- EDI, voice of the "new Normandy"
• Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh) -- Captain Bailey
• Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity from The Matrix, singular, no sequels exist -- especially not Revolutions) -- Aria T'Loak

We also can't forget Jennifer Hale, who is reprising her role as the real Commander Shepard, nor Mark Meer, the male Shepard and known expert at cutting the council off at weird times.

Already a great game, Dragon Age: Origins is getting incrementally better as BioWare just announced Patch 1.02 for its sprawling RPG. None of the fixes contained within the new download are huge -- more tweaks than anything -- but if you've found, say, dagger damage to be a bit low when using a character with high dexterity, or if you're plagued by too many health poultices, this patch should please you.

In addition to a long list of minor cross-platform fixes, there's an extra list of fixes that it makes to the PC version. This corrects one problem that could be a big deal: "Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs." Celebrate by playing the main campaign -- and then saving!

[Thanks, Samuel!]