Dhruin
SasqWatch
The first actual hands-on article for Awakening is up at GameSpot. After the intro, they delve into a description of the early gameplay, so some might see this as spoiler territory. With that in mind, here's a generic feature quote:
More information.BioWare suggests that Awakening isn't about one new whiz-bang feature that totally changes the gameplay, but rather, about offering more of what fans seem to care about most--a deep story with memorable characters and real consequences for the choices you make. The expansion is being developed by the same team of writers, designers, and artists that created the original game, but it will offer plenty of new stuff to play with, including six new characters to join your party, new elite character classes, tons of new high-level skills, an expanded level cap up to level 35, and more than 500 new items, including new, higher tiers of weapons and armor for your adventuring party.