And you enter that insanity to save the Circle Tower in the “Broken Circle” quest line.

My party chose the “Broken Circle” quest line as its first major challenge, and wow did it get the adrenaline flowing. You hook up with the exceptional mage healer Wynne at the base of the Tower, then fight your way through a series of abominations, blood mages, and other monstrosities that have overrun the magi’s home. The ultimate bad guy in this mess, however, won’t go down easy and has other plans for you when you meet up at the top of the Tower. Instead of the expected boss fight, you’re cast into the Fade…alone…your companions scattered and lost in nightmares.

It’ll take all your wits and strength to escape. Separated from your companions, you only have your skills to rely on. In each “island” realm within the Fade, you must navigate through vile creatures and a maze of puzzles to escape the area and get closer to finding your friends.

The Fade is so dangerous, however, that it’s impossible to beat on your own. You need to tap into the Fade’s magic to overcome the obstacles, and since form follows one’s imagination inside the Fade, you have access to special shapeshifting abilities. You’ll shrink to the size of a mouse to crawl through mouse holes, or grow into a huge golem to crash through massive doors. Spirit Form grants you access to ethereal portals, and Burning Man Form allows you to walk through fire. All your shapeshifting forms give you cool, new powers to play with as you explore the Fade and battle its myriad denizens.

You’ll spend hours, maybe days, in the Fade, and you can easily get lost. Fortunately, Prima’s Official Guide to Dragon Age: Origins devotes more than 20 pages to the “Broken Circle” quest, packing in detailed maps, step-by-step walkthroughs of each encounter, locations of every monster and piece of treasure (including special essences that permanently increase your stats!), shapeshifting play tips, and all the info you need to ace the quest from the moment you step foot in the Lake Calenhad Docks to the final battle in the Harrowing Chamber.

My favorite quest might be yours, or you might go nuts for another part of Ferelden. It’s all covered in our Dragon Age Official Strategy (www.DragonAgeWalkthrough.com). Let the Dragon Age’s secrets be yours.

by Mike Searle

Last time: I remembered the great days when visiting Rare involved retinal scans and Great British fry-ups. This time, I pack slightly too few pieces of clothing for a trip up to the Edmonton tundra, to visit the largest mall in the Galaxy. Oh, and Bioware’s Ice palace.

Part 8: Bio-hazards

You take a plane to Seattle. You take another plane to Vancouver, politely smile and waver your constitutional rights away at customs, then stagger to a prop-plane for a spot of tundra-skimming. Then it’s off to the white snow and frigid temperatures of Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Flying there was an interesting experience, as the landscape was pure white. Alas, there’s nothing that you’d call “hills” for hundreds of miles, so skiing was out of the question. I half-expected to spot Steve Buscemi’s mangled foot sticking out of a wood chipper while Peter Stormare gets shot in the leg by a pregnant Frances McDormand out on Moose Lake. But that was the hundreds of miles of white you peered at until your eyes go funny until you reach an approximation of civilization; Endmonton itself.

The place is nice enough, and features the world’s biggest Mall, if you want to take your mind off the -35 degree weather they were having when I sprinted from the taxi to the hotel that Bioware’s offices share, and immediately lost all sensation down the left side of my face. After warming up in the faux-British pub, I wandered through an interior atrium, and into Bioware’s lair. There’s a good deal of turquoise and wood if I remember correctly, and offices stretching around long corridors, interspersed with zones where groups of people work furiously on games; in my case, they were finishing up Jade Empire. The Bioware crew are what you call “dedicated.” Sleeping bags were spotted. One of the team had gout. You don’t get gout by putting in the bare minimum of hours, you know. There’s a great communal room where the latest video games are played, and the coldest pizzas are reheated and eaten. Except when buckets of Chinese are delivered.

I’ve never met a nicer bunch of folks before, and I’ve never had all the moisture in my face sucked out from the time I left my taxi to reaching my hotel. It was a trip full of firsts.

Next time, I step cautiously away from Cliff Bleszinski’s Transformer toy… action figure collection.

Just finished: Touring the Wasteland.

Currently: Touring the Wasteland and noting down interesting locations.

About to: Continue my tour of the Wasteland.