The Ultimate Edition had been out for about a week when I had monies to buy my second round of PS3 games, so I got to have Awakening and all the DLC in one purchase. I can't love Cookie enough for letting me know that it was about to be released the first time I went shopping.
I didn't use him either, except for right when you leave Orzammar to find Branka. After that, he stayed in camp until the final battle, when he was left at the gates.
He's more useful in Awakening, considering your choices are limited. At least towards the beginning. I think I had about 12-13 hours by the end of it, then I went back and re-completed the last quest to get a different ending and such. All the other things are much, much shorter, but I would recommend Awakening if you liked the original. It's fairly interesting.
Except I was queen. And no one seemed to care, or even notice.
