Apparently no one can go online with Origin, on PC or PS4 (haven't heard about Xbox yet). answers.ea.com and signin.ea.com are also both down or not responding to http requests.
The EA servers seem to clearly be the problem. DDoS? One has to wonder.
The Origin Server Status page says everything is up, however, a tweet from the Origin twitter account:
"EA is currently experiencing an outage. EA games, services & support may be impacted. We’re working to resolve as fast as possible."
Announcement + small interview: http://www.dragonage.com/en_US/news/darkspawn-announcement
Official 'trailer': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47QDHI54iN8
You can tell if there will be darkspawn in a zone if you hear growling after the intro speech (no new intro speech for darkspawn).
PSA: You have to download the free DLC as it does not auto-patch it to your game for this weekend challenge to work.