Dragon Age 2 - Preview @ Joystiq

Joystig has penned a rather detailed preview of this game, based on a hands-on demonstration given by the game's executive producer, Mark Darrah. His comments are included into the preview as well. A couple of examples, first on how the story is organized.

This change isn't just for the sake of the story, but also serves an organizational purpose. Darrah explained that "if you weren't careful in Origins, you could kind of end up in this branching situation where you have 1,000 quests open and it'd be very easy to lose your way." This new act system will give players the freedom to do things within each act, but when an act concludes, it could jump forward a year, sometimes more. This way, it's "easier for the game to stay cohesive," Darrah said.

Here's the second example, telling us how the Rogue will be changed from DA:Origins and why:

The big thing, the problem with the Rogue in Origins was they didn't know what role they were trying to fill," Darrah suggested. "Rogue was sort of half-warrior, half-nothing -- it had some of the same talents as the warrior: You had dual-wielding; you had archery; many of the same things the warrior did. So what we're trying to do here is make sure each of the classes has a distinct personality and purpose." I couldn't directly compare the Rogue to any of the other classes since the Rogue was the only one playable, but its strengths and weaknesses were very clear.