Dragon Age 2 - Preview @ PC Gamer

PC Gamer has a lengthy hands-on of Dragon Age 2 that feels like it was written a while back for the magazine.  Despite feeling a little dated (like the author being shocked at a voiced protagonist), it's a decent read:

Origins’ magic was a pleasure; weighty and powerful there, it’s been buffed further here, maelstroms of psychic energy tearing Darkspawn in half. Bethany fires off an attack at an onrushing ogre, and a seven-foot fist materialises in the mountain air. Opening quickly, it clutches the stricken creature, cradling him for a moment before clenching, squashing the lifeforce from his tubby form. There’s a sickening crack as his massive bones break, before his flesh flickers in the air and he disappears, removed from existence by mystical energies. Combat has got a crunch you didn’t feel in Dragon Age: Origins.

As it should: Bethany’s spells have been levelled up. “You pick fireball as a spell and to start with maybe all it does is damage”, explains Mike Darreth. “Then, rather than spending a point to get a new spell, you might spend some of your points so it sets light to enemies, so there’s damage over time. You’re able to take your favourite spells and deepen them.”

This tech-tree-like system also applies to non-magic abilities, and is intended to buff Origins’ weakest class, the rogue. Darreth describes the issue: “The problem we had in Origins was that the rogue is just a warrior that wears crappy armour. In Dragon Age 2, he feels more mobile, so he’s more about getting in close, doing damage quickly, and getting away.”