The first images of Dragon Age II have been released by Game Informer, showing off the new graphical style for the first time. Both images feature the game's new protagonist, Hawke, flexing his muscles and slaying darkspawn, trolls ogres, and, well, that's actually it. Just those two. In the first shot, above, it's easy to see that the visuals have been improved quite a bit. While Origins looked good, it certainly didn't attempt to use the power of the current generation to fuel the visuals. Now, it looks right in line with Mass Effect 2, and that's a very, very good thing.

The second image, below, doesn't inspire as much confidence, and appears to be missing something...

Hawke still looks good, that's not the issue, it's just that nothing else in the image seems finished. The troll seems like he's missing a texture or two, and the enemies on the bottom right look like they're taken out of a real-time strategy. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a visual revamp, it's just that the second image seems like it was taken from a different game than the first one was. Hopefully it's just due to the game's early state, since I'd hate to see the dark, gritty visuals of the original game replaced with something that simply doesn't look finished.

Game Informer promises more information soon, and since we're all die-hard Dragon Age fans in the office, you can expect us to relay said news right to your internet.