NWN was really good, Mass Effect kept me busy for a while but I got bored soon. Never played Baldur's Gate tough, I missed when it was released. I tried this year but could not get into it.
Wow, tough crowd in general. But I tend to agree in part. If you look at all these games without some silly mist of nostalgia, you will recognise that the old style games..even the much vaunted Planescape:Torment..of which I am a fan..is ACTUALLY light years away from the deeper emotional exploration of many later Bioware games. ME is a bit of an anomaly that splits fans into fantasy and anything that is not fantasy groups. And then you have to consider each game as a product of its time..or DO you? I think not. DA is unquestionably the best game IF you can factor out nostalgia, EA takovers (and subsequently the whole Origin debacle), and the introduction of that nefarious DISEASE - the DLC. Then there is that problematic word "franchise" again..whilst DA2 and DAI each have their merits..neither comes close to the full version of the original and its expansion. And yet everything I have written here is about a single player experience…and for that reason I stand by my original vote of NWN.
N.B. You really should keep in mind that every modern Bioware game comes with prejudice before it first leaves the shelf due to the weight of expectation and hype laid upon it. This expectation will, in turn, colour your own appraisal.
DA is unquestionably the best game IF you can factor out nostalgia, EA takovers (and subsequently the whole Origin debacle), and the introduction of that nefarious DISEASE - the DLC.
I think Jade Empire is middling at best.
I'll pick I can't choose as I never played a BioWare game I didn't like. Anyway not many RPG developers can claim to have been in business for twenty years like BioWare.
I probably spend around 10k hours working on NwN modules, scripts, etc..
There will probably never be another game like it in regards to flexibility and ease of creation. You could literally design your own world.