What's your favourite Bioware RPG franchise?

What's your favourite Bioware RPG franchise?

  • Baldur's Gate

    Votes: 72 43.6%
  • Neverwinter Nights

    Votes: 24 14.5%
  • Star Wars

    Votes: 10 6.1%
  • Jade Empire

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mass Effect

    Votes: 28 17.0%
  • Dragon Age

    Votes: 9 5.5%
  • I can't choose

    Votes: 10 6.1%
  • I don't do franchises

    Votes: 2 1.2%
  • I don't like Bioware

    Votes: 10 6.1%

  • Total voters
    165
Easy vote for Baldurs Gate.
I have spent more time in BG than all the other games together even if I liked them all, before the age of EA that is.
 
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BG, but I enjoyed NWN for what it is/was and wouldn't mind seeing them revisit that, and enjoy the dragon age games even if BioWare has pretty much become a console first developer with DA and ME.
 
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Well, not Jade Empire. That was fun but not nearly as fun as the others.

Beyond that, I have no clue. Minsc was great... but lightsabers! DA:Origins had the best ethical dilemmas... but Mordin!

P.S. Still wishing for a Jade Empire 2 with a lot more fighting-game mechanics for the battle system.
 
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BG is the only franchise of theirs that matters to me. (although these days I consider it to be more like "Inherited By Beamdog Franchise")

After DA2, as well as ME2 & 3, and as the last nail in the coffin: Origin, Bioware has pretty much ceased to exist for me as a "viable source of computer entertainment".
 
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I can`t choose. It is like asking a parent which of his child he likes more.
I really liked BG2 and specially Throne of Bhaal.
KOTOR is fantastic (KOTOR 2 is from Obsidian) . The twist on the first game was unexpected and a pleasant surprise for me.
Neverwinter 2 (also from Obsidian) was amazing, specially I liked the Crossroad Keep, and even the expansions where great.
The universe and the lore of both, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, is superb. The only other fantasy universes (in games) that can compete with them is Tamriel (The Elder Scrolls) and The Continent (The Witcher).
 
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I am not sure what to vote here.First Mass effect is my favorite bioware game but franchise got slightly worse with every sequel, my second favorite would be KotOR but second sequel was developed by Obsidian and I hated MMO.Baldur's gate is consistently great but it doesn't reach as high as first Mass effect or KotOR for me.
Baldur's gate have enough bots already so I will go for Mass effect.
 
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Mass Effect because I had the most fun playing it and because I'd like there to be more science fiction rpg's like it. I loved the setting.
 
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Why did "franchise" ever spread out of business talk? Can't we, normal people, use the normal word, "series"?

Anyway, I'm a happy video-game consumer today, very excited to see that Baldur's Gate™ is still recognized as the best BioWare Corp.™ interactive experience franchise even if its production values can't compare to today's products. :)
 
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BG was an excellent series but to me bettered by NWN, the first one that is. That was bettered by DA so I've gone with DA.

Mass Effect is also very good and probably sits just ahead of NWN IMO.

Probably close to 1000 hours on those 4 series though and I haven't finished Inquisition yet.
 
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Why did "franchise" ever spread out of business talk? Can't we, normal people, use the normal word, "series"?

Anyway, I'm a happy video-game consumer today, very excited to see that Baldur's Gate™ is still recognized as the best BioWare Corp.™ interactive experience franchise even if its production values can't compare to today's products. :)

It's interesting that you bring this up as I had lots of word choices going through my mind when I was thinking how to phrase the question (including "game-engine" as one poster postulated). For the word "series" the problem is that Bioware didn't actually develop all the games in all the series - Beamdog is now associated with 'new' fans of Balder's Gate, Obsidian made the sequels to Star Wars and Neverwinter and a large factor for both Star Wars and Neverwinter is non-series related material such as either the MMO or Built-in modding programmes (which Bioware can't take credit for specific mods, but they can take credit for providing that facility so marvelously in the first place). By using just the word series you open up a different can of pedantry.

By using the word franchise it allows for all the supplemental material to be included without delving too deeply in the pedantry of the question. It's amusing that you have chosen to find pedantry by means of a subjective desire to randomly hate a form of wording , I'm not sure what can be done about that. You probably hate the overuse of the word "random" as well…? :wow:
 
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As good as BG series is I gave my vote to NWN series due to the modding scene. You get the most bang for your buck out of the mods and persistent worlds. I hope another CRPG with modding potential like this comes out soon.
 
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As good as BG series is I gave my vote to NWN series due to the modding scene. You get the most bang for your buck out of the mods and persistent worlds. I hope another CRPG with modding potential like this comes out soon.

Agreed
 
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Star Wars for me, though Neverwinter Nights is a very close second - because of the fantastic multiplayer implementation.

Baldur's Gate was great for its time, but I have no idea why people are still so excited by it. In terms of genre evolution and writing, I think it pales completely when you compare it to some of their other games.

That said, I never got very far in BG2 - and I guess somewhere in that game is where the magic happens.
 
It's easy if I only consider the Bioware Games: Baldur's Gate. It's the only Bio Game I replay from time to time (heavily modded of course).

NWN would be on the second place. NWN 1 would probably still be fun with lots of Mods and with some good Roleplayers in Mulitplayer Mode.

While I also still play some NWN 2 Mods, the Game is created by Obsidian (and I play it more out of boredom then out of enjoyment).
 
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Mass Effect here. I'm an old timer, played through all oldschool sagas, and none of them had me so impacted, feeling like I had real loss when a character died for good as part of the story as Mass Effect did.

Baldur's Gate had good storytelling, but it's eons away from Mass Effect in its ability to really make the player feel as if she was the protagonist.

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.
 
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