DA2 was great in theory. Everything about it sounds great on paper. The execution was potentially the worst possibly imaginable though. Characters that were just as stereotypical, but with fantasy races slapped on them instead. Samey maps everywhere. Stupidly simplistic "Mash the A button" combat, outside 1 or 2 cheese encounters filled with an army of mini stuns, story twists that made no sense throughout the game... It had some great ideas that could have made it better than Origins. As is, I'll take the brilliantly executed though still flawed Origin's over DA2s mess any day.
But, on to the main point of the thread;
Mass Effect 1. While yes its a darling in many people's eyes at the time, these days most ME fans tend to look down on it as too clunky to be enjoyabel. I was actually amazed the first time I played the game. Combat never bothered me, it was fine, functional and at times still fun. At least it wasn't GoW in space like 2 and 3, that was disappointing. It also had a concept of range. Sniping enemies from 3Km away so I don't have to engage with shotgun Krogans was great. You could take more than 5 hits, which was awesome too. The worlds had continuity, and there were - outside of space travel - no loading screens. If you got somewhere, it was you that got there.
Inventory wasn't that bad. Yeah, it could have used some UI improvements, but overall it worked and didn't exactly detract from the game. Mako was fun. It didn't handle that badly, and it didn't die faster than Shepard on foot either [Goddamn Hammerhead].
It was internally consistent for the most part, made sense for the most part, and had excellent attention to detail. It was the last even semi-real RPG Bioware made [Or was Origins released afterwards?], and Bioware suck at making action games.
Even now, when I want to play Mass Effect, its ME1. Never finished a second playthrough of 3, it was just so poorly made. 2 I've done maybe 5 playthroughs of, because it isn't offensively bad, and has its good moments, but its mostly just bland and mediocre, but 1? Well over 20 runs. And every time I play it I enjoy it just as much.
Moving outside Bioware as that is the largest focus of this thread, Spore. You heard me, fucking Spore. I didn't follow it all that closely before release, so I wasn't expecting miracles. Yeah, its evolution ain't entirely accurate. Yeah, I wish it had an ocean stage. Yeah, the space stage is really grindy and samey. It isn't the deepest experience. Things like the vehicle designer don't make a ton of sense. Know what though? I still loved it for what it was. It was relaxing to play. It was great being able to follow the evolution of my creatures, find lots of parts and such, create cool looking creatures, unify my species, the local area, the planet. Running into problems and deciding how to solve them. Facing off challenges like Titans in the creature stage. There was a lot to do and it was genuinely enjoyable. I don't play it if I'm looking for an extremely polished, deep, traditional game, I play it when I want to relax and have fun in a cool cartoon world. I honestly wish they would make a Spore 2 some day. Fix up a lot of the problems in the original, and release it. Spore as is though? Still love it, though I can understand why many don't.