Bethesda.
Bioware games may be bulging at the seams with lore and dialog, but it's forced and soulless. It's delivered in huge dumps without style or presentation. There is endless lore and dialog that doesn't really connect to the larger story, and none of it is interesting or exciting. It just doesn't draw me in. It's like the writers understand what 'lore' is but have never read a book before. It's sooo boring. I'm not saying lots of dialog is boring. I am saying Bioware dialog and lore is boring. I can pick up an in-game book in
Oblivion and I can't put it down. None of the lore in
Mass Effect or
Dragon Age ever holds my interest, even in side quests and such. As far as I'm concerned, even something like
The Real Barenziah is way more interesting than most of the lore dumps in Bioware games.
The story choices are also haphazardly designed. How engaging can the story be when you're pretty much just choosing what happens from a list? Either that or just trying to fill your 'Paragon' bar? I wish
Dragon Age: Origins had a linear story that just stuck to the best of the choices. It would have been way more entertaining than "Press A for the bad guy to die". I just think they need to strike some sort of balance so the choices don't undermine the story. Choosing the over-arching story is bad. Choosing how your character engages the story is good.
Bioware games for me have no replayability whatsoever. For all they talk about choice, you actually play exactly the same way every time, no matter what you choose. In
Oblivion, my choices really impact how my character will perform and play. I could just about replay
Elder Scrolls games forever. I love the freedom of the open world. I love that sense of grandeur and exploration and unpredictability that walking down a corridor just can't match. I also love how
Bethesda lets me use my imagination every now and then rather than cramming even more boring words where they don't really enhance the experience. And I love how
Bethesda can create an interesting world with a sense of scale and depth in a way that Bioware apparently just can't.
Finally,
Oblivion has the best modding community and tools ever.
Yes, Bethesda deserves credit for this. It's not like it's something they just lucked into. The open world format and sophisticated, varied game mechanics are rife for mods. This was painstakingly built into the game and official modding tools and totally changes the user experience.
P.S.- While I admit it would be an error to vote for Bethesda solely based on the future potential of
Skyrim, it only makes sense to include what you know about their approach to upcoming titles in your opinion of them as a developer. Plus, it looks sick
.