btw, anyone gonna make a morrigan CM character in oblivion?..little hut with morrigan and flemmeth would rock (of course, if your going to do that, you would have course need the proper wild mage robes of morrigan, and hmm...is there shapeshifting magic already in the mods? time to check

DAO is more than anything else a game by bioware. And the dialogues and character designs show this every single second. But right after that, it is a group-based rpg, and I hate that! I try to love this game, some of the dialogues are so great, I just connot leave DAO behind just because of its gameplay. But I hate having to pause and check 4 different characters for suitable attacks and only 10 seconds later I am doing the same thing again and again. I want one character to focus on, I dont care about these other guys, you can come along but you better be smart yourself! It worked in mass effect, but its not working here. I honeslty tried to love this game...

Also, I found the thing that made me keep reloading DAO was the random interactions partners would have with other partners or noting the surroundings...some real good laughs with morrigan and allistar bickering in the backround...and if a game makes me randomly laugh, that certainly becomes memorable.

Dragon Age Origins.. Maybe the best game I had the pleasure to play in my entire life.

What makes this game so special is that Bioware's target was player's emotions, something missing from Oblivion or Fallout 3. They developed that great in game cinematic system that totally lights up your dialogs/combat/gameplay, by making it more cinematic, emotional, and eventually personal.

What DA lucks is the feeling of exploration, and definately a better engine and graphics.
Exploration: There's no such a thing if you are able to run around a map in less than 30 seconds.
The engine: Really small levels without serious data to manipulate but still DA requires the very last drop of PC or console power your system can give.

Oblivion is not gon'a die because of Dragon age simply because DA is not able to give the feeling of "freedom" TES IV does... But...
Bethesda should consider making their future games more "personal" and emotional just like Bioware did with Dragon Age: Origins.

The factor of being able to have companions (as a part of a vanilla game) and actually have a decent dialog with them was something to be noticed. Not just "Follow me"/Return to your Duties" crap. Those virtual NPCs made the main quest in DA more important, simply because you were not just fighting to save the world but also those little friends of yours.
Romance was another strong factor of DA's success. And I'm not talking about the sexual part, I'm talking about the fact that, Bioware were able to make the player caring about a virtual npc for the Nine Devines's sake!
Morrigan for example is considered as one of the most memorable game characters of all times. That has something to say. Graphics and open ended enviroments is not what makes a great game.