Bethesda, BioWare, or Obsidian?

[Laddy]

Who is best?

I'll create a list of pros/cons, and who I think is best in a bit. Until then, let us argue!

[Futan]

Voted Bethesda. Bioware has sucked lately and I'm not really too familiar with Obsidian. If you asked around the time Dragon Age: Origins came out, would've said Bioware.

[Psychotic]

Has to be Obsidian. The writing and design talent they have is insane. I have a mancrush on Josh Sawyer.

[Laddy]

Here's a summary of my opinions on each company

Bethesda
Titles: Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3
Strengths: Huge budgets, amazing at creating large and sprawling worlds, high production values in their games, consistent quality.
Weaknesses: Relatively light on satisfying RPG elements, unspectacular writing and stories for an RPG, lack of original franchises.

Bioware
Titles: Mass Effect, Dragon Age
Strengths: Good production values, excellent at cinematic presentation, competent to good writing, games are very polished.
Weaknesses: Declining quality, dumbing-down of RPG mechanics, last few games are either too simplistic and/or clearly sequels.

Obsidian
Titles: Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2
Strengths: Very talented dev team, excellent writing and plots, has deepest RPG mechanics, more franchises and licenses.
Weaknesses: Lowest budgets, games severely lack polish, games make significantly less money.

Overall, Obsidian is my favorite. Fallout: New Vegas is the best RPG (and maybe even game) of the generation. A real masterpiece and landmark in the genre. They have the most talented development team of the three (Josh Sawyer is extremely underrated in the industry), the best writers in the industry, and seem to have the deepest and most rewarding RPG gameplay. Plus, they created a Kickstarter to make a deliberately old-school RPG for fans of the classics.

Bethesda is still good, but seriously lacks in the storytelling and writing department, plus their RPG elements are relatively simplistic. Bioware used to be amazing, but they've become cash cows now, selling out their franchises to cater to an increasingly formula-loving market. Plus, a lot of their more talented people are jumping ship.

EDIT: Josh Sawyer is seriously sexy as smurf. He sings, he acts, he loves cats, he plays chess, and he's the best RPG designer in the industry.

[Shoeberto]

I think Laddy summed it up for me. Obsidian has knocked it out of the park on everything they've released in recent years in spite of tight budgets. Bethesda games are huge but shallow and EA has done a number on Bioware. Obsidian is just this little-studio-that-could, taking on all kinds of interesting projects and making them way more awesome than their premise would otherwise imply. Love 'em.

[Laddy]

And all is now right.

[Pike]

I'm leaning towards Obsidian but to be honest RPGs aren't my genre forte the way they are for Laddy or some of you other guys. I'm also a sucker for Bethesda just because I like Elder Scrolls lore. xD

[Laddy]

Elder Scrolls lore is indeed the best part of the series, and Tamriel is one of the best established worlds in gaming.

EDIT: Oh trout I have it. What would happen if Obsidian made an Elder Scrolls game? Good things would happen, that's what.

[Aulayna]

They're all equal.

Their flaws and strengths pretty much balance out.

Now if the 3 of the merged into one mega company and drank from the creative mojo juice fountain then... well... my mind is happy just thinking of the possibilities.

#copoutanswer

[Bahamut2000X]

Bioware would be on there, but DA2, ME3, and SWTOR, and it's become apparent any talent of theirs either quit or is being crushed by EA. So I can no longer consider them a good company, and considering how poorly they have done I in fact pretty well consider them quickly becoming one of the worst game developers of all time. So let this be a lesson to you kiddies, EA will destroy your company like no tomorrow.

[nirojan]

I voted for Bethesda.

Interesting 3rd choice. I'd think Blizzard or CD Prjekt Red would be a better candidate than Obsidian. The former Black Rock studios would definitely have been an option, but even with the exodus of former employees that formed Obsidian, they've never quite managed to captured my attention (and my gaming dollars) the way the old studio did.

[Laddy]

Don't you mean Black Isle?

I didn't include Blizzard because it only has WoW and Diablo, which are different then the types of games we're discussing. And while the Witcher is indeed awesome, CD Projekt Red has only developed three games so far.

[Quindiana Jones]

Really? What's the third?

[Laddy]

It's a Cyberpunk RPG coming out the next year, so two. However, if they continue being as great as they are, they could definitely be the company to beat.

Also, Capcom (with Dragon's Dogma) and Namco (with Demon's/Dark Souls) are doing pretty well in the WRPG department, so I'm interested in what they can do with their respective franchises.

EDIT: Obsidian is winning. EoFF is officially a cool place.

[Quindiana Jones]

I loved Dragon's Dogma to an almost embarrassing degree, in spite of it's enormous, widespread and normally game-breaking flaws.