I'm fighting a High Dragon in Dragon Age Origins. This feels good, man. It's an optional boss that appears as part of the main quest (I won't go into details because of spoilers, but one of the bosses drops a horn that can be used to call it). What's great is that it's not like most bosses in games. It isn't designed to be challenging but beatable. If you get the horn, waltz out, and summon it without being prepared, it'll wreck your shit.
I like this, it's refreshing. Too many games are afraid to kick the player's ass these days.
I also really like these "Codex Quests," which is just what I call them. Sometimes you'll come across an item that comes with a codex entry and when you read the codex it has hints that there's more to this item's story. It's great, because they're not official quests. There's no tracker, no log entry, no leading you by the nose. That's also refreshing.
I can't believe I spent all this time indignantly refusing to play Dragon Age because of some silly quarrel with EA or something.
All of that being said, it still follows the BioWare format to the letter. From humble beginnings, surprise attack, join an elite society, four main quests which can be done in any order, very binary morality (somewhat less so in this game, a lot of the decisions are actually pretty gray, both sides having very strong merit. I've spent several minutes contemplating some of these choices. Did I mention I love this game?), 2/3 or so of the game wrapped up in character interaction and optional areas so if you just rush through the main quest you'll beat it in ten hours and it'll be really disappointing. BioWare's a one-trick pony, but it's a great trick so I'll forgive them.