Neverwinter nights 2 wasn't made by Bioware though
You're right, I played so much NWN that the bioware logo is burned into my brain. I'm not a fan of Obsidian either, by the way.
Yeah. Obsidian is good at making stories and pathways with many winding twists and turns. They just aren't good at making games. I hate to say it but I think Bethesda is the best bet for a quality RPG game out there. Although maybe the opinion of Bethesda has changed since Skyrim to one of awe, but I remember Oblivion and that game was a barrel of monkeys. This is why I GM.
I also like From Software. Dark Souls and Demon Souls are fucking awesome. I don't care how Japanese they are, how hard they are, how difficult the interface is, THEY ARE SO PRETTY!! And pretty epic too.
At first I was a bit hesitant to call them RPGs, but I have to admit the Souls series channels the spirit of old-school AD&D DMs who would show up in mittens, a hood, pig tail socks, and a stack of twenty cloaks and convince the group that running Tomb of Horrors is a good idea. Obsidian/Black Isle always struck me as the group most trying to replicate the PnP feel. Bioware reminds me of an insecure, first-time 4E DM who segregates his game into combat zones, dialog zones, dance zones, and cutscenes, and Bethesda, while an overall respectable developer, seems entirely too fixated on AI and procedural content despite being terrible at coding AI and procedural content. I try not to think too much about a concrete definition of cRPG, though, as it always ends up either too inclusive ("Halo is an RPG") or exclusive ("SS13 is the only cRPG").
There's a pretty good summary of what went wrong with the ending
here. I find it kind of funny that it's not until a week after release (where all publications scream "11/10 GOTYAY BUYBUYBUY") that game critics realize they actually need to mention the flaws of a work to avoid people getting wise to their antics.
At least people are finally realizing that expecting ethics or journalistic integrity from game media is like expecting Lucy to let you kick the football.