KotOR 2 ranks higher than the first KotOR in my book mostly because of the excellent characterization (Kreia, especially), the real moral choices posed to the player (often transcending the simple "I'm a goodie two-shoes"/"I shoot you and rob your corpse" dichotomy found in many other RPGs), and a superior all-around story (less, "holy crap Star Wars!" and more, "hey, let's explore some themes that exist in spite of the SW universe.") The only thing really wrong with it is the ending, but seeing as they conceived and designed the entire game in less than a year thanks to pressure from the publisher, the designers can hardly be faulted for that.
I haven't played Mass Effect yet, but it's high on my list.
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
