usernamenumber | ...in which I ramble fanboyishly about Bioware

This post started as a ramble that ended up at a question, which I'm going to move to the of this post for the sake of tl;dr types:

The question:
Anticipating the wait for Dragon Age 3, what non-Bioware game has the best NPCs and NPC interactions, in y'all's opinions? Haz, Noah, Paul, others?

The Ramble:
There's a thread on Polygon about romance plots in Bioware games, and... oh man, just realizing how many feels (yeah, I said "feels") I've got about those games. It also reminds me, in case I forgot to crow about it earlier: if you play the Mass Effect series and don't play the Citadel DLC, you're missing out on what I think might be the best thing Bioware's done. Whoever was in charge of it really gets what I like about these games. Example: when you defeat the big bad, that's not the end, because the climax/reward isn't winning the fight, it's the big, talky, flirty, potentially ill-advised-hookup-y party you have with all your NPCs afterward. And then James made breakfast for everyone. Also, Traynor saved the universe with her toothbrush. <3!

...also, the "The Long Road" quest from DA2, where you help Aveline awkwardly flirt with the object of her affections, is quite possibly my favorite (ok, maybe second favorite after Citadel) bit from any Bioware game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvbS3dmAiGY

Translation: I think it might be possible to describe my favorite type of game as "dating sims with combat". Well, "dating sim" makes my preference sound more romance-oriented than I mean-- we never romanced Garrus, but the "target practice" scene in ME3 still got me all verklempt, and that's another thing I love about Bioware games: they make an effort to create deep characters and real relationships with or without the romance option.

And yes, everyone in the world has already recommended the Persona games to me upon hearing this. Having recently acquired a cheap used PS3, I may actually look into this now, my usual annoyance with linear jRPGs notwithstanding.

But I digress.

Anyway, M and I still haven't finished ME3, and I know the ending only by reputation (no spoilers, please!), so... bracing myself, both for a potentially disappointing climax and for no more Bioware dates for a while. Still, my gf and I have Bioware dates, and how friggin cool is that? <3 :)