So I finally finished Dragon Age Origins. I've been playing it since it came out, on and off. During that time I played Mass Effect 2. The similarities between the two were obvious. Both were story driven, moral choice-heavy games. But the main similarities come from the simple line of: "You're facing a bad guy, go get some teammates." 
 
Mass Effect saw you maybe due two or three missions for Cerberus before giving you optional "side" quests to help out each squad member, and in-turn gain their loyalty. You will soon to find that after you finish the optional squad quests, you only have about 3 or so more missions for Cerberus. I was pretty disappointed by Mass Effect at the end when I realized the ENTIRE GAME is just helping out squad members. At first I thought it would be a nice addition, but by the end I realized that i spent probably 75% of my playing time just doing squad missions. I understand that the characters of Mass Effect are deep and these missions help you realize the complexity of each squad member, but in the end, these missions are optional. Wth? Why are the optional missions making up the majority of the game? 
 
Dragon Age on the other hand, sees you completing tasks for different "clans" or "groups" so that they may aid you in the final battle against the Darkspawn. Up until you get these missions to enlist the other clans, you play a little bit. You experience you're characters back story, and their introduction (While in Mass Effect youre back-story is basically summed up in a cut-scene). Enlisting these clans is not "optional" and is actually required. But the depth of each of these quests was amazing. You are constantly given new choices to make that could greatly effect your outcome. Once the clans are enlisted, you get bit more missions until your final confrontation. 
 
In the end, I feel Bioware did a much better job with Dragon Age rather than Mass Effect (in terms of gameplay, i hardly ever play Dragon Age-esque games). I felt after I enlisted each clan in Dragon Age I had about 4 more hours of main story missions before the final battle. While Mass Effect you only get about another 1 or hour and a half worth of missions until you face the final boss.  
 
Mass Effect's story felt compressed and lazy to me, while Dragon Age was much better thought out and truly deserves its title of "A Dark Fantasy Epic".    

" @j_drace: i meant the missions with the dwarves, circle of magi, and the elves. the reason you did those missions was FOR the main story, while a mission you do for miranda or thane is not FOR the main mission rather, just an independent story. im just not used to the side quests (the loyaltly missions in mass effect) being the majority of the game. 
@HatKing: indeed. both of these are extremely high quality games. Bioware never ceases to make masterpieces. (rhymed ;)) "

I actually really like ME2's approach to its story, in that it was a significant departure from what i expected. It was more of a heist movie than space opera -- specialist gets recruited for a job, goes out and recruits a getaway driver, safe-cracker, tech nerd, femme fatale, etc., then he does the job. Boom. Done.