I had actually already forgotten how huge disappointment NWN was back in the day, so I voted DA2.
I had high hopes for DA:O, but it didn't live up to the high expectations. It was OK, but not even close to the old Bioware.
I do enjoy the game a lot. Why was a disappointment? I take it this is american thing.
Are you referring to NWN or DA:O? Both games were disappointing in their own ways. NWN was simply a huge letdown after BG2. It didn't have the large party of awesome NPCs I'd come to appreciate. Quite honestly the only class I could tolerate playing in NWN was the Druid since as a druid I had a familiar and could summon an extra monster to fight alongside me. So this way I artificially created a party of 4. It's pathetic, I know, but without the companions the world just felt so utterly pointless and hollow. While I was playing NWN I constantly wanted to start replaying BG2 for the tenth time instead.
DA:O was marketed to be spiritual successor to the old Bioware games. So I hopped into the hype train. I actually absolutely hated the marketing campaign of DA:O - the blood, gore and sex was nothing like the epic fantasy of the Baldur's Gate series. I mean that's what they wanted to recreate, right? That's what they promised to bring back? The setting and enemies in DA:O were also a huge letdown. I wanted the world to be persistent and cohesive, filled with different exotic (and yet familiar) races and monsters. I dun't even remember the name of the main bad guys in DA:O and don't care enough to google it - they were just orcs but more ugly and dumb. You could never negotiate or try to avoid combat with them like you could in BG. Enemies that are absolutely evil are never interesting to begin with.
I hated how in DA:O you're immediately pushed into the role of the savior and herded you to prevent the doomsday scenario. You are always the most important character in the room - you were constantly referred to as The Gray Warden and everyone knew who you were. In Baldur's Gate, up until the very end of TOB, you were never the most important character in the room! This point is so fucking important I want to shout it out loud! This is what makes Fallout, Morrowind, PS:T, Wizardry 8 and so many other RPGs so great. You are a tiny spec in a vast, logical and consistent world, and you have to work hard to make a difference in those worlds. This was not the case with DA:O.
There were a lot of other problems with DA:O: it was too heavily focused on combat, health and MP regenerated automatically after combat etc. I can't even remember all the problems I had with DA:O. The origin stories were great and companions were interesting, but I just lost the will to play after about 10-15 hours.
And no, I'm not American. Thank God.