I dunno. I was never a big fan of Bulder's Gate 2, but here I am a huge fan of Dragon Age. I voted that it didn't surpass BG because i never played the first so maybe I missed something. If you're trying to figure out if it's a pretender, i don't think you should worry about it.

The game has flaws but it is certainly the best RPG purchase I've made in a while. Is it worthy of the praises it's getting? ("RPG of the decade"?) No. But it is worthy of praise imho.