Looking for a particular kind of game ...

[econ21]

They are old, but two that come to mind are Max Payne 2 and Mafia (both were Throne Room recommendations to me, BTW, and not the kind of games I would normally play). I guess you may have played both, but if not...

Max Payne 2 is pretty short. 10-15 hours sounds about right. I found it fun - the "bullet type" shooter gameplay is entertaining, but it is the story-telling that makes it a joy. It is shiny, in the sense that everything seems very polished and well done. It has a lot of style - a film noir feel with interesting surreal touches ("Mirrors are more fun than TV"). It's single player only. The closest on your list to it would be Bioshock. Max Payne has no RPG elements (just a collection of weapons you accumulate) and perhaps has more modest ambitions, although I think it is a better game. I replayed it enough times to unlock the happy ending, which means finishing it about four times more than I play most games.

Mafia is longer than Max Payne 2 but still 15 hours sounds about right; it also has a "novel" like structure with a definite beginning, middle and end. I found it great fun - driving is not something I would think of doing in a game, but I enjoyed it due to the period cars; there are some shooter elements but far fewer than Max and more to my taste (more RPG like than shooter like, in that they have a role to play in the story rather than being the story). But like Max, the main fun to me is the story-telling and this is better than Max's, again because it is more RPG like - you feel you are the protagonist in Mafia, whereas in Max, you feel you are merely viewing him. Shiny ... well, that's harder to say, but yes, I think it is shiny. The voice acting is superb. The mission design is generally excellent, although in a couple of places it is awfully hard so you might have to load up a save to bypass (the car race specifically). Definitely classy - classy like a classic car, classy like the Godfather I and II movies.

Mafia is something I consider to be a great game, so I am not sure it is what you want as a filler. You might have to devote more time to mastering it, depending on your driving skills. Max is more filler material, although also a very good and memorable game.