Good RPGs

[Fragony]

Planescape: Torment if you haven't already, awesome deep story and solid gameplay. Was obsessed with the sinister gameworld and story while it lasted, which was thankfully a long time. Graphics are obviously dated but they aged well

edit which console, if you have the ps3 'Valkyre Chronicals' and 'Demon's Souls' are real gems. Demon's Sould requires some dedication though it's extremely unforgiving, especially the first hours are a nightmare

[rajpoot]

Mount and Blade.

[Motep]

Planescape: Torment if you haven't already, awesome deep story and solid gameplay. Was obsessed with the sinister gameworld and story while it lasted, which was thankfully a long time. Graphics are obviously dated but they aged well

edit which console, if you have the ps3 'Valkyre Chronicals' and 'Demon's Souls' are real gems. Demon's Sould requires some dedication though it's extremely unforgiving, especially the first hours are a nightmare

Demon's souls is a very good game. A bit too stressful for me, though. My temperament is just not set for the intensity of the boss fights. Besides, I have a tendency to screw up right when I am about to kill the boss. After five hours of trying to kill the spider bastard, I just stopped.

I have heard wonderful things of mount and blade.

You guys know anything with a compelling storyline? Storyline > sandbox

[Hooahguy]

You guys know anything with a compelling storyline? Storyline > sandbox

Mass Effect.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I'll second the Mass Effect recommendation. Great story.

CR

[Samurai Waki]

Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II are nearly flawless in design, but if you can't handle dated graphics I'd advise against it.

Knights of the Old Republic I & II.
The Original Fallout, Fallout II
Mass Effect

[LeftEyeNine]

No BG experience yet ?

Baldur's Gate is the peak of CRPG and no one should think of dying before getting hands on it.

[Fragony]

Demon's souls is a very good game. A bit too stressful for me, though. My temperament is just not set for the intensity of the boss fights. Besides, I have a tendency to screw up right when I am about to kill the boss. After five hours of trying to kill the spider bastard, I just stopped.

That's one of the easiest bosses, block attacks, wait for him lower, hurt him. If he starts doing fire attack run back. You stopped on time it gets worse ;)

[Meneldil]

Mass Effect 1 (the second one's plot is subpar)

Avoid Dragon Age, it's bad.

Baldur's Gate (I & II)
Planescape Torment
Vampire Bloodlines
Arcanum
Fallout New Vegas
Drakensang I & II
Mostly old games cause new ones are usually pretty bad on the RPG departement.

[Hooahguy]

Mass Effect 1 (the second one's plot is subpar)

It depends on how you look at it. In terms of gameplay, ME2 was a billion times better than ME1. Unless you like clunky combat mechanics, and a really messy inventory system, in which case ME1 is better. But in terms of raw epicness, I will agree, ME1>ME2, but ME2's plot is not subpar by any means. While less organized than ME1 in terms of main plot missions, ME2's plot is still excellent.
But dont take our word for it. Try it yourself.

[Meneldil]

While less organized than ME1 in terms of main plot missions, ME2's plot is still excellent.
But dont take our word for it. Try it yourself.

ME2 plot mostly consists in doing useless quests for your henchmen. I consider that subpar.

Would you care to give reason?

Yes.
The plot is here again, subpar (run around the kingdom to recruit allies). The fights were pretty bad, with barely any tactical element. Then, it seems the developpers couldn't quite figure out whether they wanted to make a serious-dark-fantasy-badass game or a college-humor one.
Add the craptacular DLC's and you get what I call a bad game. Mind you, I finished it three times and unlocked all the achievements. But looking back at it, I see nothing that'd bring me back to it.

To be less of a jerk, I guess I could say DA is a decent game (but still not nearly as good as some other less well known RPG's) but a huge disapointement given all the hype around it.

[Hooahguy]

ME2 plot mostly consists in doing useless quests for your henchmen. I consider that subpar.

Of course your definition of a plot seems to be narrowly defined by one single story that the game progresses through. Of course, ME1 had that in the sense that any side quest (except for a few) was not very deep and usually consisted of a one-liner message at the end and that was it. The few character-based missions (like for Garrus, Grunt, and Tali) were very, very short and left much to be desired. Personally I like character-based stories with a general plot behind it that gives overtones on the character stories, and theres nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with liking the one story kind of plot that ME1 has either.


But again, try it for yourself, dont take our word for it.

Though be warned, the combat in ME1 is horrendous.

[rajpoot]

Avoid Dragon Age, it's bad.

Would you care to give reason?

[Fragony]

Would you care to give reason?

It's incredibly boring, took me 4 hours to figure out I just wasn't having fun. You can only really enjoy one Bioware game, and you will, but it's a one trick pony.

[Raz]

Graphically, how many sprites can you handle?


Most of the older stuff is where the best storylines are.
But if you hold out, this year is gonna be pretty big on releases; there are some pretty hyped titles (many, many sequels) coming.
(nb: some are much more swerving toward action-adventure than your classic RPG, but will do the job nonetheless!)
Gothic IV
Dragon Age 2
Last Guardian
The Witcher 2
Fable 3
Diablo III
Elder Scrolls V
Demons Souls 2
Two Worlds 2
Mass Effect 3

edit: and OMG how on earth did I forget - Deus Ex: Human Revolution (YEAAHH)!!?

[rajpoot]

It's incredibly boring, took me 4 hours to figure out I just wasn't having fun. You can only really enjoy one Bioware game, and you will, but it's a one trick pony.

I think it comes down to whether one can play a game for the story and overlook the gameplay flaws or not. I agree that the gameplay does get slightly dull....too much so in some missions....but that does not negate the fact that the game had an interesting story and some nice characters.
That said, it's one of the top RPGs of this day and age.

Edit:
BTW did you finish a play-through or just put it aside half way?