Good RPGs

[caravel]

That's why it's important to install BGT (Baldur's Gate Trilogy) and develop your PC and whatever merry band you put together from start to finish. One gets a sense of accomplishment at developing the prowess of your six party members (at least I do). With all the new NPC's that have been created by the mods at G3, you get much more replayability.

I've not played any mods or adaptations, just BG, BG2 and the expansions - I played BG about a year after release and bought BG2 soon after release. You seem to play the game in much the same way I did, with autopause and planning every battle, etc. I agree, NWN is a dumbed down "walk in the park" compared to BG, but NWN is just more fun in my opinion. It's funny that when I first played NWN I missed all the features and controls of BG/BG2/IWD/PST. I missed being able to create my own party from scratch like in IWD (I prefer that to the NPCs you pick up in BG/2) and instead being stuck with just one character. Now the opposite is the case. The plot in the first NWN was ok, it was the soulless characters and execution of said plot that was poor. I agree with regard to HotU, hated that at first but got into it eventually - it's a dungeon crawl at best and a better one than the previous games where you spent most of your time unlocking or breaking into death trapped chests containing one piece of gold or carrying useless equipment back to merchants be sold. As a whole with D&D games I prefer less tacky plots and more tactics. Another problem with NWN was that for the most part you can loot and pillage with impunity.

[Prussian to the Iron]

if you'd have read the entirety of my post, you'd note that I only listed unreleased games. :P
The idea is that, if Motep wants the storyline but can't handle dated graphics, then perhaps he should hold out until some later releases.

Not Fable III. Got 'im

[ReluctantSamurai]

I've not played any mods or adaptations, just BG, BG2 and the expansions

The mods can add much more flavor to the game...or unbalance it. One has to be careful with their use. Case in point for adding flavor: the Tactics Mod---the tactics used by bosses are greatly improved. Firkraag is a good example. The standard tactic of buffing up beforehand and sending in summoned fodder first no longer works because the wily old dragon will have an immediate buffing sequencer that fires upon starting combat (including Haste), his first spell is Dispel Magic (cast at a very high level) that strips off all your buffing, and his second spell will dismiss all your summons. Nothing is worse than standing in front of an angry red dragon with no magical defenses and his complete attention focused on you because all your summons are gone :-(

The obvious one is BGT (Baldur's Gate Trilogy). It allows you to play all three (BG, SoA, and ToB) as one continuous game (well BG, BG TotSC, and SoA because ToB allows you to import your NPC's anyways). You get to keep NPC's along with their exp, skills, and weapons from one to the next.

The Ascension mod, among many other things, completely changes the ending to ToB. Instead of the standard bash-fest with Mel, you get to fight all five Bhaalspawn........at the same time! And if you're of good alignment, you have the option of recruiting Balthazar to fight on your side...as a 7th party member. But there are consequences...Mel gets the services of.......big, bad, Jon Irenicus and his vampy sister Bodhi. The 'mother-of-all-battles' so to speak. Great fun...and frustration.

Another problem with NWN was that for the most part you can loot and pillage with impunity.

There was a mod called "Honor Among Thieves" that was specifically made for rogue/thief characters. It had exceptionally good scripting, and some novel ideas. Your rogue had to infiltrate a notorious assassin's guild to retrieve some extremely rare magical items that had been stolen from a powerful mage (who gives you your initial quest, and some additional help as the plot progresses). There were two factions within the guild led by guild-masters who gave you quests...the assassins and the thieves. At some point, after a power struggle breaks out, you had to make a decision to side with one or the other, with consequences for your decision.

The city layout, and implementation were novel, and brilliant, IMHO. At night, as you walked the streets, random muggers/assassins would appear and harass the city guard and local citizens. You had three choices: you could just watch; you could assist the 'bad guys'; or you could join in on the side of the guard. All these had alignment consequences, so you had to roleplay your character.

Shops were only open during business hours. No more popping in at some ungodly hour to sell your stack of loot, and they had a limited amount of money to barter. To get magical items identified, you had to bring it to...a mage, of course! What would some brawny smith know about magic, anyways?

When given thieving missions, you had to follow directions...exactly. If you alerted the guards in any way....mission over. If you killed anyone, or stole any items not on your list of 'to do's'....mission over (and of course there were some very tasty items to test your resolve). You had to get in, do what was required, and get out...in the spirit of BG's Yoshimo: "All the world is blind to my passing".

Very much fun. I still play that one, occasionally......

[Raz]

Not Fable III. Got 'im

PC version yet to be released. Got 'im, riposte!

[Prussian to the Iron]

PC version yet to be released. Got 'im, riposte!

touche'!

[pevergreen]

Paper Mario (N64) is pretty awesome.

[Subotan]

I would second Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, as a player who played it for the first time, properly, about six months ago

[Prussian to the Iron]

I just started Call of Pripyat; it's sorta RPG, sorta FPS. its sorta in the middle. I really like it, try it out.

[God Emperor]

as many have mentioned, the D&D games.

Baldurs gate 1 has an awful storyline really, however, it is imo, one of the most enjoyable games ever made .. when you reach the end of bg 1, a storyline begins to take form and then you will venture into the interesting world of the bhaal spawns.
Icewind dale , plansescape torrent are both very good games as well

Morrowind is a must and a wonderful game

What I didn't spot at my quick glance over the thread, was the final fantasy series and Chrono trigger?? Chrono trigger has perhaps the best plot and storyline I have ever seen in any game.. and Final fantasy is always fun, unless you forget to pick up the super duper weapons and get smashed by the overpowered enemies

[Tiberius of the Drake]

I'm gunna trhow out an older series here that you would proabably need at least a ps2 to play. Its a series that spans the ps1 and ps2. The Suikoden series (there are five of them). The first two are the best and are harder to find than the other ones but they are worth the effort. They are from '95 and '97 respectively so the graphics aren't the best but the story are awesome. They play similar to some of the earlier FF's but I find them vastly more enjoyable . 108 different charcters ("the stars of destiny") also makes it intersting.

[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.

[Beskar]

Don't get Fable 3. Biggest disappointment of the year.

[Motep]

Don't get Fable 3. Biggest disappointment of the year.

I wish I did not see that coming...

[Togakure]

Don't get Fable 3. Biggest disappointment of the year.

Oh yeah? I enjoyed Fable 2 with my god-daughter, but am no longer living there, hence no more Xbox. Care to share a brief perspective? I'm very curious.

[Beskar]

I was a big fan of Fable 1 and 2, so I am not new to the series. For Fable 3, I pre-ordered the collectors edition as I expected it to be the same quality as its predecessors. In short, it was far from it.

Every aspect of the game was really oversimplified from the second, including the story and the games DLC is a complete joke as it is obvious they removed aspects of the game to repackage it as you see these big gaping holes where things were meant to be (like dye colours).

If you are completely new and want a over simplified RPG, then Fable 3 is for you. But if you are a fan of the previous games, you want to give it a miss. It was the Phantom Menace of the series.

[Greyblades]

I think I saw a review of it somewhere that listed the problems with it.
Here we go, just dont watch it with children the reviewer isnt exactly restrained when it comes to cursing.: http://blip.tv/play/hdEVgpniagI

[Centurion1]

wow fable three sounds absolutely cruddy

[Togakure]

Thanks for the comments and link. Yeah, I guess I'm not missing much. Too bad, Fable 2 was surprisingly fun; I went into it half-willingly thinking it would be boring and ended up enjoying it a lot.

[Lemur]

Setting my nostalgia ray to wistful, I would also recommend Arcanum and/or Vampire: Bloodlines. But then I am a sucker for non-medieval RPGs.

I think Zero Punctuation's review of Fable 3 said plenty enough for me to stay away. Warning, it's Yachtzee, so there's probably some bad British language.