Quote Originally Posted by econ21
BG definitely! Baldur's Gate 2 is perhaps the best CRPG ever. It combines excellent combat with epic story telling. The only issue is whether to labour through Baldur's Gate 1 first - I would say you should (as it is also excellent, although not as cinematic as BG2). You should be able to get a compilation of those two games plus the Throne of Bhaal expansion for a decent price.

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Personally, I really like the DnD 3.0/3.5 ruleset and suspect it is far superior to GWs efforts. None of the above games have such rules (only Icewind Dale 2). You should look at NWN2 if you haven't already - I am playing through it and while it is not as great as BG2 (what is?), it is a very solid game and much better than the NWN1 official campaign.
Best of all, the BG modding community has achieved some really remarkable things. The best is BG Tutu, which is a mod that will allow you to run BG1 on the BG2 engine. So... Kits, higher resolution, better interface, more spells, etc. And it's easy as pie to then continue right on from BG1 to BG2. I have played this myself all the way through (BG1, TotSC, BG2, ToB) and can confirm it works perfectly.

There is also a project that converts BG2 to the IWD2 engine, allowing you to play BG2 with the 3.0 rules. I have not tried this one myself, so no idea if it's buggy or not.