Alright, so I'm hoping for recommendations for a good role playing game for the PC. I'm thinking something along the lines of Oblivion in terms of gameplay and display perspective (though the perspective isn't too important). I was pretty disappointed by Diablo 2 for some reason, and NWN 2 was just crappy. I don't normally play multiplayer/online, so a strong single player campaign would be best. I've already played TES 3 and 4, Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout 3. I'd prefer real-time rather than turn based. How would you guys recommend KOTOR and Baldur's Gate 2? After NWN 2, I'm a bit leery of trying out new games without really going into them first...

 

KoTOR would be alright if you're into Star Wars and looking for Bioware's weird not-quite-real-time combat. Haven't played it years so I could be wrong but I'd compare it strongly to DA:O in feel.

BG2 is generally considered superior I think but if you can't play isometric turn-based, I don't know how worth fighting through it would be if you didn't get into NWN.

There are a couple of FPS+RPGs that seem to be looked on favorably,

-Deus Ex is a brilliant cyber-punk game
-System Shock 2, much more FPS than RPG but again, is a classic
-Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, made by Troika who used to = Awesome.

A couple classic turn-based:
-Arcanum, steampunk rpg also made by Troika
-Fallout 1&2
-Planescape: Torment, fucking mustplay if you feel like indulging your inner storyfag.

Hoped that helped some. Can't say much for NWN2, only that I've heard good things about the expansion(s?) from people who didn't like the full game.

Edit:

I strongly recommend playing the original first.

 

Deus Ex: Invisible War looks interesting. Ditto for Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Anybody who's played them and would recommend them (or not)?

 

Mass Effect is a pretty good third-person rpg/shooter hybrid. Not sure if that type of game is what up might be looking for. The story is pretty awesome, tbh.

The Witcher might be up you alley?

Perhaps even Borderlands?

 

Probably be getting Mass Effect 2. For the others, I'll look more deeply into them. Anybody else here played them?

Problem is, NWN 2 came pretty highly recced from a friend, as did another game in the past which turned out bad, so I'm leery of single reccs now.

 

You could try Mass Effect. It's is a shooter hybrid but it has a good dialogue system. Story pace largely depends on how obsessive you are with completing side quests.

The expansion for NWN2 is way better. The story is way more epic than the original and the gameplay changes make for a much better experience.

I'd agree with Mr Strikes choices, never played System Shock 2 but Deus Ex is great.

Baldur's Gate 2 is probably one of the best games I've played. That being said I didn't actually like the game the first time I played it, I came back to the game later and actually enjoyed it later.

Jade Empire is another Bioware game that uses the same stat system, but incorporates a very simple real time fighting system, instead of a turn based one.

 

Mass Effect 1 has far more RPG elements than does ME2. Mass Effect 2 is a water-down RPG guised as a first -person shooter. If you're looking for RPG experience, stay away. If you're looking for a good game, sans that want to fill, then get it. ME1 is much more RPG orientated, much deeper choice in stats and character. KoTor is a classic. It's an RPG with a great story. I think you would enjoy it. It can be turn-based or it can real-time. Just like DA:O. I think you also seem to be looking for more than one character on the field? Um. If you did not like Diablo 2, I doubt you will enjoy Borderlands. So I recc Kotor, avoid the second far too buggy in this day and age, and ME1.

 

KotOR1, ME1, and The Witcher are all good. Avoid KotOR 2 for the PC, especially if you have Vista (I got it a few months ago and it stopped working after 2 days, nothing I tried fixed the problem), and ME 2 is alright but I didn't like it as much as the original. You might give Fable The Lost Chapters a shot if you can find it, but it might not be quite what you're looking for.

 

NWN 2 was garbage, and let's be honest, the expansion was pretty shitty too. And frankly, I couldn't stomach Oblivion either. I never really got into KoTOR, but Deux Ex was a lot of fun.

In all due honesty, I loved the original NWN, fully modded and put together with a complete PRC pack. By that point, you had hundreds of classes, feats, spells, and about half a billion different add-ons that made the game fantastic. I still replay it when I get bored.

 

For single player/campaign: Shining Force II

For MMORPG (multiplayer online): Helbreath. Find a kewl server and hop right in. It don't get better than that.

 

@Silens. I love mods for old games. Bunch of good ones for Kotor. Got a few decent ones for DA:O, too. If you liked NWN and Baldur's Gate, you should give DA:O a spin.

 

I found Invisible War alright. More interesting than the average brainless shooter and certainly prettier than the original but the levels are too small and the interface and gameplay way too simplified. I agree with Mr. Strike, definitely play the original first - although I don't think it's quite what you're after.

I've not had such a problem with it - although I'd rather have my genitals savaged off by a pack of giant rabid hamsters than use Vista, so maybe that makes it worse. I like most of the game better than the original - just a pity about the last 20% which is so horribly unfinished. The combat system is pretty uninspiring, but does still allow you to slice people up with lightsabers which is always good for a laugh.

I really enjoyed Torchlight; it's similar to Diablo (quite a few of the original Diablo team worked on it) but slightly less grim and with a lot of the more annoying game mechanics smoothed out a bit. Also serious bonus points for only being US$20 at release. Am guessing it's not as deep as you'd like though.

 

Allow me to support some of the titles in here.

If you want to play a PC RPG that has some actual roleplaying in it Planescape Torment is a must.

After that there's Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 -> definitely worth playing. Lots of possibilities. great atmosphere (which more often than not is a bit depressing... such times and all)
You can play a brute, a gunslinger, a diplomat or even a fucking pacifist (it's really, really, REALLY hard not to kill every raider or bandit you encounter in the wastelands).

Baldur's Gate 1&2 are good games, but they are more about fight rather than an actual plot, which on it's own is good.
In BG1 there's way too much walking if you want to do all of the sidequests, but they are worth it (stats, items and sometimes a good joke or two). Luckily they'd changed that in BG2.
There is a useful patch for those games. It enables you to play BG1 on BG2 engine.

 

Baldur's Gate 2 is the best game I've ever played. The graphics might not be the best, especially compared to today's games, but the story is spectacular, the gameplay is fun, and there's hundreds of hours of it even if you don't mod. And if you do, well, there's a shitton more.

Planescape: Torment is another great game. The gameplay takes a backseat to storytelling though. If you don't like that you're going to want to avoid it. But the story is great. Just great. I haven't seen another story like it. Plus, it's so far the only game that I've been able to talk the final boss out of fighting in.

Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines is another very good game. Again, the gameplay takes a backseat to the story, but the story is very very good.

KOTOR is awesome. Nothing more to say to that.

Really, I find that anything with Bioware's logo on it is just made of greatness. Doesn't matter the universe, or the concept. As long as it's an RPG, and Bioware made it, you can't go wrong.

 

Baldurs gate and Bg2 and the expansions are all great games, even if they are old. Diablo 2 is also a very good game, even though it is 10 years old now. Personally, I would try out some of the single play mods you can download for it such as Hell Unleashed. I would compare Borderlands to Mass Effect and not D2, but Mass effect and Borderlands are still amazing games. Dragon Age was very good on the xbox, so I'd image it is just as good for PC.

I've got neverwinter nights on my laptop, but I can't get it to run at all :/ keeps saying 'no disc inserted' even though it is.

I guess i will personally recommend the game Demigod. It is rpg + tower defense all in one. Their is no campaign, just compstomp or online multiplayer.

 

Get the latest version of Wesp's Unofficial Patch first, install the basic version, and play as any clan but Malkavian. Troika were (sing it with me folks) rushed out the door by marketing, as well as had to use an incomplete version of the Source engine. The beautiful bastards went in without pay after the company died to produce two patches to fix the most game-breaking bugs, but Wesp picked up the rest of it.

Also? Alpha Protocol. Beyond the complaints about gameplay, as an RPG it's got the most intricate story I've seen in years, bar none. I saw a thread on Something Awful that had like fifteen pages straight of people comparing exactly what ending they got and marveling at all the factors that had to be involved.

 

Ditto on vampires, great gameplay (even unpatched I enjoyed it), and great story. It really was ahead of it's time when it was released in terms of RPG story & voice over.

However I highly disagree on Alpha protocol. Don't get me wrong, it's a great RPG story & has some really excellent choice & dialogue mechanics. That said, If you must play it, get it on a console. The PC version is so bugged that I literally rage every time I play it. While the console version may be bugged, the PC version is nigh unplayable if you don't have an extremely high tolerance for pain.

That said, I echo both Mass Effect I & II. Someone said ME II was stripped down on it's RPG elements. That's a simplistic way to look at it, but regardless both are truly excellent games. Plus There's some epic expansions on them both. ME I had a six hour added DLC for like $7, and ME II just released a new 3 hour DLC that I liked.

Dragon Age: Awakenings is a nice DA addition, if short. You can pick it up on PC for $30 or so these days, a good deal I think. If you liked Dragon Age, it's pretty much more of the same great gameplay and story.

I plan to check out Jade Empire soon, it was released a while ago by Bioware-which means I've pretty much got to buy it. Almost everything they release is gold, and it's got some high review scores.

 

I've played through it twice now without any major bugs. I don't know if you're unlucky or I'm lucky or what. Worst I had was an occasional brief freeze-up, like half a second max, maybe once every hour.

Anyway, word on the tubes is Obsidian is working on a patch.

 

Maybe I'm just an unlucky bastard. I've played through it twice as well, but only after severe editing of configuration files to reduce motion blur. I still get terrible framerate jitters and random 180 degree turns. For no reason in battle my character will just do a 180 flip in the other direction, and it happens constantly.

 

Okay, forgot completely about Jade Empire. It was pretty unique as far as RPG experiences go, but I second the recommendation on it.