So, just wondering... what's your favourite CRPG?

[Rath Darkblade]

When it comes to playing RPGs on a PC, I suppose there's not that much of a choice. Through the years, I've played my share of good CRPGs and bad CRPGs, but not that many stick in my head. And with that in mind, I thought... what are your favourite CRPGs?

I've played Eye of the Beholder (now that's going way back) and its two sequels. I've also played Might and Magic VI and Heroes of Might and Magic III, neither of which really inspired me at the time. Might and Magic VI, especially, reminded me of a bad Doom clone, only with swords and magic instead of guns and bombs.

And then I tried Neverwinter Nights (the first one), and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and loved them both. I also tried The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, but was quickly lost because I couldn't keep track of all the various names and places and things.

I like Dragon Age, but it seems very complicated. I'm wondering if I can keep track of all the names and places (again). It's giving me a headache sometimes, but it's fun. What's not so fun is getting EA to recognise that it's my game (i.e. that I paid for it, and when I try to register it, it tells me that my number's invalid, etc. etc...)

Anyway. What about you? What are your favourites?

[AndreaDraco]

Before discovering BioWare I would have said Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series: I have a vague memory of playing Daggerfall eons ago and of course I remember spending hours over hours on Morrowind, which is still the the best title they've released if you want my opinion. Of course I also played Oblivion (for more than 200 hundred hours), finished the main quest and then played almost till completion. That game is huge.

But as much as I love exploration I love a good story more and Bethesda's titles (at least until Fallout 3) are a bit lacking in this regard. And that's why, when I discovered BioWare, I was simply mesmerized: I remember playing KotOR and thinking that I hadn't had so much fun with a videogame since Gabriel Knight 3. I found it rich and complex, wonderfully written and acted, incredibly atmospheric. Characteristics that I've found in every other game from BioWare, from Jade Empire to Mass Effect to Neverwinter Nights.

The one I like the most, though, is obviously Dragon Age. Not only for his fascinating setting, epic story and incredibly vivid characters, but also because of the rich game system: in an RPG, tabletop or otherwise, I like the idea of creating my character from scratch, deciding his appearance as much as his stats and his backgrounds, his beliefs, his attitude. Dragon Age allowed me to do (pretty much) everything I wanted with my characters: it allowed me to role-play them, and that's why to this day it's still one of the games that I've played the most. And I simply can't wait for Dragon Age 2.

[DeadPoolX]

FAVORITE RPG
I'd say Mass Effect 2 qualifies. My favorite used to be Dragon Age: Origins, but there's something about ME2 I really, really like.

My "favorite RPG" tends to change rapidly. Before DA:O, Knights of the Old Republic was my favorite, but not anymore.

I absolutely hated Neverwinter Nights, but I doubt that's a surprise to anyone here.

I tried Morrowind, but I didn't care for it. The game wasn't bad in of itself and it was really cool to mess with everything. But it lacked a cohesive story (if any at all) and was too focused on exploration. Exploring is fine, but I prefer some sort of direction in a RPG. That doesn't mean I want to get locked into a story without any choices or freedom (like most Adventure games), but there needs to be a middle ground.

I played few RPGs before Baldur's Gate 2. Most of the pre-BG2 games were first-person and moved about one screen at a time. Those old games were clunky and overly complex in many ways.

(Rath, you don't need to memorize names and places in DA since your journal and codex store all the important information.)

RPGs ON THE PC
I'd say there are quite a few RPGs on the PC or at least games with RPG-like elements. It's not a stretch to say Deus Ex is an RPG. If Mass Effect, which is played through real-time action-oriented combat, is considered an RPG, then games like DX are definitely within that category.

I suppose the question really is: what makes a game an RPG? Is it stats? Environment? Game play?

If it's based on stats, some people could stretch the definition of RPG to suit just about ANY game. Team Fortress 2, which is NOT an RPG by any stretch of the imagination, has weapons that affect the character's damage, resistances, bonuses, and so on. But that'd be classified an RPG if going purely by stats (or weapon stats, I should say).

Some people consider Diablo II an RPG while others say it's an action game. It's both since it relies on real-time action combat, but has stats and items that affect the character (like ME1/ME2 or DX/DX2).

[Tawmis]

Initially my favorite - and really "first" time delving into CRPG would have been Wizardry I. It wasn't till Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge where it had "real" graphics... and I really, really, really liked it! My friend and I spent hours drawing maps as we explored dungeons in that game... So when Bane of the Cosmic Forge came out, it became a favorite mostly because of the memories associated with it. Then Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant came out - and the graphics were totally awesome! (For a CRPG at that time, anyway...) Surly nothing could top this? Out came Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny by Sir-Tech, same folks who made Wizardry. This... this was a CRPG to me! It had gods, temples, a huge world to explore! And dungeons within that world! Then Realms of Arkania: Star Trail came out - it took everything that was great in Blade of Destiny and built on it - then also had an actual SOUNDTRACK! Realms of Arkania: Shadows Over Riva came out, but it was a bit of a disappointment (for me, anyway) compared to Star Trail.

Other games came and went... But Star Trail still holds a very special place.

In recent years, I'd be torn between picking Dragon Age or Mass Effect as a favorite. Both offered so much greatness.

I, unlike DPX, THOROUGHLY enjoyed Neverwinter Nights (but no one should be surprised about that, since I even made a series based on it called Neverending Nights). I had my "problems" with NWN, but they were pretty trivial - for example, my biggest complaint was that the combat looked like they were dancing... it was too "slow" for me when they did combat with melee). But everything else about it was great! Especially since it had a VERY easy to use tool to make your own world and quests - and had a great, great, great community for support - and there were tons of other folks out there who had mad mods, for additional monsters, tiles, etc - and tons of persistent worlds (that were online all the time that you could log into and explore!) NWN really had it all, in terms of CRPG in my opinion.

[BBP]

The only RPG I ever liked is LAD, Local Area Dungeon. You can download the shareware version off my website. It's very low on graphic, alsolutely unfinishable (it took me 6 years to finish it, in Easy Mode), delightfully funny and cute.

[DeadPoolX]

The RPG to end all RPGs: Progress Quest

[MusicallyInspired]

Love all the Elder Scrolls games. I just picked up Fallout 3 GOTY today finally as well! It's the 360 version, but still. Haven't really gotten into any other RPGs. I do have KOTOR on Steam that I haven't played a while. Will have to get back to that sometime.

[DeadPoolX]

Since most of the RPGs I've played (and I think most people play nowadays) are from BioWare, I thought it might be interesting to list our favorite BioWare games.

This is a complete list of BioWare's games, from oldest to newest. Some games on the list aren't RPGs and others haven't been released yet.

If you haven't played a specific BioWare game simply don't list it (unless you plan on playing it, in which case you could always say something about it if you feel like it).

Don't include the games developed by Obsidian, even though they've made sequels based on previous BioWare games. As far as I'm concerned, we're better off pretending KotOR II and NWN 2 never happened.

In order from #1, which is considered the highest, list the games.

1. Mass Effect 2
2. Dragon Age: Origins
3. Knights of the Old Republic
4. Dragon Age: Awakening
5. Baldur's Gate II
6. Shattered Steel
7. MDK 2
8. Mass Effect
9. Neverwinter Nights

I've never played the rest of the games on that list, including the expansions for BG and NWN.

I'd never heard of BioWare when I played Shattered Steel and MDK 2. I just bought those two because I like Mech games (now there's a surprise!) and I enoyed playing the first MDK.

Although I'm sure no one cares, here's some neat trivia about those two relatively obscure games:

Shattered Steel was the first Mech game to feature deformable terrain. That may not sound like much, but in 1996 it was really cool.

MDK 2 supposedly stands for "Max, Doctor Fluke Hawkins and Kurt" (whereas most people think it means "Murder-Death-Kill"). All three are the game's protagonists and playable at different times. Even cooler is that the first stage takes place during an alien attack in Edmonton, AB, Canada. That's where BioWare is located.

I don't think the landscape of MDK 2's first level really resembles Edmonton. I could be wrong since I haven't played it in a good decade or so (and I only visited a few times since that's where Maia used to live). That said, it'd be neat to see aliens rip apart West Ed.

[AndreaDraco]

In order from #1, which is considered the highest, list the games.

1. Dragon Age: Origins
2. Jade Empire
3. Knights of the Old Republic
4. Dragon Age: Awakening
5. Mass Effect 2
6. Neverwinter Nights
7. Mass Effect
8. Sonic Chronicles

The Mass Effect series is very good, stunning really, but there are certain design choices that I don't like very much, and I find that usually the character development in the series is far less accomplished than other titles, like Dragon Age or Jade Empire.

Awakening is not number two mainly because - while I liked the story and the characters (minus Justice, whom I really didn't like) - I found the new dialogue system pretty abysmal (scouring the locations for dialogue triggers was a tedious chore) and the ending a tad rushed. It also had less moral choices than the original title, some of which were extremely predictable: I liked very much the Architect's one (I won't say anithing more to avoid spoilers), which was very thought-provoking, but others not so much. Furthermore, while some battles were interesting, the game was a bit easy. Awesome new specializations, though.

I never finished Neverwinter Nights and that's why it is only number six. I like the sheer size of the world, the numerous quests, the many possibile choices and even if I found the dialogue a bit tacky from time to time, some of the supporting characters were really good, like Aribeth, Linu La'neral or Grimgnaw. Incredible soundtrack too.

And yes, I also played Sonic Chronicles on the DS. Well, let's just say that even if you're a rabid BioWare fan you can safely skip it. It's heavily geared toward children (or young adults) and, even if the story is nice, the game isn't very fun.

I'd like to list also my Top 10 BioWare Companions, but it's pretty late here in Italy, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

[gumby]

Oh, I gotta go old-school. The Bard's Tale series & the TSR games Pool of Radiance & Eye of the Beholder

EDIT: Almost forgot Curse of the Azure Bonds (another TSR game)