| Planescape: Torment - Best RPG ever. Those who disagree either a) never played it, or b) are just plain wrong. Console RPG stories are straight up pathetic compared to this game. If someone could take PS:T and make it into a total conversion type mod for the Icewind Dale 2 engine, or better yet Temple of Elemental Evil, I would weep with joy.
Fallout 2 - A close runner-up to PS:T. Great story, and I actually prefer the pure turn-based action to the way the Infinity engine works, but the clunkiness of the way your NPC party members work makes the game a bit less fun to play. If FO2 worked like FO:Tactics, then it would probably be my #1 pick.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - My favorite RPG/FPS hybrid, and my favorite game of all time. Yes, I'm heavily biased towards this game, and I realize it was essentially a buggy piece of shit out of the box. I still loved the buggy version, and really no one can fault the patched game too much. I just like the vampire shit, so much more so than normal fantasy or sci-fi, but LARP'er fags are just too scary so I never really had much interest in actually playing the White Wolf games. It does, however, make a perfect computer game as far as my tastes are concerned.
Deus Ex / System Shock 2 - Tied for runner-up here. I think SS2 had the better mechanics, but I liked Deus Ex's story a lot more. They both blow away any FPS released in the last 5 years (other than VTMB), and I really don't understand why having games with some depth has become a taboo in the industry. Are there just so many ADD kiddies in the market now that we have to simplify everything as much as possible? |