Give me a meaty RPG to tear into.

[Riobux]

Mount&Blade: Warband.

In fact, there's a sale on Steam for it now. There's also a demo on there.

I have the original. Bought it back before the sale, and now I can't afford Warband. How drastic of a change am I missing?

But yeah, Mount and Blade. I've sunk 18 hours into it already.

Multiplayer, thats it. Everything else is EXACTLY the same. It's Taleworlds ripping off the people that supported them from the beginning. There is more mods for the original anyway.

Well, I wouldn't call a change of map, an additional faction, more weapons, more armour, better graphics and the ability to form your own faction "exactly the same". Yes, the core game-play is the same, however there are enough differences to warrant to the price tag. There are more mods for the original, but there are some good mods on Warband, partly due to the multi-player that has been added (like for instance, there's a RPG Multi-player mod).

I wouldn't call the change drastic, but there is enough of a change that if you enjoyed the original it may be worth looking into Warband for just £4 currently. However, try the demo anyway and see how it feels.

 

[Godhead]

Dungeon Siege. Pre-order Dungeon Siege 3 on steam and get the first two free!!

(All I've been playing for the past two weeks.)

 

[Irridium]

Mount&Blade: Warband.

In fact, there's a sale on Steam for it now. There's also a demo on there.

I have the original. Bought it back before the sale, and now I can't afford Warband. How drastic of a change am I missing?

But yeah, Mount and Blade. I've sunk 18 hours into it already.

In Warband, there's a new faction, more interesting companion interaction, more diplomacy actions, the layout of the world is changed a bit, more side missions, revamped graphics engine, more in depth instant action battles, and multiplayer.

Doesn't it let you start your own kingdom as well? That's my only gripe with it, the fact that I can't establish a kingdom under my name.

Yes it does. All you have to do is capture a castle/town on your own, and you'll start your own faction.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Mount&Blade: Warband.

In fact, there's a sale on Steam for it now. There's also a demo on there.

Will agree to this, just because more people must play this game. It isn't very graphically demanding, so I say get the demo, and see if you like it/if it runs.

Also, if you like a little shooter with your RPG, I personally love both of the Mass Effect games. The first one has a bit more RPG to it, but I'd say the second one has much better combat, and doesn't suffer from any of the graphical issues the first had.

And if you liked the first Dragon Age, I'd say you should atleast try out the second one. You say your PC isn't that good, so I take it you played Origins on your 360? If that's the case, I'm willing to bet you won't have the problems a lot of other people had with the game.

As for the Fallout games, I would recommend Fallout 3 GOTY over new Vegas, because while New Vegas certainly has it's strong points, I just wasn't as drawn into it as 3. Also, since you'd probably get new vegas for your 360, it would download all the updates at once, and the most recent update is in the process of being pulled because of some apparently really big issue with save corrupting or something.

And lastly, I saw someone recommend The Last Remnant. Now, I played that game back when I still really enjoyed JRPGs, so please believe me when I say that game alone almost killed them for me. I really can't think of any redeeming values for it. The gameplay is a mess, that tries to be tactical, and fucks it up spectacularly, the story/plot/writing all seem like they're intentionally bad, and the difficulty curve is a joke, with the game going from too easy to "NOPE, you were doing it wrong the whole game!" at the end of the first disc. The Lost Odyssey was JRPG game I got around the same time, and I will just say it is just infinitely better than this...thing.

 

[Zenn3k]

KOTOR is fantastic, 1st is better than the 2nd.
Dragon Age is, okay. I wouldn't recommend it myself.
Dragon Warrior 4 (NES, get a ROM), one of the best JRPGs of all time.
Fallout New Vegas is vastly superior to Fallout 3 in terms of RPGs, although its a bit more on rails than 3 was, it does this to the benefit of the narrative.
Final Fantasy 6 and 7 are both very good, 8 sucks, 9 is a REALLY good.
Crono Trigger is amazing.
Xenosaga is crazy, but good.

I don't play many newer RPGs, I prefer the classics.

 

[HerrBobo]

You need to go old school; Baulders Gate 2 all the way. You can get it of GoG for less the a tenner too!

 

[InnerRebellion]

Mount&Blade: Warband.

In fact, there's a sale on Steam for it now. There's also a demo on there.

I have the original. Bought it back before the sale, and now I can't afford Warband. How drastic of a change am I missing?

But yeah, Mount and Blade. I've sunk 18 hours into it already.

In Warband, there's a new faction, more interesting companion interaction, more diplomacy actions, the layout of the world is changed a bit, more side missions, revamped graphics engine, more in depth instant action battles, and multiplayer.

Doesn't it let you start your own kingdom as well? That's my only gripe with it, the fact that I can't establish a kingdom under my name.

Yes it does. All you have to do is capture a castle/town on your own, and you'll start your own faction.

The graphics engine I think isn't very compatible with my laptop. The people don't move as fluidly as they did in the original. Oh well, at least I have it now.

 

[Karthesios]

If you have a PS2, go for Dark Cloud 2. One of my favorite RPGs on the platform. I also recommend Star Ocean 3 (PS2) or 4 (PS3/360). Even if 4's story wasn't that good, it had what I thought was the best combat and item creation system in the series.

Also of honorable mention: Borderlands.

 

[Kotep]

On the off chance you're still hungry? (and don't mind Dragomorphin' some people aren't cool with it but I say hey whatever floats ((or burns and sinks)) yer boat) I recently picked up the ATLUS redux of the Divinity series: Divinity II: the Dragon Knight Saga which is actually Ego Draconis and Flames of Vengeance. I have played about half way through Ego Draconis (the first one) and it is an amazing game, You can mindread (in exchange for xp), it has a HUGE emphasis on exploration, there are puzzles, item enchanting, potion making, it really surprised me considering how much it was supposed to "suck." What can I say? Sometimes it pays to be ch-uh er, thifty.

The release of Ego Draconis was really rocky, but now that Larian's with a new publisher and they had time to go back and rewrite the engine and do all sorts of bugfixing, they took a game that was good but flawed with tons of bugs and made it into something that, while not as polished as big-budget RPGs, has a ton of content and (to me at least) feels like a classic RPG with a new coat of paint.

If you've gone through all of the popular RPGs and you're still craving more, check out Divinity II: DKS.

 

[binvjoh]

Deus Ex.

Nuff said.

 

[countrysteaksauce]

Divine Divinity
A little known gem. It's a top down action rpg, with great depth and variety of quests. There are some bugs, but the game is very well done and you always end up finding something new every time you play.

 

[HalfChance]

11.11.11 Skyrim

 

[nipsen]

Planescape: Torment. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. They're a bit older, but are all considered pretty much the peak of the RPG-genre.

All of them can be found on gog.com for $10 or less, which also means it's DRM-free and you get a full installer, not the "we went bankrupt, so now you can't play anymore", no sir! The game is yours forever.

Yes, good games.

Also, Kotor 2, if you can find a copy around somewhere. And Bloodlines. Bloodlines also looks modern enough to not be difficult to run through (it kind of needed a new PC to run when it came out anyway). The first Vampire game is also pretty good. If you can find one with the manual and Christof's backstory, you really should pick it up.

Mass Effect 1 also is a very good game. Serious babylon 5 factor when adding fire damage to a blaster. And the fighting/powers system (with shield penetration, bypass shields with certain combo-damage, number of biotic powers, etc) is deep enough to keep you occupied. Writing on certain side-stories is really, really good. Way above normal Bioware writing..

Demon's Souls - if you like indirect story-telling. This game has player-created, unscripted moments that really scare you. Poisonous swamp, Tower of Latria, etc. I remember moments of gameplay from that game in the same way I remember action cut-scenes from other games. Lots of opportunities for building your character. Also, multiplayer is interesting (look out for more goodness when Dark Souls get closer to a release).

Fallout: New Vegas - improves in many important ways over Fallout 3. It's actually a fallout game, for one.. Writing is very good for the most part. Not as much "I blew your back up with a grenade, because I found out your plan to stab me in the back, so haha!" as in Fallout 1&2, but still.. Kind of miss an opportunity to put in unseen details on a computer that ties in with another set of events, etc. But it's pretty good. (read my review here [http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9078380]).

Icewind Dale 2 - if you're not entirely keen on the way some events in Baldur's Gate were a bit disjointed. Or that the treks didn't lead to anything very often, etc. This is an interesting game. Also has Peter Stormare as one of the devils More perfect voice-casting has never been done.

 

[Austin Howe]

Resonance of Fate

 

[WorldCritic]

KOTOR, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout (any of them except BoS), Persona 3, Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, IX, X, or XII. Pick one of the above and depending on which one you choose I'll see you in either a couple weeks, or a few months.