Skipped them all, I did. I spent the 2000s in graduate medical education, and when I finally had some time during the 2010s I ended up playing MMOs: WoW and now GW2.

What did I miss? Off the top of my head, these entire series:

Dragon Age.

Elder Scrolls.

Fallout.

Mass Effect.

The Witcher.

I'm inclined to check out Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect but I'm taking suggestions.

What do you think?

If you go back to 2000, then there are some good non-fantasy single player RPGs:
KOTOR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic
Silent Hill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Hill

Elder scrolls anthology should help with that one, and dragon age isnt done the new one inquisitor is due this year at some point.

Kotor is a definite must play series.

You really didn't miss much.

The Elder Scrolls has better graphics, but plays basically the same (if dumbed down) as the first games in the '90s did.

Mass Effect starts out as something like an RPG, but turns into a shooter.

Dragon Age is terrible.

The modern Fallouts are pretty good. Basically a post apocalyptic Elder Scrolls, and too much action gameplay for my taste, but reasonably well done.

The Witch is good, but somewhat overrated.

Wow, I think Jeremy shares my tastes and opinions on CRPGs.

They're all top tier and well loved games, but all with some hefty warts.

Elder Scrolls/Skyrim really captures the zeitgeist of RPGs now. Idiot-proof questing, idiot-proof character development, idiot-proof everything, everything laid out nice and easy, your character will become nigh-unstoppable after a few hours of play...I still play it, but I feel like a tourist in a fantasy world, just walking around and looking at stuff.

(and it's The Witcher...a great game, on the curve.)

Quote from: JeremyR;732763You really didn't miss much.

The Elder Scrolls has better graphics, but plays basically the same (if dumbed down) as the first games in the '90s did.

Now this is intriguing. If 1990s games are crap and the 2000s stuff is crap, what's good? :confused:

Quote from: Doom;732773Elder Scrolls/Skyrim really captures the zeitgeist of RPGs now. Idiot-proof questing, idiot-proof character development, idiot-proof everything, everything laid out nice and easy, your character will become nigh-unstoppable after a few hours of play...I still play it, but I feel like a tourist in a fantasy world, just walking around and looking at stuff.

The way I see it, I suspect it can't be worse than WoW questing, which is fairly dumb, but I had a ton of fun with it (at least before Cataclysm). Or can it?

I heard Morrowind (ES III) is the best of the bunch, anyone familiar with it?

Quote from: JeremyR;732763Mass Effect starts out as something like an RPG, but turns into a shooter.

The modern Fallouts are pretty good. Basically a post apocalyptic Elder Scrolls, and too much action gameplay for my taste, but reasonably well done.

These remarks actually pique my interest. I like a side of action and/or FPS with my CRPGs.

Since you two gentlemen don't seem to dig any of the ones I've mentioned, what would you recommend?

While, I admit, I dislike the trimming down of Elder Scrolls. Skyrim is a beautiful game with LOTS to do like most TES games.  Its not perfect. But it is far better than some games.

Witcher I hear is awesome.

Other than than not having played the last ME, I'm   huge fan of the series up to that.  Mass Effect was awesome--but no real free roaming, sadly.

(It did become more Shootery.though)

I lost a few hours of my life playing the Wii Zelda game Twilight Princess. I quite enjoyed that, but it is the only rpg-ish game I have played on a computer since Dungeon Master. And WoW, but that was really limited and focused on "MAH RAIDZ!!1" more than I would like, even the roleplay servers.

But things like Mass Effect, Halo, something something "I want to run this awesome computer game as a tabletop RPG, what system", never appealed. I don't even understand or care about these people who get upset about a computer game character being a certain race, colour, sexual orientation, gender, whatever. For me, it is like someone getting upset about an aspect of Mario.

Gap in the market there. How to get the guys who hate cRPGs to play them.

I would like to roleplay using computers beyond "the tabletop experience". Use Second Life, or some other MMO environment to facilitate that. But I can't find any.

I want to play Traveller. I want to see planets on my screen and starports. Not pretend to play traveller in Eve-online.

I want to play a fantasy RPG and see my avatar, all dressed up but not get ganked by some Twink because we are in a PvP area.

Nethack?

Mass Effect was an okay film (if a bit long) but I disliked having to press buttons from time to time just to see it.

Slightly OT but I feel much the same way about 90s-era and later consoles (Super-NES etc), seems like there were plenty of really cool RPGs (especially JRPGs) during that era that I'd very likely have enjoyed immensely (the early FFs, Phantasy Star, etc etc).

To be a bit helpful and stuff: I really enjoyed playing Arcanum.
It's a very good RPG set in a fantasy world currently going through an industrial revolution; the main choice stats/powers vise when developing your PC is whether to go for magic or tech (can't really have both). It's a pretty cool game with nice top-down graphics (always preferred those to 1st person myself).

If you're into Roguelikes, I'd recommend Dungeons of Dredmor.

Quote from: The Butcher;732782I heard Morrowind (ES III) is the best of the bunch, anyone familiar with it?

Morrowind's setting and presentation are stellar! While the actual gameplay is not all that good, it's still my favorite.
I know you like RQ as well, so in the spirit of it all, here's the RQ6 TES-hack.

Quote from: The Butcher;732782Since you two gentlemen don't seem to dig any of the ones I've mentioned, what would you recommend?

I rather enjoyed the last two Fallouts. They were fun, if not deep and immersive.

Quote from: JeremyR;732763Dragon Age is terrible.

How so?

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;733076How so?

For me it was that what promosed to be a new baldur's gate turned out to be an exercise in combat tactics and management.

You could tell where the designer's passion was.