In no particular order of merit, because there are things I love about all of them. And, er, things about most of them that irk me immensely...
Deus Ex - staggeringly well realised world for it's time. I also seem to remember thinking how well it pre-empted a load of the September 11th related events eerily well, although I can't remember exactly why now.
The Witcher - strangely believable characters, and made me feel like my choices actually meant something in the world, which is a lesson BioWare could learn from. I try to forget about the whole Playing Card thing. Lordy lordy...
Vampire bloodlines - simply one of the most atmospheric games ever. Curiously, what sticks most in my mind is a throwaway scene walking past a restaurant, where someone came out absolutely frantic, telling me they thought I was dead, how they'd all been looking for me for a month now. Whole thing took less than 30 seconds, but it was quite bizarre to get a sudden insight into how the world 'outside' the game continued for your friends and family after you'd been turned into a vampire. A rare moment of gameworld being put in context that maybe made me think more than any other moment in any game I've played. Shame about the last couple of hours of this one, though.
Oblivion - closest thing to Role Playing rather than Role Following in a computer game as far as I'm concerned. Plonks you in an open world and says "Right. Off you go - do what you like, how you like. It's up to you to decide who you are." although I suspect that level of freedom resulted in more than a few people inadvertently ending up chosing to play a dull character. Still only done the first 2 parts of the whole 'saving the world' thing, despite clocking up well over 150 hours in it now.
Morrowind - much the same reasons as Oblivion, really. Maybe more to do in this, but the world is less accessible, and certainly a lot dryer. Something of a flawed masterpiece, but for all the things it does right it has to be in the list.
Anachronox - best game that nobody bought, and one of the funniest games ever made. I'm absolutely devestated that the concluding 2nd part never got made. Anyway, there's more imagination put into this game than 10 of practically any others, wlthough it is admittedly a little slow to get going. Also, anyone who's played this may get the inkling of suspicion that Mass Effect may have, how can I put this, taken "Heavy Inspiration" from various sections and ideas in the game.
FFVII - Not much to say really. Simply the best at what it does.
Baldurs Gate II - back in the
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'ol days before Bioware went off the boil.
Beyond Zork - bit of a weird hybrid between text adventure and RPG, but workd surprisingly well. One of my fave games from the 16 bit era.
I'm also quite tempted to try and make a case for inFamous to be considered as an RPG, albeit a very action-heavy one. It's certainly got a fairly complexed experience and ability selection system, and there is a degree of choice in how you proceed in various situations. But I suspect it would be a bit of a contentious choice
![Wink [;)]](/emoticons/emotion-5.gif)