What about a "best of" kind of game ?

Well lots of great stuff mentioned about classics here, I dito most if not everything and will try to come up with things that none talked about, so some, if not all, will sound trivial

- Living galaxy of Space Rangers ( could be extended and not a full rpg I know)

- Failed quests that gives other paths and quests: Din's Curse

- Linearity: Dungeon siege 3 (just goofing around)

- Best vehicule customisation: Ultima 7 (Ability to put barels on rear of the flying magic carpet to store goods )

- Implementation of minimap: Dungeon Master 2,Eschalon serie and perhaps others (not a granted feat but an item that consumes mana or skill that can be improved)

- IWD 2 most complete ruleset of infinity engine games( too bad the game overall was the less enjoyable of them)

- Variety of companion characters species-races-types: Planescape Torment

- Alas not seen enough great world settings: Darksun Shattered Lands, Arcanum, Planescape, Vampire Bloodlines, Lionheart (the game was a faillure I know)…

- Best garbage game concept: Konung 2 (the idea behind it that you could become a leader of villages and build defenses and train villagers could have done marvels if build correctly and hugelly extended)

- Best combination of RPG elements and RTS: Warlords BattleCry (throw in some great ingredients posted by other watchers in this thread and we would have been able to play the first true RPG/RTS)

- Jagged allience series pre-back in action: would have been so good if the dialogs with npcs would have been akin to Fallout or Planescape( team members added) with more quests to ice the cake

Errmm.. time to stop I am derailing from rules more and more

Ok, probably all of these features will crush with each other, but here's my lead:

- Plot a la Game of Thrones/The Witcher 1 (I love political intrigues mixed with personal vengeances/reasons/whatever);
- Character customization like Oblivion for physical appereances;
- Open World like TES or Gothic games;
- Leveling System from Wizardry 8 or something like that;
- Companions like Fallout, with their skill trees, inventory, you got it ;
- Dialogues and characters like V:TM - Bloodlines/The Witcher;
- Humor a la Divine Divinity;
- Stealth system from Thief, melee combat from Dark Souls, magic system from DnD or The Dark Eye, possibility to hit different body parts, using enviroment like Dark Messiah, etc.;
- REAL first person camera (you see all your body);
- Lasting consequences of your choices (and this is the minimum), especially regarding siding with factions or not, e.g. Geneforge;
- NO FAST TRAVEL;
- No huge 3D map fully zoomable or full of markers: this is almost even worse than free fast travel;
- Transporation system from Gothic;
- No quest markers: you write your own notes in the journal;
- Quest system: long, well-written story modified by accomplishing certain tasks; faction/secondary quests well-writtens just as the main one, jobs/rewards a la The Witcher that last very short and regard FedEX or killing something;
- DUNGEONS, not TUNNELS: this doesn't need explanation, am I right?;
- Hardcore Mod: no reload after death, instant death if you get a head shot without protection/powerful traps/strong diseases/put-whatever-you-wish;
- Primary needs;
- Hand-crafted loot like BG, Drakensang or MW;
- Crafting a la NWN: you get special components to Marty the Smith, then wait 24-48-72 hours and… KABOOM! Awesome Sword of Awesomeness at your service,sir. It's 1,500,000 gold pieces please. You got the point ;
- Absolutely no to stupid minigames in general, especially the one you can exploit and make you rich right from the start;
- Castle Management like NWN 2;
- Romance: I prefer not, but anyway, if you wish you can marry and have children to maintain;
- Setting: personally I'll never grow tired of classical medieval fantasy, but I can live with different settings. An Hyborian setting would be great, or everything that fits;
- Music: again, whatever it fits best, there's too much good music to choose from.
- Mods support;
- Last but not least, good PC interface (a very recent example: SkyUI mod);

And that's all I think, sorry for the wall of text.
Nice topic btw Alrik .

... Just wondered if someone could forward this thread here and the other one http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16318 to Obsidian, so that they'll know what to do "right" the next time ?

Hmmm… It would depend on what kind of mood I was in, but here's some basics.

I think I'd go with the writing of PST, but the unobtrusiveness of story of, say, Morrowind.

The art design of Morrowind, and the world (openness and broad sense of history and reality) of Morrowind or Skyrim.

The inventiveness and willingness to try new things of Arcanum.

The obvious love for the game from… well, most Troika games, Arx Fatalis, and quite a few of the classics.

That last one's all but completely lacking from games these days.

Holy thread necro, Batman!

At least it's a good thread to bring back. Nice to see Wiz8 still getting a bit of the love it so clearly deserves. Looking back, I didn't really answer the question since several other folks did a fine job, so what the heck.

Character development (mechanics): Wiz8
Story branching / C&C: MM7
Engrossing world (aka atmosphere): Bioshock
Depth of writing: PST (duh)
Hugely large world to explore: MM6
Character development (ability to customize): Morrowind (pains me to include that game on any "best of" list, but credit where credit is due)
"Friendly" interface: NWN2
Castle building: MM7
Crafting: ??? (haven't found a game yet that does this well, although DDO isn't bad)
Fundamental structure: Wiz8 (first person, party based, all toons built)

I'd say my picks align pretty well with yours DTE, although I'd replace

Engrossing world (aka atmosphere): Bioshock

Click to expand...

with Skyrim.

And leave NWN 2 off any user interface "best of" list.

Let's add a couple more lines.

Tactical combat: Temple of Elemental Evil
Story: Planescape Torment
Followers: Dragon Age: Origins or Torment

dteowner said:

Crafting: ??? (haven't found a game yet that does this well, although DDO isn't bad)

Click to expand...

EQ2's crafting was actually pretty good as well, though I may just be biased because they included tinkering/clockwork creations... !!

The biggest problem with crafting, across numerous games I've played, is this: by the time you are capable of crafting something (either by level or by being able to collect the ingredients), it's no longer worth having. I'm not sure why that's such a universal problem for developers.

Well, in the case of Skyrim, it's a case of balance. The little crafting that Skyrim offers completely unbalances the game if you powergame your way through it.

I thought the crafting for NWN 2 was balanced just about right, unless you took advantage of some of the undocumented recipes...

NWN2 crafting was also pretty mundane though. +1,+2,+3,+4,+5, etc... I'd much rather craft unique pieces than feel like I'm staring at a munchkin's spreadsheet.

Actually there are unique items you could craft in NWN 2...

Were there? It's been a while But yeah, crafting should involve the lore of a world rather than just implement a spreadsheet.

A few, but most were generic, so I can understand...

Meaningful dialogue choices - PS:T
Companions - BG2
Cinematics - ME2
Ability to mod - NWN
Addictive - WoW or other Blizzard games
Different world - DA:O (Similar to Tolkien like world but with subtle difference, e.g. Elves as slaves etc).