It must be almost Halloween, raising a thread from the grave like this:
10) Divinity: Original Sin
This was what Ultima VII wasn't. Unfortunately, it was still missing some of the things Ultima 7 was. Hopefully Part 2 will fill those holes.
9) Baldur's Gate 2:
If you want a good story RPG, this is it. Dragon Age was pretty good too, but not enough to get on this list. I have a feeling this will get bumped off though when I finish The Witcher 3.
8) Knight of the Old Republic:
The first (and maybe only?) RPG to get Star Wars right. I think the only other Star Wars game I had more fun playing was Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II).
7) World of Warcraft - Vanilla/BC/Wrath:
When I found myself at the end of the Deadmines, playing with my friends, this was how we felt:
You dun gud. Took me about 4000 (/played) hours to stop.
6) Skyrim:
You'll either love it or hate it. Some really need an enticing story. Some people are perfectly content to have no story, as long as they can make their own. I'm that person. Skyrim was good at that. Let me run around and explore another world for hundreds of hours. I'm ok with that.
5) Dungeon Siege:
I honestly can't explain this one. It was way too linear (the MP map was better). It played itself if you wanted it to. It basically had no story. The battles were tedious. But it's a game a remember playing a lot of. I think a lot of it had to do with the immersion at the time (pretty graphics for it's time, always finding new areas, the great sound and music, no loading screens, a badass donkey, and cool loot).
4) Diablo:
I burst into a room only to find it full of hundreds of skeletons, all out to kill me. I hacked here and there and everywhere until the last femur bone dropped to the ground. With a sliver of health left, I let out a shout of victory to my friend. Being in the next dungeon room over, he let out and arrow of victory in my honour. By some miracle it somehow hit me in the fucking head and I died. Ironically, I found that absolutely awesome!
3) Gothic:
When I first installed the demo, never even heard of the game before. Once I figured out the obscure control scheme, I realised this was the next evolution I had been waiting for since Ultima 7. Not perfect but damn good try.
2) Ultima VII:
This was the RPG that made me yearn for more open worlds to explore. That was the time when Origin truly did create worlds.
1) Ice Online - The Majic Realm:
An old early 90's local BBS MUD that was constantly updated by the devs. Unfortunately it no longer exists. I think i'd still be playing it today if it was alive.
If I was a bigger fan of Sci-Fi RPGs, then I would have added System Shock, Fallout, Deus Ex and possibly the original X-COM to this list. But i'll give them an honourable mention…