WHAT GAMES SHOULD I PLAY?

I don't know your preferences, so I'm gonna make some suggestions just from a practical standpoint: I would stay away from games that require a major investment in time. So I'd strike off Borderlands 2, Civ 5, Monster Hunter 3, and possibly Final Fantasy 7 from the list. The Dragon Age games might need striking off as well depending on if you're a completionist or not. They're all amazing games, but depending on your schedule and how much free time you have, it might takes you a loooooong time (Read: about 5 months) to finish them.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 can be completed in relatively short time and are fun to boot. But make sure you get ME3 to complete the trilogy. Stick of Truth should ONLY be played when your kids are not around.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Bastion, Braid, and possibly Torchlight 2 if you like dungeon crawlers. Skyward Sword is fun for the whole family until you accidentally hit them in the face swinging a Wiimote.


Now, assuming time is not a factor, my top 6 picks would be, in order of preference: Dragon Age Origins, Bastion, Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 (you'll want to play 3 after you play 1 and 2), and finally Dragon Age 2 because Inquisition comes out in a couple of months and it's looking to be a great game.



Now I need to go wash my mouth out with soap for even HINTING at someone not playing Dragon Age...

Stick of Truth is good fun. It's a simplistic RPG with tons of EXCELLENT South Park humour. If you like the show, you'll love the game.

Try Fez, Kentona. It does some interesting things gameplay-wise and it's quick and dirty. Its puzzles can be a bit obtuse, but the game is beatable without having to figure out the more obscure ones.

I really wanted to like Opoona, its character art and music are both charming. But its random encounters are frequent and slow and the whole thing just feels looooooooong. Admittedly I haven't gotten very far, maybe the second dungeon?

Hard to go wrong with any of these, kentuna.

Final Fantasy 7's the obvious one--it's got a few aging issues with some of the visuals (though they hold up better than a lot of stuff from that era) and the pacing of the battles are a bit slow because of lengthy battle animations, but I think it's pretty much an essential RPG.

You'll like Dragon Quest 8 since it keeps the series's exploration, which seemed to be a big influence on Hero's Realm's design. The game's skill progression system isn't as cool as earlier Dragon Quests, though. The art direction and characterization are a few notches above previous entries.

I fucking loved Monster Hunter Tri, so I'd give that a playthrough. It's got great mechanics--it just takes a while to get through the early missions, which aren't as engaging as hunting big game. Expect to spend a few hours learning how to gather materials and fight small monsters before you get to fight something cool, but once you do fight a bigger monster, you'll pretty much be doing that for the rest of the game (with some breaks to stock up on supplies).

Borderlands 2 with friends is loads fun.

Any game with friends tends to be loads fun.

author=Sailerius
I was going to suggest Dragon Age and Dragon Age II because they're really solid RPGs but then I noticed Braid on your list. You really owe it to yourself to play it.

Braid is my favourite game of all time. Not even exaggerating. I think it's the pinnacle of game design.

Could have sworn I'd given my opinion in this thread already, but norp. Well, let's fix that shall we?

- FFVII is a must. It's the quintessential jRPG and it's a lot of fun to boot. Also, do you get the references that have been made from the game without having played it?

- Dragon Quest VIII is another great jRPG. I found it charming and fun, and while there's a bit of grinding that you'll need to do, I think you'll enjoy it.

- Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 are also really nice games and deserve to be checked out. The play style is a bit different to normal jRPGs, though having played the SW games it might be easier for you to get used to. The stories are pretty good, yeah, but it's the characters that make this series shine. Interactions and characters that talk to each other... hnnng, dose things I do like~ They're also pretty damn fun.