New RPG To Play

I would uber-recommend Dragon Quest VIII. A lot of RPGs nowadays are finding new ways to often-times complicate things and tend to focus heavily on one aspect of the game instead of the game as a whole -- games like Grandia 3. While an excellent game no doubt, it obviously shifts its focus (and thus manpower) into making a great battle system while the rest of the game does suffer a bit.

DQ8 goes way back to tradition and drops all the new and complicated stuff by sticking to old-school combat and traditional gameplay. The story is bit cliche`, but immersive nonetheless. The characters are thoroughly enjoyable (one even spawned his own game), the NPCs make more than just minor impressions, and you'll feel incredible when you walk around the world, as it is the most visually stunning environment I've ever seen in any RPG -- ever.

I'd also recommend Fable: The Lost Chapters for either Xbox or PC. It's an RPG for the more "choose your own adventure" type. But it's got a lot of cool stuff in it and it hardly ever gets boring. Actually, it makes for a great distraction from longer RPGs like DQ8.

Don't forget about RPGs coming out soon, namely Rogue Galaxy. It's done by Level-5, a studio that not only has the superbly well-done Dark Cloud 2 under their belt (a game that every PS2 owner should own regardless of what type of gamer they are), but also Dragon Quest VIII, which will guarantee they continue making profits for quite a while thanks to the Japanese and they're crazy obsession with it. Anyway, I'm convinced anything Level-5 develops is sheer perfection, and Rogue Galaxy will be no exception.

Jam it back in, in the dark.