5. Dragon Age: Origins + Awakening expansion (PC also on 360 & PS3)
A spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, 5 years in the making and includes a unique spin on your typical fantasy RPG by incorporating 6 different Origin stories. The Origin stories vary in quality, but all offer extra insight into a deep fantasy world full of political intrigue, racial tensions and fear of magic (which goes on to form a core component of Dragon Age II). Of particular note are the two Dwarven origin stories which are both intriguing as is the Mages guild storyline that paints an interesting picture of the role of magic in this deeply involving world Bioware have created. The Awakening expansion was also fairly good, although not quite as entertaining as the main game. Unfortunately, the sequel (Dragon Age II) was pretty poor by comparison, should have really been marketed as a spin-off and actually helps to highlight everything the makes this game great.
The story is your basic modern fantasy fare; epic and Tolkien-like but much darker with all the politics, scheming, intrigue and prejudices you would normally expect from such a setting. However, what it lacks in narrative originality it makes up for in old-school tactical gameplay and a mix of interesting party characters ranging from the stereotypical (Alistair) to the downright bizarre (Morrigan, Zevran). The Origin stories were an especially ambitious route to take with some rather unique twists for each one. These factors meant that whilst the story wasn't the most original, it was told in a way that was both enthralling and enchanting.
As Bioware moved away from D&D, it also gave them a bit of freedom in how they implemented certain abilities and stats into the game. The level of customisation options appears simple at first but as you play through the game the variety of abilities in how to setup your party become apparent. It's actually one of the few pure fantasy RPGs which gives mage characters the freedom to play as they want whilst still using magic. For instance, your mage can even serve the role of tank if you use the right sub-class and abilities.
Very few games are quite as ambitious as Dragon Age Origins and fewer still manage to implement such ambition into such a brilliant package. A great RPG from Bioware and probably the best pure RPG of the last decade. I really hope Dragon Age Inquisition takes more from this than Dragon Age 2.
