Shows where the gaming world is heading, doesn't it? I'm not liking that development one bit.

I see your point! I've been doing quite a bit of research and since BG Enhanced Edition is coming out soon I'll put it down to either Planescape Torment or Icewind dale... Still stuck though :(
Sacred looks cool, and I might pick it up, but now Diablo III's out, theres no point in playing it right now. Maybe later, though!

The Icewind Dale 2 games use 3.0, which make for a lot more character choices in the leveling process. You might enjoy that. It feels more hack-n-slash than the others.

I think the BG series is the best of the bunch. But honestly, if you've made it this far without playing it, so you might want to just wait for the summer and get the updated HD versions coming out ( www.baldursgate.com ).

PS:T is the supposed to be the best story, but wretched combat. But I haven't played that one, so it's all hearsay.

Also, Neverwinter Nights shouldn't be overlooked if you haven't played it. There are so many modules that you could easily play a super-in-depth RPG or a fast hack-n-slash or a Battlefield-style capture-the-flags.

I know it's not of the Dungeons and Dragons catagory but I we should put Fallout in this debate as well

I'd recommend Baldur's Gate 2. You can skip 1 if you only have time for one game, low level AD&D is a bit sucky. BG2 has a great story and great deep Gameplay. Icewind Dale's Story is fairly lame and Planescape Torment is really restrictive, you can only choose between 3 classes and you have to find a trainer for all but the Fighter, the limits on your choices makes it far inferior to Baldur's Gate 2 in gameplay and it's not that much better in Story than BG 2 (though it does have a sexy tyfling^^)

Baldur's gate 2 enhanced edition is coming out in Summer! I feel like I should wait for that first.

My question to you is: "Do you like turn based combat?"

If: "No." > Don't look further and checkout games like Nox, Divine Divinity, Sacred, etc.

If: "Yes." > I guess IWD is the most one you will like (going on what is said here, I only played BG).

Plansescape is more of a book than a game honestly, though I would say it's the best of these. Then again I'm an asshole who finds standard D&D boring.

You monster. :P

I believe the real question here is "Are you willing to put up with RTS tier active pause spam?" If Yes, then IWD (or any other IE game).

And I like IWD. IWD. It's the most balanced of the three; in P:T you have to realize that some of its aspects are just not viable (the combat is just plain bad, and the interface could be better), while in IWD2 the engine simply does not really work well with D&D3.

It depends on what you like. I have played some of all the Icewind Dales, and Planescape Torment. If you like a good story and party members that feel like they are party members go for Planescape Torment. If you like hack and slash RPGs and do not care too much about what your party is like the Icewind Dales are for you. I did not like that my characters in Icewind Dale were made by me, it felt more like me telling all the other me’s what to do. If you do go towards Icewind Dale 1, do not forget to download the free expansion, Trials of the Luremaster. Also, you can get some mods for all the infinity engine games at http://www.pocketplane.net/modlist/.

All three are quite long and time-consuming, so if you think you don't have time for two because of Diablo III, chances are you don't even have time for one ...

On another note, the D&D games are quite different from Diablo, they are much more about story (not always interesting story but a lot of it in any case) and tactical combat (fights can be very challenging if you don't know what you're doing and sometimes they're unfair because they're also based on die throws, not just your skill as a player). So they're not as easy to get into, they require some knowledge of rules described in the manual or even beyond, and they require some dedication due to their length and the amount of (more or less useful) information they feed you with.

Call me a blasphemer but personally I found Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale quite boring, and Baldur's Gate at times even frustrating even though I was familiar with the basic D&D rules and tactics. Baldur's Gate has a slightly better story than Icewind Dale, IMO, but I think I enjoyed Icewind Dale a little more, despite all, because it's meant to be played with your own party (so at least I liked all of my party members), it's as hack-and-slashy as the Infinity games go, and it's very linear, so the plot is easy to follow even if you take a longer break.

That being said, my personal conviction is that Planescape Torment is the best game of them all, the one most worthy of playing even today. It's got a great story, an original setting that doesn't rely on elves, dwarves and orcs, and a fantastic soundtrack (granted the soundtrack is good in all three games). But it may not be your kind of game if you're looking for Action, because a lot of the time it requires you to read a lot. The text is well written and worth reading though; personally I didn't mind reading it at all, because I found it interesting and gripping, while in BG and IWD the dialogues sometimes bored me. It's quite unusual though in that I think it actually rewards you with story revelations and the satisfaction of exploration and puzzle solving, rather than with lotsa loot and killing XPs (combat is Torment's weakness). I guess Torment is also the easiest game to get into for people who have never played D&D before.

(In addition to Torment, I love Baldur's Gate 2, btw, but I think that's not on the menu, right? I also liked IWD 2 better than IWD, I had fun playing it, but storywise it still pales in comparison to Torment and BG2.)

Do you mean spam pause durig combat? I absolutely hate games that relay on you pausing every second to play it effectively so if I can stand Icewind Dale practically everyone can. It's all in how you set the autopause function. Thankfully there are a lot of options.

You might have a tough time going back to the Diablo like games after playing any of these D&D games. Beware !