Argh, alas alas I am allergic to JRPGs. Visual design issues (manga style, toddler shaped characters, etc).

I cannot decide between Gothic 3 and TES: Morrowind.

Far Cry 2.

System Shock, Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate 2 are close there as well.

Games that I expected to love a lot, but some things left a bad taste into my mouth:

System Shock 2
- I disliked the game mechanism and some of the enemies, which made the gameplay tedious.

Fallout 2:
- The game-breaking "too many items" bug.

- I was a bit overwhelmed by the subquests and different gangs in New Reno.

- I disliked how easily completing some quest could close doors elsewhere and make some other quests impossible to complete. Only by doing certain quests in certain order allowed you to finish most of them, and there was no real way to know that beforehand, or by not reading a FAQ. I would have preferred different subquests would have been more independent of each other.

Descent Freespace 1-2:
- Unfair game difficulty in higher levels. I am pretty sure their game testers never finished the game at the highest difficulty level, at least without using invulnerability cheats etc. In many missions, playing in the higher difficulties meant you had to find a way to beat the game engine, do something the game didn't expect you to do. Otherwise it would be pretty much impossible to beat the mission.

Thief Gold:
- Zombies and certain other enemies made the gameplay tedious and frustrating.

- The floorplan in many of the levels didn't make much sense.

Serious answer: it's a tossup between Arcanum and Master of Magic.

Although lately, my favorite GOG game has been guessing whether or not my overeager anti-malware program will let me connect to the site or not today.

So, you are unwilling to play a game *just* because of the visual style?

I know you weren't addressing me, but I do (unfortunately) resemble that remark. I've tried a couple of free/demo RPGmaker games and the visual style....it was just a complete turnoff for me.

I can't decide just one game!
For RPG, I choice Might and Magic series (especially 3 and 6, 7) and Gothic 1,2.
For Strategy, I choice Alpha Centauri and Jagged Alliance 2.
Also Empire Earth and Mount and Blade Warband are a lot of fun.

when you have to sit 60 hours through a game with a visual style you dont like
then yeah its kinda bloody important

Well yes. There are a lot of classics I haven't played because of that (Final Fantasy games, etc). I find it unpleasant, and completely immersion-breaking.

I do however overlook this aspect for some animated movies/series or manga. Maybe because they are shorter (well, not all of them are), maybe because they don't require my input, I don't know. But I wouldn't "enter" an anime through an interactive game. I cannot feel "inside" of it.

Also, TinyE, your incoming Huniepop joke is TOO predictible.

At the moment it's Dungeon Rats. After the newness wears-off my favorite will revert back to Fallout.

Thief: The Dark Project (1998), later it was re-released as Thief Gold bundled with few more levels. This game was one of the most immersive games I'd ever played. Sound designer did a tremendous work! It also has the best zombies presentation in the whole game industry, they are slow vicious and deadly. The bow and sword mechanics made into FPS were very impressive as well.
It was the good mix of mystery and thriller, too bad that Thief II: Metal Age and Thief: Deadly Shadows weren't nearly as good as the first game.

My favorite cutscene (WARNING ***SPOILER*** ALERT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AAzkPkiImo

That's easy: Planescape Torment. It was actually why I originally joined.

Baldur's Gate (with the rest of the Infinity Engine games not far off). To the point not only did I get rather annoyed that it was launched at a 10% discount and that it was only $10 to begin with where I think it's more than worth twice that, but also that I for a short while became quite fanboyish and went a bit too far when people dared to claim they thought that the Enhanced Edition was as good or even better than the original.

... I don't want to sink to those depths again, it was a dark place. I don't recognise myself in those words.

i dont need to reinstall it
its already installed on 3 computers

<span class="bold">Sid Meier's Colonization</span>. It even beats Planescape if I had to choose ;-)

It's a pity that Civilization I is no available on GOG...