The 26 Best RPGs

GamePro has decided to count down the 26 best role-playing games ever developed, with many of the games we cover here on GameBanshee obviously making the list. Planescape: Torment, Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate II, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Star Wars: KotOR, Diablo II, Fallout 3, and the Ultima series are all mentioned.
The brainchild of Richard "Lord British" Garriott back before computer graphics had more then two colors to work with, the Ultima series defined party based PC RPGs in their early formative years. As each subsequent title came out, the series constantly reinvented itself to make use of the latest gaming technology available. The series tells an over arching story: Ultima 1-3 establish the enchanted world of Britannia, and introduced the tenants of heroic Virtue. Ultima 4-6 thrust players into the role of The Avatar, a human from Earth that becomes the embodiment of those eight Virtues. Ultima 7-9 tell of the fall of the Avatar, as a mysterious entity calling itself The Guardian comes to Britannia to defame everything the Avatar represents. The final game in the series, Ultima X, was canceled part way in to development, so ironically enough, there is no ultimate Ultima to tell the final chapter of the series.
Some of the obvious ones missing are Fallout 1 and/or 2, the Gold Box series, the Wizardry series, and the Might and Magic series.