One that most people haven't heard of, that I really enjoyed, especially the story, was
Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning. It was an action RPG with real-time combat, put together by RA Salvatore and Todd McFarlane.
They've recently released a remastered version with newer graphics but I hear it has a few bugs. A remastered version of
Mass Effect is on its way too, which I probably will give a shot. The original was just a bit too clunky for my taste but I loved
Mass Effect 2.
As you can guess, I prefer action RPGs.
In terms of your classic turn-based CRPGs though, I have to recommend
Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel. Both are characterised by central plots that are far too obtuse and swamped by the sprawling side stories. But the sprawling side stories are such a delight and the combat is very creative and tactical, you have great fun regardless.
In the sequel you select pre-gen characters so their dialogue and story arcs are much tighter. We chose
Lohse,
Beast,
the Red Prince and
Fane (you can play both games co-operatively over the Internet with a buddy). It improved the storytelling a lot, rather than having a nameless, amorphous protagonist like in most CRPGs. Sure, when you create your own character you enter a name but it's nothing more than a label.
