Well, I think the next couple of years may, if they don't redeem the genre entire, provide us with some of the great RPG that we've been missing for so long. Neverwinter Nights II is coming, Dragon Age is at hand, and fans of ultra-non-linearity (which I ain't, but by god, let them have their fun) have been playing Oblivion for one or two months now. I can't believe why I haven't noticed this before, but apparently CDProjekt is producing a game called 'The Witcher', which may be good news for many of us. Check it out:
www.thewitcher.com
Also, for the ones who are afraid that this will be yet another Diablo/Neverwinter Nights: The Witcher will have dialogue, and story-based gameplay, with as much non-linearity as it can have without turning into The Elder Scrolls.
Something else, that sound very good indeed:
We have always wanted to create a game for mature gamers. A game which, although filled with mysterious intrigues, unworldly monsters and magic, would at the same time be devoid of naiveté and therefore very real. That is why we decided to leave all the high fantasy, fairy-tale worlds like Forgotten Realms behind-- aiming at a world where all the fantasy elements would exist, yet without the feeling of superficiality. And that is mainly what we believe mature players expect us to do--a somewhat familiar surrounding with a flesh-and-bone touch to it. In The Witcher, we are not going to avoid any moral issues, be it violence, eroticism, harsh language or stimulants like alcohol or potions, which by the way work similarly (especially those witcher-made) to drugs, devastating the organism.
Just though I'd bring it to everyone's attention
PS. It may not be news for you, but it was for me, and as I found nothing on the site that mentioned it, I did