How easy it was to spend an afternoon, a weekend, a month, in the world of Skyrim. Like its Elder Scrolls predecessors, Skyrim contained a massive land to explore -- a land teeming with quests, characters, and treasure. Considering the gaming community's loving reception of Skyrim, from complex mods to cover ballads, gamers clearly appreciate a quest they control. The open-ended nature of the plot and play facilitates a nearly endless number of characters to create. Venomous archers and armored spell casters make up just a few of the roles players define for themselves in Skyrim. All while marching through the snow in time with Jeremy Soule's unforgettable Dragonborn theme.

Fallout 3 marked a shift in the industry, a move that saw the western RPG begin to surpass its Japanese counterparts. Fallout 3 is a massive game set in an equally massive open world where you can go in any direction you like and do anything you want to do... as long as you can survive long enough to do so, that is. Set in a post-apocalyptic American wasteland rife with memorable characters, Fallout 3 is the epitome of the deep, modern RPG and the archetype that many developers will mimic moving forward.