If yeu want an older, but truly awesome RPG... try to find a copy of Planescape: Torment.
It came out around the time when Baulder's Gate was big... except BG was total horrible worthless CRAP, and Torment was pristine and incredible.
Where many RPG's insist on making huge, vast, expanses of... nothing... Torment crams in so much stuff into such a tiny area yeu feel overwhelmed with the sheer amount of STUFF.
The writing, the biggest part of an RPG being the storyline, is top notch, with some seriously weird, yet epicly awesome stuff. Even yeur allies, the characters yeu get to play as, are amazingly intricate and fun.
Where baulder's gate tossed dozens of characters at yeu, each of which were generic and bland with no real purpose, there's only 7 playable characters in torment at all, 6 of which maximum in a party at a time, so they each have many scripted things to say in each situation and so on as yeu go through the game. This is a bit linear, but offers far, far more detailed writing.
And honestly, where else can yeu go up to a guy preaching about the afterlife, break yeur own neck to 'prove' the afterlife is a fake, and then demand that he do the same? XD Ah the joys of playing an immortal ^^
Gets around the whole "restart from savepoint makes no sense" problem, and there's even a few times where dying will actually help yeu! ...That... and one of yeur allies is essentially a fire elemental who 'teaches' yeu new fire spells... by burning yeur organs with them. Toss him a spleen, set it on fire, BAM, now yeu know how to torch stuff XD
It's a... very strange game, but if yeu're looking for story, it definately is worth it =3
Just keep in mind it's using OLD 2nd edition AD&D rules, so it's not particularly great gameplay. It's still very fun though <3