Deus ex, half life and several of the other games mentioned aint that long. Deus ex shuld be over within 10-15h

From what my friends have told me, far cry seem to be your best bet, althought any of the older FPSs shuld last you at least a while. The lenght/cost ratio for games like System shock (1 (needs DosBox) & 2), deus ex 1, theif, No one lives forever, quake 1, doom and so onshuld be farley good, althought i dont play enought FPSs to really know which one would be the longest.

What suprises me is the fact that a lot of people pick games that really dont have much of a story... fanboys? ;)

Well, time for my list:

1: Xenogears (ps). You need to have more than a basic understanding of all the major religions + more than a basic understanding of ancient philosophy to really understand the story in this game. But really, i have not played a game with a deeper, more involving story than this one. Sad thing the game itself aint that great.

2: Final fantasy 3 (6)(snes): While it suffers from the same problems that almost all final fantasy games have, this game still manages to tell a great story. In particular the first ½ of the game is great.

3: Planescape torment: Agin, more than a basic understanding of philosophy helps, althought in this case, its not actualy needed.

Those are the 3 "top" games, in my opinion (althought there are most likley other games that deserves a spot on the list, my memory is a bit on the short side ;) )

Other games that deserves to be mentioned: The longest journey (1 & 2), fahrenheit, outcast.

There are also some games with great backstorys, but where the storytelling in the games themselves lack, like: The elderscrolls series, fallout, the call of cthulhu games, the vampire (white wolf) games, arcanum, to name a few.