I have never had the tiniest bit of problem with the party selector. Is the game running smooth for you?? Also, do you have patch 1.02a installed?

If you want detailed turn based games then Kings Bounty is a nice one... As far as action RPGs go why not try Divinity 2 which is due for release soon. I played the demo and liked it. You can also try the demo and see if it matches your tastes

Multiplayer I think you should try out Unreal Tournament III however I dont know abt the status of the online community (regarding the availability of players nowadays) but the game itself rocks due to its multiplayer. The graphics etc are also pretty and the gameplay is awesome and addictive. After the Titan patch, the game really tops the chart of multiplayer games for me

Risen is a nice game, though its not as open ended as some of the RPGs which come to mind when thinking of "Open Endedness", the combat is good and fun, and the story itself is nice, the dialog is interactive and very good. The visuals are also quite fine if you can run it atleast on 1024x768 with medium detailing u wud love the graphics. The length of the game is also fine, bugs are not a hindrance at all to gameplay and very minor. You might have trouble early on with getting to some places, but that is rectified soon enough. A nice array of side quests and there are quite a few ways in which they may be approached... All in all definitely worth the time and money.

I would love to see a Dragon Age 2 but it would be better if they put as much effort into the sequel as they did in this and dont compromise the story to rush the release, also it should not be shallow by any means and worthy of the predecessor.

I suggest you go for Jade Empire, trust me it has a nice combat system with all the different martial styles you can use during combat, also some enemies fall quicker to some styles, are immune to some, and so on... The story is also nice and the visuals run pretty well on lower end systems. Its not totally open ended, it follows the main quest but I think it would be worth a shot, don't know if there isa demo for it, but try it nonetheless... You should also try Dragon Age Origins...