I want to get into RPGs and RTS games....

The recently released Command & Conquer 3 is an excellent choice for an RTS. There is alway Warcraft III as well. C&C focuses more on managing large forces while Warcraft will have you micro managing each unit. Most people prefer one style of RTS over another, the only way to find out which is for you is to try them out. I believe both games offer a free downloadable single player demo.

There are a lot of different styles of RPG available for the PC. The most notable that stick out in my head and should still be easy to find on store shelves are Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. If you're into a more action RPG oriented game you can't go wrong with Diablo II, it's very old, but is still a lot of fun to play. A slightly newer Diablo style game you could try is Dungeon Siege.

CoH isn't beginner friendly in my opinion.

 Maybe you should check out Age of Empires III or Command and Conquer 3 and TES IV: Oblivion.

RTS: C&C3 TW

RPG: WOW

command and conquer 3 is an ideal choice to begin with rts games - not because it's good, but because it's simple... many rts games can be overly complicated, and for a beginner to start playing them can be pretty overwhelming... company of heroes, as an example, has a very strong focus on unit counters (stone beats scissors, scissors beats paper style) and unit positioning (attacking units from the right angle, ie flanks/rear), and there's a lot of micromanagement (having to issue lots and lots of commands to lots of units in coordinated attacks) - and for a beginner, it can just be... overwhelming

command and conquer 3 is a simple, fast paced tank spammer that is just a perfect introduction to real time strategy... if you ever feel you need something more, games like dawn of war, company of heroes and the total war series will be a great place to look

for roleplaying, it's a little difficult to say - like all genres, rpg has many subgenres and recommending the right one is pretty hard

my suggestion would be pick up two titles - diablo 2 and vampire the masquerade: bloodlines

diablo 2 is a hack n slash rpg, the main focus is on developing a character (by progressing down a skill tree and by collecting items), there's almost no plot to speak of and gameplay is largely about clicking on enemies over and over, but the sense of satisfaction you can get from developing your character, from going from level 1 to 99 and seeing your guy go from wearing cloth rags and using a wooden club to wearing elaborate and rare armour with fantastical weapons of awe-inspiring power is quite amazing... few experiences compare, and nothing (mmo excluded) does it as well as diablo 2

bloodlines is like the opposite of diablo 2, there's a very strong focus on world, story and characters - all of which are awesome... the game is all about roleplaying, from the style of combat you adopt to how to interact with other characters in the world, everything is done your way - combat and character development are pretty bad... but that's ok - they aren't the focus of they game, everything is deferred to the roleplaying, and it's one of the best experiences you can get... just be sure to patch if you go with bloodlines

further in the rpg category is planescape torment (ideal for beginners since you can't really die!), the entire baldur's gate series and the fallout series

For an RTS I can't help but recommend Starcraft and it's expansion Brood War. It's among the best RTS games ever made. Sure, it's almost 10 years old, but it's still a wonderful game. You should be able to pick up the Battlechest for around $20 at Best Buy or the like. Warcraft 3 is another good one. I haven't played Command and Conquer 3 yet, but I did really enjoy all the previous C&C RTS games.

For RPG, as been mentioned already, the Knights of the Old Republic series is good. As is Neverwinter Nights, Diablo 2, and Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. 

Dawn of war and its expansions( which would need to get if you planned to play online) are one the best RTS i've playe and I i've play allot RTS games the new ones and the old ones.

When comes two RPGs Oblivion is good but if want hack and slash one i say Titan quest which is very like dablio so its good.  IN few weeks two worlds is coming out which looks very good and aimed at new rpg players

Good RTS for beginners: C&C3 - good graphics, relatively low hardware requirements

Good RPG: I've said this many times, but it's Fallout 1 & 2 - although these are quite old now. Or Neverwinter Nights

Good Action RPG: Diablo 1 and 2 + expansions

RTS; SupCom, anyday - the scale is phenomenal and it actually uses the operative word in RTS.....STRATEGY.......properly.

RPG; Neverwinter Nights 1/2, Guild Wars if you want summat free and quick, or WOW or LOTR for a deeper, more prolonged experience.

RTS-Starcraft, Warcraft, Dawn of War, CnC, CoH and Total War

RTS- Knights of the Old Republic 

CNC 3 is a awful choice you should avoid at all costs, its selling souly on name recongnition, you know their is something terribly wrong with a game when it sells a million in 6 weeks and can't even stay on the XFIRE top 10 for more then two weeks.

The CNC 3 community is really quite pathetic, honestly with the sales EA has had they would easily be at like 20,000 people online at any given time if they had a good product, but they don't and thats why everyones leaving.

If you must by CNC 3 I suggest looking on EBay as their are tons of disgruntled gamers, you could find the game for 20 bucks maybe even less if you look!

CoH and Supreme Commander are far better options, personally I'd go with Supcom, when supcom came out it being a system hog was a huge issue, but the new patch has made it much more low end machine friendly and the game runs far far far better now, Ive never seen a patch optimize a game so much.

The other thing the patch brought to the game is balance, the games balance wasnt that bad before, but now it's on par with Blizzards!

Thats CnCs biggest problem the games are all one unit spam fests all anyone with a clue does is spam Scorpion tanks to victory, it reall has some of the worst balance ever.

EA says they have a upcomming patch to solve it, but I wouldn't hold your breathe as EA has yet to balance any of their previous RTS games so to think they will this one is rather laughable.

People will tell you supcom isn't noob friendly, but honestly I think the reason many people have problems with is because it doesn't follow the basic cookie cutter RTS formula so it's alien to most RTS players, you never have played an RTS should haven't not much problems I reckon. 

I want to expand my horizons in terms of gaming.....what are the best PC RPGs and RTSs for a beginner?
Help would be greatly appreciatedzepman71

...Pro-SupCom-anti-C&C rant...MoeMania

Ignore this SupCom fanboy please. He's dissapointed in C&C3, but it is an awesome game! Singleplayer is a LOT of fun, online there's indeed a lot of tank spamming but still fun. SupCom can be great if you like long games with a lot of base-building. Personally I don't like it much, but if you're into these kind of games it's a good choice.

For a new RTS I think C&C3 Tiberium Wars is the best choice, coz it's a more simple game than SupCom/

For RPG I truly recommend Baldurs Gate 2, or if you want a more action oriented RPG you can't go wrong with games such as Dungeon Siege 2, Sacred, Diablo 2 and Titan Quest.

Practically ALL listed games have playable demo's that you can download, best thing to do is ignore all our advice and just try the demo's and see what game you like best.

Have fun!

EDIT: Starcraft is a good RTS as well!

Rts=Warcraft 3

Rpg= Knights of the old republic 

Your calling me a fanboy Ape? If anything your the fanboy, at least what I said is true! The whole CNC 3 community thinks the games balance is a freaking joke right now do you deny that? In the latest interview even the dam lead balance guy at EALA joked about just how bad the games horrid balance was and the community is definitely shrinking rapidly because of it as well.

Long games? This is the biggest load of crap about supcom on the internet, yes the game has some huge maps that have long long games, but the game also has a bunch of smaller maps and their are well over 15 maps that are MEANT specifically for 15 to 20 minute games so lay off the crap please, I know you CNC fanboys would like everyone to think the average supcom game is an hour long, when it's actually 20 minutes!

I actually just had a 3 vs 3 game about an hour ago that was less then 20 minutes long! 

I want to expand my horizons in terms of gaming.....what are the best PC RPGs and RTSs for a beginner?
Help would be greatly appreciatedzepman71

RTSs:
-Command and Conquer: The First Decade (possibly the best option, it has some of the earliest RTS games and the best one, and its a good value since there are 12+ games in there)
-Command and Conquer 3
-Warcraft 3
-Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
-Act of War

RPGs:
-Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2
-Fallout 2
-Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 (NWN 1 was my first RPG and it was a good one)
-Guild Wars (if you want an online RPG with no fee)
-World of Warcraft (if you want a true MMORPG)

There are a lot more options out there, but I feel those are the best "beginner" ones due both to their quality and theyre easy to learn.

I agree with the comments about RTS games which are prone to rushing and one-unit spam fests cos of some relatively cheap super-tank. The reason *I* like SupCom so much is because theres NONE of this bull. "ooooohhh great big effing colossus walker heading my way, but wait, :O not even backed up! Ah well, a good row of point defences will take it down easily."

My experience of CnC and similar titles is - "Send in the huge tank to shoot everything really quickly and end the game in the least satisfying 10 minutes of my life."