Story
There's only a few games out there that I play just for the story and one of those is Mass Effect. Aside from being very well presented, I can't think of any characters that weren't atleast somewhat interesting. Often when I play an RPG there's one or two playable characters that feel like they were added as a joke. Usually some kind of furry that just doesn't belong. Not in Mass Effect. Every character seems to have some measure of importance. In fact out of all of them the human ones are the least interesting, but still interesting nonetheless.

Favorite Game Mechanic
Diablo 2's item system. I love anything in a game that has a random element to it and Diablo 2's items are at the top of the list. Aside from being random there's also a lot of customization in the way your items work, with gems, runes, charms, set items... I could go on all day.

Favorite Character
Probably Geralt from The Witcher. He just seems like a no BS kind of guy. He doesn't wear his emotions on his shoulder and he doesn't whine and moan every time he makes a morally ambiguous decision. When he encounters a problem he thinks it out logically then deals with it. He's not perfect but he knows how to get things done. Also if I ever get around to beating it, The Witcher might trump Mass Effect for story.

Favorite Combat System
That's a tough one. No combat system in an RPG really stands out for me. There's usually a lot of elements that support that combat system but the system itself is lacking. I think I'm going to have to go with Battlefield 2 for this one, just for the amount of variety in the actual combat. There aren't many games out there that allow simultaneous infantry, mechanized and aerial combat and out of those few Battlefield 2 is king. The AI is quite competent too once you mod the game to allow you to add them to larger maps.

Vivi was always my favourite character, so it was nice to see he wasn't always alone.
Granted, Garnet probably did have the biggest burden on her shoulders, and probably had the toughest character development to work with. But agree'd, some of those pills were hard to take. Especially when she went mute.

I've played very few games in my lifetime, but I'll answer this anyway. The first two would have to go to Abe's Oddysee. I love the story not because it's particularly well written or anything, but it's just kinda creepy and cool. Plus, the intro video "this is Rupture Farms..." is my favourite, EVAR. SO I go with this one for story. Sad as it may be, I don't often worry about the story. I play games that are fun and look nice :shrug:
I also love how you can possess sligs in Abe's Oddysee. I do that whenever I can, and just run around yelling at Mudokons and making them get on the ground. The mechanics also aren't particularly top notch, but that game is so fun and dorky.
My favourite character is Dogmeat, because I absolutely love dogs and think it's the coolest thing having a dog companion as you roam post apocalyptia. So badass.
As for combat system, I have no idea. Given that I've dedicated the most time to Bethesda games, I've only ever experienced kinda wacked out, dorky and awkward combat. So for that precise reason, I say Spyro. Toasting enemies = cool.

Need more games >_<

im really bad at descrbing things
Story
Mass Effect - I like how everything is so detailed, all this background detail on different species and planets and how it helps explain how the characters interact with eachother in the way they do.
Mechanics

Minecraft-LAVA CASTLE

Character(s)
Andrew Ryan from Bioshock. I just liked the "a man should not have to give his money to the government, the parasites." that kind of thing...

Combat

Chrono Trigger-No random battles, turn based combat that didnt actually stop on turns. It always kept going... And all the techs and combos allowed you to have youre own strategy.

Game that contains your favourite story AND why:

I actually really liked the main plot in Mass Effect (the original game, not the sequel). It was kind of a linear story, but it had a good narrative and I felt connected to it while I was playing. I am really surprised to find myself saying that. Planescape: Torment stands in a realm of its own of course, KOTOR was amazing, and BG2 also had a great plot. I'd be hard pressed to pick one of these above another.

What game has your favourite game mechanics AND why:

Absolutely adored the magic vs. tech thing in Arcanum. That game is almost off the scale for me in how good it was, and that is largely due to the magic/tech mechanic - still to this day it is one of the best models of how character development could potentially open up or shut off different locations/companions/parts of the plot depending on the way you take your character.

What game has your favourite character(s) AND why:

I'm really struggling with this one, but most of the games I've really enjoyed (other than TES because I enjoy the lone exploration there of course) it's been because I liked a character in the game. My favourites have been: Carth Onasi in KOTOR; Kaidan from Mass Effect (maybe it's something about the voice as they were both voiced by the same actor, weren't they?), Alistair from Dragon Age:Origins; and although this might sound odd if you've only played vanilla MW, I came to a feeling of kinship and common interest with Athyn Sarethi of House Redoran as a result of the LGNPC series of mods.

What game has your favourite combat system AND why:

BG/BG2 (and others like them). Seriously, I'm not into "action" style combat, I like the "pause when you sight an enemy" and then direct each party member in turn, and have the game pause again when I need to give another command. I'm an old fogey who used to do pnp and then started playing rpgs on the pc, and I would rather play games based solely on character skill and turn based combat that something that relies on my own reactions and skill!

Story:
Mass Effect. The cinematic story is absolutely beautiful.

Favourite Game Mechanic(s):
Fallout New Vegas. An excellent game that took the best mechanics from Fallout 3 and improved upon them. It's a shame that it's buggy though.

Favourite Character(s):
Zack Fair from FFVII Crisis Core. I found myself becoming attached to this well developed character and feeling genuinely sad to watch him suffer an undeserving demise.
Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect 2. Dat ass. The characters in the Mass Effect series are just so brilliantly developed that you start to develop deep emotional connections towards them.

Favourite Combat System:
Batman Arkham Asylum. The freeflow combat was simply amazing. I'm really excited to see what Arkham City has in store for fans.

Story:
Planescape: Torment details the struggle of a man who doesn't know himself as he tries to find out who he was and where his strange immortality came from. It's really gets good when you start uncovering secrets and lies. The various personality of The Nameless One mean that there is no real way to know whether a note written by him in the past is accurate or a trap. He's also being hunted by an unknown foe that is like no other ever seen, raising even more questions. It's just so well written.

Game Mechanics
This is a pretty broad field, so I could name some very different, but equally valid games here. I'll go with Deus Ex because I loved the design which encouraged and, indeed, rewarded exploration. Not to mention the levels were designed in such a way that you always had multiple paths and various little interesting things you could do that showed an attention to detail unrivaled by other games. So yeah, level design in Deus Ex.

Character
Probably Edwin from Baldur's Gate. He's certainly not the best video game character ever created, but I enjoyed his little subplots and dialogue more than most characters.

Combat
Depends on many things, really. For example, Street Fighter combat is drastically different from X-COM combat, but both a arguably good. If you put a gun to my head and made me pick, I'd go with Jagged Alliance 2 for tactical, Mount and Blade for medieval, and Quake II for shootface. I can't pick one, although I can narrow it down by saying I don't like FPS games too much.

The awesomeness that is policenauts is spreading. :thumbsup:

My favorite character from policenauts is Tony Redwood. He is just badass, a perfect rival for Jonathan.


Story
Policenauts. The characters, the setting, everything is either perfect or close to perfection. It also leaves certain subplots open while still has the feel of it's over when you beat it. Also touching almost every pair boobies you come across is awesome.

Game Mechanic:
The boob touching in Policenauts.
No not really, but I just can't think of anything else right now. Well maybe the octocammo from MGS4 it was just awesome.

Character
Tony Redwood from policenauts. Just badass, flies his godard and munching narc.
That pink crocodile in Flower Sun and Rain. Weird creature, yet lovable. He should've gotten more screen time.
Metal Gear MkII from Sntacher. Lovley robot companion, got lots of funny dialogue.

Combat System
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus. It's a fighting game so it's all combat. What makes it awesome is it's immense depth to it. It's a game series they dropped(and made BlazBlue instead) beacuse it got to hardcoe.

Story: Planescape Torment, for reasons mentioned before

Game Mechanic:

Deus Ex: The whole skill and augmentation system working great together, which can be used to solve every situation in whatever way you like.

Magicka: All those different combinations of magic you can use!

Character:

Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island, Alex from Golden Sun ( :meh: ), SHODAN from System Shock, Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2, Andrew Ryan from Bioshock...

Combat System:

I agree with the Jedi Academy recommendation, it's just awesome.

Also Magicka as result of the whole magic combining mechanic.

And a special mention to Dwarf Fortress because of the ridiculous amounts of detail it has. It takes in account all sorts of material properties of armor and weapons, your skills, and when you actually hit someone it keeps track of it all the way down to the tissue level.

Maybe later i come up with beter ones but these are the ones i think of now.

STORY: i think uncharted drake's fortune, two was pretty good to but i don't like that in the ending
Anyway they both have great voice acting and interesting set pieces.

GAME MECHANIC: I really liked the dialogue system from Alpha protocol hope to see that in more games.

CHARACTER: Cortez form time splitters future perfect, some of the funney-est dialogue you have ever seen (that entire game is super funny).

COMBAT SYSTEM: The cover system from medal of honour European assault, vanguard and airborne (all use the same cover system)

story:
I dunno

Mechanics:

Dead space 2's interface. The completely in-game holographic directions, inventory management and data storage is very immersive.

Characters:

This one is hard. At the moment, I'm leaning towards Strelok from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games largely due to how his story is told and his uncanny ability to survive with a AKS-74U, but Jeanette Voreman from VTM:B is hotter.

Combat System: This is a hard one. I'd say it is a toss up between X3: Terran Conflict's space combat, S.T.A.L.K.E.R CoP's gunplay, and Dead Space's dismemberment.

Badass, but also super creepy. Could tell right away that something was up on the flight to Beyond.

Story: Portal 2, Half-Life 2, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed 2, and Bioshock. Excellent stories that svcked me in and made me play all the way to the end.

Game Mechanics: Portal and Portal 2. Portal guns, hard-light bridges, excursion funnels, paints with different properties, lasers and redirection cubes. The fact that you're not mowing down terrorists for the whole game.

Favorite Characters: GLaDOS, Wheatley, Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, John Marston are a few. They actually felt like real people, even though two of them are robots.

Favorite Combat System: Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's just so easy to learn, fun and simple, very fluid and you get that feeling that you're actually kicking bad guy ass.

Game that contains your favourite story AND why
I'm going to pick Mass Effect (makes you care about the characters and place enough to want to save it) followed by BioShock (very profound and haunting)

What game has your favourite game mechanics AND why
Bejeweled Blitz - the desktop version - is compulsively addictive. For much the same reason, I'd also nominate Torchlight, which just has perfect balance, and the Thief series for the very satisfying POONK! of bopping your enemies over the head.

What game has your favourite character(s) AND why
Oblivion, for the Shivering Isles expansion - that has a lot of very memorable and often likeable characters, especially the super-sixy Sheogorath. Although Bioware have tried their hardest, I don't like their companions as much as I like Oblivion/SI's NPCs: I mean, Mission in KOTOR was very sweet, and Alistair was very cute in Dragon Age, but the rest of them range from faintly irritating to horrible. I do love Garrus from Mass Effect, but he only really comes into his own in the second one, and Jacob and Miranda were very meh in ME2.

What game has your favourite combat system AND why
That's really hard. I'd probably pick Mass Effect 2, with its cover system and very satisfying gunplay. That said, the VATS system and general feel of the guns in Fallout 3 is very pleasing.

Story
Knight of the Old Republic

Mechanics
Mirror's Edge

Favorite Character
Altair (Assassin's Creed)

Combat System
Batman: Arkham Asylum

May elaborate more on these later, gotta leave for work.

Story-KOTOR,it just an epic adventure with interesting twists.

Mechanics-Oblivion, with such a humongous open world to explore it has the #1 spot for all of my games.

Character-This is a tough one but Link is my favorite.I was a Nintendo gamer starting with the NES and ending with Gamecube Link has always been Nintendo's second hero.Link however is clearly a much more in depth character than Mario and is easier to relate too.

Combat System-Assassin's Creed,its pretty darn flexible and can cater to both stealth and regular combat.