like Baldur's Gate (not Dark Alliance) or Icewind Dale? Pretty nerdy D&D stuff but absolutely flawless in their translation from the pen-and-paper version to the PC. It's a slick mix of real-time and turn based RPG'ing, where everything is happening in real-time, but with the ability to pause to do things like cast spells, change targets, have individual party members retreat, etc. If this doesn't appeal to you, then I wouldn't recommend it.

But since it's not a "twitchy" action-RPG, it lends itself to far more strategic combat depth than things like WoW, Diablo, BG: Dark Alliance, etc. Couple that with Bioware's obvious talent to tell a story and you've got the main reasons why it's pretty highly anticipated.