I like games that I can track my progress and be proud of, good examples are:

Diablo 2 singleplayer : It takes a lot of grinding/progression to beat the game, and it's something you can take progress pics/milestones of
Civilization/Banished : Same idea

A few others are:
Skyrim
Runescape


Looking for games similar to this nature with a strong story line and interesting (immersive) gameplay

Thanks for your help!

You've probably heard of these but:

Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas
Mass Effect series
Dragon Age
Oblivion

All have good storylines imo and plenty of room for grinding.

I look at those (I plated dragon age and oblivion), mass effect looked interesting.

I think I also want some sort of buid aspect to the game as well though, something persistent/progress oriented (just thought of this too).

Will keep mass effect in mind though, watched some gameplay

In Mass Effect they have Paragon and Renegade meters. Kind of like good or bad (not evil, just more badass), depending on how you handle things in-game. If you focus either Paragon or Renegade you open up more dialogue options as well as actions. The best thing about this though is that you can transfer your character between games, keeping its looks, abilities and most importantly the Paragon/Renegade meter that you earned in the past game. Major actions taken in any game influence the next game if you transfer your character, that's what I love about the series. If you grind a lot I think you can have a fairly high Paragon and Renegade. Just to clarify they are two separate meters. Even though Mass Effect 2 and 3 are much newer and more polished I still highly recommend you start with Mass Effect 1, it's a very good game and like I said before there are some major actions to be taken in it. Damn I wanna play Mass Effect now lol

borderlands

if u want a hardcore grinding game, play silkroad. i promise u u'll start breaking at lvl 19. lawls.

is the game any bit populated? and is the second version better, silkroad r

dungeon siege,all versions

Neverwinter nights
Morrowind
Kingdoms of Amalur

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura