1) So, what I'm looking for are games more akin to the western kind of RPGs such as Fallout, Arcanum and Baldur's Gate:

- branching dialogues or simpler dialogues but with meaningful chocies
- ability to make choices in quests that lead to multiple outcomes
- an extensive skill system and maybe the ability to employ different skills to solve the same problem (a la Darklands)
- I'd also really like to see a game where my choices/actions really affect the gameworld and its inhabitants either in minor or major ways (for instance, you kill a shopkeeper and the shop subsequently closes, like what happened in Fallout if you killed Gizmo the casino owner - it simply closed down)
- being able to own houses/shops and the like would be quite cool as well
- being able to affiliate with factions and do quests for them
- generally games that are more nonlinear and open-ended than generic final fantasy wannabes.

2) I'd also like to ask: has a RPGMaker game ever been able to implement some kind of NPC scheduling that's somewhat more complex than "day - the npc is there, night - it disappears"? Otherwise, are there RPGMaker games where NPCs are actually doing their own things  (like - apparently - in the game mentioned in this review (does anyone know what game is it, btw?)

Thanks for the answers.

About the game you're asking about, it says at the bottom of the review that it's called "Seekers", and that you can download it at Gaming Ground Zero. If you're interested in playing it, here's a link straight to it. http://gaminggroundzero.com/games/seekers/

Also, about searching for games, the easiest option is to make one yourself if none appear through your searching. That way, you can play a game that caters to all of your tastes in an open-ended game.