I love the sound of East West Quantum Leap Symphony orchestra but the fact is that it sounds a little too spacey and concert-hall like for my purposes.  And its $480 or something like that.

I am going to be producing game music (not super-realism like Oblivion or epic mmo like WoW but more like small indie RPG games), and I need a set of realistic sounding instruments that sound just a little less grandiloquent and epic and more personal and upfront, with a narrower soundstage.  I will be using the instruments more for solo and small ensemble work.
I can settle for slightly lesser sound quality, something more than this
http://shop.motifator.com/index.php/complete-orchestra-for-motif-xs.html
but less than EWQL (I realize EWQL puts that other voice bank to shame and then some, but truth be told I am willing to compromise significantly.)

If I am wrong in saying that EWQL is invariably huge-sounding please correct me.  The demos I heard from sounds online were impressive but was certainly marketed toward a different niche of composers.

Thanks in advance.

I would go for Vienna special edition: available for under $500
or Kirk Hunter’s Ruby for even less.