GURPS is designed from the ground up to realistically model the world - whatever that world happens to be. It may be full of unrealistic things, like magic or psionics or cartoon physics, but the core rules are based on a solid understanding of how the world really works, and the game is designed to leverage that understanding.
That said, even the hardest-core GURPS player occasionally wants to go into a dungeon, find some monsters, kill them, and take their stuff - the core of what most D&D campaigns are, and have been, since I've been gaming - ever since '79. One of the real powerhouses on the GURPS authorial staff, Shawn "Dr. Kromm" Punch, took this idea and ran with it, initiating a line of PDF products under the Dungeon Fantasy label.
If you're the kind of person who hasn't ever played a more nuanced sort of game, where social interaction is important, and the reasons for things happening have some sort of internal consistency, these books can read as being a little condescending. But for those of us who have had that richer, more nuanced gaming experience, they work, almost offering absolution for playing a game that might not, technically, still be role-playing, but is definitely a chance to have fun.
Dungeon Fantasy has proven to be so successful that they've released fifteen(!) supplements, a published adventure, and a Monster Manual-like tome of beasties for your players to confront. Now, you're saying to yourself, "I spent a good deal of money on the basic rules set, now you want me to buy seventeen more books? Is this Amway?" Let me try to calm your fears.
First, GURPS is, if nothing else, intensely modular. You can get into Dungeon Fantasy with nothing more than the first book - Adventurers. If you're not interested in some or all of the other books, skip them. I actively avoided the book on Ninja - I didn't like them in my D&D, I don't need them in my Dungeon Fantasy.
Second, these are released as PDFs (though some can be purchased as printed softcovers), through the Steve Jackson Games website (http://e23.sjgames.com) for $7.99 each. Not exactly a pricy option for each of these, though of course they do add up if you have OCD and must have the whole collection. Don't judge me!
Finally, these sorts of books are really not adding very much in the way of new material. What they're doing is using the rules - the tool kit - from the Basic Set to build up some examples, be they templates or lenses to apply to characters. You could "reverse engineer" these ideas all on your own, without spending one red cent, with little more than the basic rules in front of you. There's literally nothing keeping you from playing a D&D-styled game with just those two rulebooks. The value-add is that someone (in this case an expert in the game) has done the heavy lifting for you, and made it easy for you to sit down and build a character in under ten minutes by selecting a proper template and making a few simple decisions about the kinds of skills you want, from a predetermined list, and what sort of weapons you intend to carry, and for wizards and clerics, what spells you have access to. And then you're on your way.
So, if you're new to GURPS, I can say that these rules are going to make your life easier if you choose to play a dungeon delving game. If you have some hard core D&Ders in your group, it might be just the thing to get them to give the system a try - it will short-circuit the "making characters takes too long" lament so common to newcomers to GURPS, and it provides a comfortable, familiar style of play with which to learn the rules. And then, as you get better and better with the rules, you can start adding in additional modules and optional rules. Some of your players won't even notice, but others will start to see the elegance of the system, and you may wind up with some converts on your hands.
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