So today's the day Neverwinter Nights 2 is finally put up on shelves. I'm going to be heading down to my local EB Games at noon today, hoping that I can get my hands on a precious copy of this game.

If any of you all get it, remember to download the first official patch released today which will add support for the DMC (Dungeon Master Client) as well as fix a few last minute bugs that the final beta testers and quality assistants reported.

I'll be posting my comments today if I get my hands on the game. Otherwise I'll have to go shop hopping tonight, checking out staples, future shop and a few others.

Woot!

I won't make that mistake again until I hear reviews and see gameplay footage. The original NWN's "DM Wands" (Not even original game content) were just crappy ways of fudging and generalizing an experience instead of actually supporting emergent gameplay, which is what the attraction to Dungeons and Dragons is! Not to mention it's easier to just play tabletop, or use IRC for dice rolls than it is to play it on NWN. You'd want graphics for your campaign because they could really make the game epic and entertaining. My personal imagination is far more vivid than the blotchy crap that was NWN.

So instead of buying the game and getting my hopes up, I'm going to wait until I know it's not going to suck ***.

You sure it wasn't just too complicated for you to use?

*chuckles*

I won't get to play this for a while Still broke. I'll just have to make do with playing in the Massassi NWN campaign for my D&D fix.

Waiting to see if NWN2 is more like the OC or more like SoU/HotU. If I wanted to play a meaningless hack-and-slash arcade game with dice rolls I'd play Diablo 2.

It shouldn't be as mindless if you consider just the influence system that you can have over your companions. Most can become evil, or even come to despise you, and some you could even convince to change classes over the length of the game. Of course, through and through its going to be the same idea that was in Kotor2, which IMO worked nicely.

From what I know, you'll have more epic and massive battles (hopefully thats not false advertisement like it was in Oblivion (10 on 10 is not epic or massive), and the storyline should be deeper.

Here is to hoping.

Hrrm. Might be worth trying if I ever get a healthy cash injection.

Never played the original, though.

Awwww SHRIMP! They are only recieving the game tomorrow. /_\

Let me knoe if they made the combat not boring.

Sweet scampees! They had the game at Future Shop. I just bought NWN2 and Dark Messiah and now my wallet is screaming at me. BUT I DONT CARE.

I shall play tonight after work.

And Rob, I heard its more like KOTOR in the sense that you now control all the characters in your party and stuff.

I'm not going to play a game that consists of click and wait in order to bash someones face in.

Did ya get Dark messiah? It didn't get good reviews but I know I'm enjoying anyways for the simple killing everyone in awesome ways.

Don't get paid till friday.

I think I'm going to get Dark Messiah and the latest helping of Mortal Kombat.

Aye, I'm definatly getting the latest Mortal Kombat as soon as I get my Xbox back from my brother. It looks wicked!

Does Dark Messiah require Steam?

Can't wait for NWN.
And Kirby, you sound bitter (as usual) and seem to have a grudge against the game because you weren't playing it right.

-no offense

How do you play it "correctly." Honestly, it doesn't offer anything that a graphical online version of DND should, and the tools themselves are shadows of what they should be.

From what I've heard the campaign starts out as pretty generic but becomes totally awesome. The general consensus seems to be "stick with it."

Aye, I've just played for a few consecutive hours.

Rob, you'll hate the combat. Same ol' turn based hit and wait business.

Graphics are good, but right now there seems to be no options of Antialiasing or HDr which is totally weird as they've bone been advertised by Obsidian in the past. The campaign itself and story looks to be good.

I can't bring myself to remember if I had so much trouble handling the god damn camera system in NWN 1 but... yeesh it takes some getting used to.

All in all I like it though.

You claimed it was blotchy, which it isn't unless you're running it at low settings.
On second look, that's about all you said that's not pointedly true.

-Touche.

Can someone fill me in on the online gameplay/interface of this game? I've tried researching it as much as possible and I really can't find a straight answer. Is the game a MMORPG in which you interact with a bunch of people on one server, or is it a game like Diablo II in which you connect to individual servers of small amounts of people. Also, I was looking at screenshots of the game and I was curious as if the view was more of a Lineage II type of view (rotating camera where you can get a third person or kind of a bird's eye view) or is it a fixed camera like Diablo II?

Thanks in advance, this game looks interesting but I'm just trying to get some brief info on it first.

yes

Kinda the second. But now they're talking about persistence and stuff...


Never played Lineage. But you essentially get to move the camera around to your black little heart's content.

-Can't wait.

I look forward to hearing back from Jepman... if he ever drags himself away from the game now that he has it. :]

Alright, first off, what I HAVE to say is... WHERE IS MY ANTIALIASING AND HDR???

As understandable as HDR not being implemented is (even though they advertised that it would be in long ago and even advertised that it was complete and 99% sure to be in the final release) I find it unbelievable that antialiasing is unavailable, even when forced through the driver. On the community forums we're still waiting for some tech support in that field but no dev as of yet has posted any word on it. Surprisingly, if you take a look at the .ini file MultisamplingType and UseHDRisAvailable are both options but even activating them in the .ini file and making this said file read-only, the game does not look any better. While this may not be a big issue to that many people, it is a dire one for me. I get annoyed by the little jaggies even at 1600x1200. Its hard to fathom, in this day and age that a game would not support even a feature as basic as AA.

Enough ranting, onto the game.

The character creation system itself is a deep and well-developped one, based on the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 rules. In terms of character appearance you have a large array of faces, hair and facial hair (make sure to check out the toggle facial hair button). Obsidian has seriously enhanced their skills at facial design since KOTOR 2. New to the game is the chance to pick a "Background Trait" (Farmer, bully, wild child, etc.) that gives you some + or - in various skills. At the very end of character creation you even get to pick your character's voice akin to those of NWN 1 and also write a background story on your character.

One thing I really like about this game is the awesome armor designs. Its not the generic crap you saw in Oblivion, Dark Messiah or WoW. Even the lower level have some fun and intriguing designs. Oh, and finally we have a good rpg with great capes and cloaks. The last one was Temple of Elemental Evil but that game never got the praise it deserved.

The story itself starts off extremely generic and I seriously had a "WTF! This again?" moment when the plotline started. Gladly, what seems like a lengthy tutorial and a before-scene introduction chapter quickly turns into a grand story and adventure. One of your tutorial/introduction buddies is pretty much a medieval Carth Onasi so prepare to cringe or love. By the time you meet your first real companion though, you'll love the style and have a good laugh.

One thing I do like about character interaction is that the devs seem to have made some great use of the various "social" skills such as bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, etc. They also give a wide range of responses so you can be a snappy idiot, big bad bully, caring guy, good but rebellious, etc.

The combat system is pretty much identical to NWN1's system except that you have control over your companions also. As Rob described it, it is slow. I don't mind it, as the combat is not my prime interest in Neverwinter Nights (I got Dark messiah for that).

I have not touched multiplayer yet and wont have time to yet for some time.

Will continue my speedy, unorganized and blog-like review with graphics after I got a few more jobs done here at work.

Question: Does it support widescreen resolutions? (1440x960)

I didn't notice if it did. I *think so* but I'll confirm tonight.

While the graphics are nothing mind-blowingly exceptional, they are quite pleasing. The environments themselves are quite beautiful and the lighting effects are nice, though its no HDR. If bloom annoys you, you have an option to turn it off.

Shadows in the game are quite nice, and have multiple options of performance increases. You have 3 choices of mapping resolutions (512, 1024, 2048) for 3 types of shadows (Character, short-distance and long-distance). There is a similar system for textures. This thus allows you to customize to your liking. You also have an option for soft shadows or stencil shadows.

In terms of performance you have a LOT of customizable options for textures, shadows, water, terrain, lighting, etc. With some toying around you can get everything running to your liking.

I'm having some slight framerate trouble outdoors, but I cannot at this point blame it on the game. I'm having some personal PC issues and I'm running on a single gig of RAM until I get a new set back. (last one had a defect). Right now I suspect that the RAM is the issue in areas with a lot of npcs.

Through and through the games run rather well in most instances. I just wish that I could lower my resolution and use some Antialiasing instead but that this point there is no word on why in the nine hells there is no option for it and that the driver setting seems to be blocked out of the game.

One thing I forgot to mention is that while the game has a solid base, an outstandingly involving storyline and some great gameplay, and certainly much more complete than KOTOR2 ever was, I'd say that my fears if soomewhat minute did materialize. Obsidian's second release is as sloppy as KOTOR2 was.

In terms of graphics, you have a lot of silly clipping issues such as a character's beard clipping through his chest, or the player's weapon constantly clipping through his arm and/or shield when in sitting animations. I cannot bring myself to comprehend why they would allow such obvious annoyances to pass. If no a better animation that evaded such clipping, why not simply hide the weapons when sitting down? I'm also annoyed by the fact that you can't sheathe your weapon. Through and through, animations are not the game's strong point.

The camera system itself is as annoying as every, though you get used to it and forget about it with time, when you get excited with the plotline. Still you'll probably piss and moan about it the first time you have control about it and throughout the tutorial chapter. There are some various options for camera though so thats a plus.

One important thing : DO NOT forget to patch your game with the release patch, it fixes some crabby things.

Now if only a dev would answer on the antialiasing issue. /_\