Editorial 10 reasons to buy NWN2 by JE Sawyer

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Neverwinter Nights 2; Obsidian Entertainment

JE Sawyer has compiled a list of <a href=http://au.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/neverwinternights2/news.html?sid=6159585&page=1>10 Things to Do in NWN2</a> to entice you to buy the game:
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<blockquote>1. Cool Tutorial - I never get tired of playing our tutorial. Actually, that's a lie. I've played our tutorial about 30 times, and when I start it up now, I long for the sweet release of death. However, I do not want to murder everyone involved in the creation of our tutorial after 30 sessions! That means that if you play through it once or five times, you'll love it! Seriously, it's a lot of fun. You get to help a child engage in theft, and you can expose the fraudulent flimflams of an old man and his pig. What else can you ask for? You might be asking, "But can I beat up some jerks with clubs?" You got it, pal.
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2. Role-Playing - When I made my character, Sass Afrass, I gave her the tale-teller background trait. I decided to role-play this by "bluffing" (lying) any time I had the [LIE] or [BLUFF] options in dialogue, regardless of how terrible the results of failure might be. I had a lot of opportunity to do this! Also, I had a lot of opportunity to fail my bluff checks because I didn't put many points into bluff. Often, people got mad at me and attacked me with magic missiles, and my character slowly started telling the truth. I think my character learned a little something about honesty and I learned a little something about life!
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5. Take Back the Streets! With Money! And Fire! - One of the routes through the game can be achieved by joining the city watch of Neverwinter. However, you can be a really corrupt watchman, which is pretty sweet. Bribery and graft are awesome! Alternately, you can side with the thugs and burn down the watch headquarters. Arson is awesome! If you're a pyromaniac with a heart of gold, you even have the option of burning down the watch headquarters and going inside to warn the residents so they don't get roasted alive. Merciful criminal torch-jobs are awesome!</blockquote>Hmm, sounds kinda good. In fact, it sounds pretty good, assuming it's done right and these options (honest watchman / corrupt watchman / street thug ) have depth and substance.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Inziladun]

What's this, a load of hype that's actually entertaining to read? I'll be damned...


And what's a Codex post without making fun of a few comments?

Those are the Graphics I wanted !
Great work.. We will all love NWN2

Yeah, good job on the graphix!

Goodbye WoW. I just read that my hunter is gonna get nerfed, so on to NWN.

Oh no, not Leguluois the Night Elf!

This game is going to be so p0wnage...

I concur.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I want to buy NWN 2 and fight dragons.

Yeah, good job on the graphix!

I have to say they look a bit "eh" for what you'd think would be a 5 start AAA game.

And that's exactly the reason why I'm hoping it means they spent more time on the rest of the game and as a result have made a game that's actually worth playing for once.

 

[Atrokkus]

2. Role-Playing - When I made my character, Sass Afrass, I gave her the tale-teller background trait. I decided to role-play this by "bluffing" (lying) any time I had the [LIE] or [BLUFF] options in dialogue, regardless of how terrible the results of failure might be. I had a lot of opportunity to do this! Also, I had a lot of opportunity to fail my bluff checks because I didn't put many points into bluff. Often, people got mad at me and attacked me with magic missiles, and my character slowly started telling the truth. I think my character learned a little something about honesty and I learned a little something about life!

is that basically saying that by the end of the game any bluff/lie check there are wont matter anymore?
Very soon we'll find out.

 

[Jed]

I have to say they look a bit "eh" for what you'd think would be a 5 start AAA game.

You're not kidding. Looks like Everquest. Maybe my laptop will be able to run it then, should it turn out to be worth buying.

 

[suibhne]

I have to say they look a bit "eh" for what you'd think would be a 5 start AAA game.

From what I can see in those high-res screens, they look far better than NWN (as they damn well should) and as good as most other current RPGs. I know these screenies probably aren't representative, since the res is cranked and AA is all over the place, but they honestly look just as good to me as what I've seen from Gothic 3 (whose screens have mostly been lower-res than this) or Oblivion (whose graphics can't even approach the pre-release screenshots without an extremely expensive computer).

 

[Bluebottle]

One of the routes through the game

So have they said there will be various routes through the MQ, or is this just a clever choice of words?

 

[Jed]

I dunno, both the Witcher and NWN look better to me. Also, does anyone else hate those rendered portraits? I think that the "painted" portraits gave a much needed "organic" touch to what is (obviously) an otherwise sterile-looking game ...

 

[Twinfalls]

Also, does anyone else hate those rendered portraits? I think that the "painted" portraits gave a much needed "organic" touch to what is (obviously) an otherwise sterile-looking game ...

Yes, that is a very good point. Relentless 3d-ification tends to bleach the artistic life out of games.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Also, does anyone else hate those rendered portraits? I think that the "painted" portraits gave a much needed "organic" touch to what is (obviously) an otherwise sterile-looking game ...

Yes, that is a very good point. Relentless 3d-ification tends to bleach the artistic life out of games.

I don't hate them because they're 3D. I hate them because they all have Down's Syndrome.

Incidentally: lol codex

 

[Oarfish]

Well, that was quite effective PR. I find myself going from meh to hmm. The original NWN dissapointed me so much I didn't bother following the many expansions.

 

[Blacklung]

I do agree that they look a bit silly, but they do solve the problem of having to either create your own portrait, find someone who can, or surf through hundreds of shitty user made portraits to find one that kind of look likes your character.

 

[Surgey]

Also, does anyone else hate those rendered portraits? I think that the "painted" portraits gave a much needed "organic" touch to what is (obviously) an otherwise sterile-looking game ...

Yes, that is a very good point. Relentless 3d-ification tends to bleach the artistic life out of games.

Dude, at the same time, some of the portraits in NWN were fugly. Other times, you just couldn't find a portrait that was anything close to what you wanted, so you wound up just picking one that wasn't even close (or wore a helmet so you wouldn't have to think about it). Also, I prefer it if games didn't take you out of the main game engine that much. I kind of go "eh" when a game has cutscenes that aren't done in the game engine (ala, they are prerendered), because it makes the game lose some consistency and... something else I can't think of the word for. Still, I don't mind it if said cutscenes are stylized in some way.

I do agree that they look a bit silly, but they do solve the problem of having to either create your own portrait, find someone who can, or surf through hundreds of shitty user made portraits to find one that kind of look likes your character.

I agree on that too. Sometimes I just prefer an in-game one.

Also, at least NWN2 has robes now...

 

[Volourn]

"Also, at least NWN2 has robes now..."

So does NWN1.

Nice article with some cool stuff. However, I'm surprised no one mentioned the ph@t lewt (as he wa slisting them like they were groceries), and those wer ejust the creatable ones not even the ones you may find. Or the fact you fight multiple dragons (ripping off NWN1 at that). Those don't really bother me too much as I expect this kind of stuff in CRPGs; but the Codex usually whines about them.

 

[Thrawn05]

"Also, at least NWN2 has robes now..."

So does NWN1.

Yeah, but how many years did it take them to pull that technical feat off?

Meanwhile NWN2 will have them right of the box!

 

[Jim Kata]

I like how he spins that a tutorial you are apparently forced to play is so fun.

 

[Jim Kata]

"Also, at least NWN2 has robes now..."

So does NWN1.

Yeah, but how many years did it take them to pull that technical feat off?

Meanwhile NWN2 will have them right of the box!

Just think of the modding possibilities for NWN2. With all the modders working hard, you could perhaps have feather boas in 2-3 years!

 

[Volourn]

"Yeah, but how many years did it take them to pull that technical feat off?"

And, NWN has things NWN2 won't have.

Also, it's much easier for a sequel to have things the original doesn't. That's why it's called a sequel.

It don't impress me much.

 

[Monolith]

"Also, at least NWN2 has robes now..."

So does NWN1.

Yeah, but how many years did it take them to pull that technical feat off?

Meanwhile NWN2 will have them right of the box!

Yeah, now, if that ain't a reason to buy it...I wonder how JE Sawyer managed to leave that one out!

 

[Humanophage]

I also find those 3D portraits outrageous. Even in some graphically advanced games like Half-Life 2, the 3D faces look much worse than detailed portraits from a game that came out half a decade ago. Good portraits look even better than faces in real life.

Dude, at the same time, some of the portraits in NWN were fugly. Other times, you just couldn't find a portrait that was anything close to what you wanted, so you wound up just picking one that wasn't even close (or wore a helmet so you wouldn't have to think about it). Also, I prefer it if games didn't take you out of the main game engine that much.

Why not insert a custom portrait?

 

[Voss]

Too much effort for no return?

Anyway. The impression I get (which I'm rather confused by) is World of Warcraft, but with better graphics (because it isn't for 2000 people at once) Boars, spiders and metal ingots seem to abound.

And wow, the half orc models are still fugly. Not in a good 'orcs are ugly' sort of way, but in a bad 3-d graphics way.
The backgrounds sure are purty, though.

As are JE's words, but I'm not convinced how well what he seems to be saying will carry over into actual gameplay.

 

[Grog]

The question burning in my mind after reading that, is what do we have to do to drag the list of lows out of JE? I'd be much more interested to hear the things he wasn't too happy about. Especially if he could include steps taken to improve those problems, that would inspire more confidence in the quality of this product. I suppose I should just be happy that a developer is willing to admit his game has faults, instead of hearing the, "Trust us, everything is awesome!" line again.

 

[Volourn]

" I suppose I should just be happy that a developer is willing to admit his game has faults, instead of hearing the, "Trust us, everything is awesome!" line again."

You are ignorant. I have never seen a developer truly claim their product perfect. Not even the hated Bethesdeans...

 

[denizsi]

At least the interface doesn't look bad or consolish.

 

[Nael]

I like how he spins that a tutorial you are apparently forced to play is so fun.

Perhaps he meant "fun"?

An example of a "fun" tutorial IMHO would be Baldur's Gate 2 (escaping from Irenicus' prison). It never took you out of the game, but there was a bit of a learning curve if you hadn't played BG1. In that way it wasn't necessarily a tutorial's tutorial, but it did gradually introduce you to the game. That being said, NWN wasn't that bad of an introduction to the game either, despite the inherent flaws to the single-player game like the piss-poor voiceovered reading of dialogue and the retarded characters themselves.

Worst tutorial ever? I think KOTOR1's tutorial was an example of a "not-so-fun" tutorial. I can just remember that goofy Nazi lookin dude tellin you to press buttons on your keyboard. They should've modeled in a keyboard in front of your character that was visible in third-person.