Comments on: Neverwinter Nights is out!!!

Neverwinter Nights is out!!!

crankydoodle — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 18:08:49 -0800

Neverwinter Nights is out!!! After waiting 4 long years and wading through a fetid quagmire of let-down rumors and whatnot, I finally have a copy installed on my laptop right now! Run, don't walk to your local Software Etc. and see if they have a copy. Our local WotC didn't have a copy, and neither did our local Electronics Boutique or Best Buy.

By: gsteff

gsteff — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 18:31:33 -0800

Man, just when you thought we were all being paranoid, this pops up. Go figure.

By: riffola

riffola — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 18:33:00 -0800

A friend of mine is a huge follower of this game, he's been downloading the previews as and when they come out. Enjoying every single screenshot and game play post in the BB. To me it looks like Unreal Tournament meets DND (well it follows the DND rules)

By: malphigian

malphigian — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 18:37:20 -0800

gsteff, you strongly underestimate the rabid fanboyism (and I use that made-up word in the nicest way possible) of gamers -- RPGers in particular. The fever pitch level of excitement, esp. when a game is being released from a respected developer (bioware, in this case), goes far further than any marketing dept could really muster. That said, in my opinion its about as post worthy as the "spiderman is out" threads, which I can take or leave. The game itself, however, is in my paws right now.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:05:55 -0800

Yeah, my fed ex package showed up this morning too. :) I was just taking a brief break, before diving back into to the toolset. I don't care that much about playing the game, but I love designing worlds. :)

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:07:45 -0800

Can someone summarize what this is all about for those of us who are not already in the know? It seems to be a computer game but, different in some way, no?

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:21:16 -0800

So crankydoodle, like, how's the game?

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:39:11 -0800

I spent part of the day playing it. It's much like Baldur's Gate or Dungeon Siege. At least it was until I opened the toolset. I know that when I get home from work tonight, I'll be up building with it. The coolest thing is the addition of DM in the game. I've already started putting together folks for a LAN party at work to test it out.

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:43:15 -0800

Back when AOL was a weird little Mac-only online service with a hundred thousand or so users, they had a forum called "Neverwinter Nights" which was an interactive RPG. (At least I think that's what it was - I didn't really understand it at the time.) Is this game related, or is the shared name coincidence?

By: crankydoodle

crankydoodle — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:44:53 -0800

So crankydoodle, like, how's the game? It makes me feel all tingly in my happy place. Wait... scratch that. My boxers were bunched up again. I've only created a character and moved around the first few rooms, but here's some things I noticed: - The lighting is spectacular - The dialogs with the first few NPC's are *long*, but good for a first-time through. - There are in-game tutorials galore with NPC's. - The menu/option system is familiar if you've played Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, etc. But it's much more compact and unobtrusive as of yet. - There's already a patch available. - They have a cloth map of the area surrounding Neverwinter, much like Origin had with their Ultima series. So far, so good. I've got to start building a module or my regular game players will begin administering the arsenic to my water bottle at work, though. I bought the world builders guide and it takes you through some simple module-building and has a small tutorial on the scripting language as well.

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:45:18 -0800

vacapinta: BioWare is trying to be the first company to make a game that allows for the full Dungeons and Dragons experience, letting you play both character and dungeon master. The game has been in the works for five years and therefore the hype is now at a boiling point. Neverwinter Nights is based in an expansion pack called Forgotten Realms for the original D&D games.

By: crankydoodle

crankydoodle — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:48:37 -0800

Back when AOL was a weird... Same name, different game. It's basically D&D for your computer, but with a twist: you can build custom modules and host a game on a home server. It's a semi-persistent game world with up to 64 people per server as well as a stand-alone game.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 21:04:28 -0800

Thanks.

By: McBain

McBain — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 22:57:45 -0800

This game (the good parts) will rely on a successful internet community. Even given the years of hype I am not banking on it. I will wait to see the general buzz in a month. Sure bet: WarCraft 3 (if there is a god, I won't need any other game).

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 23:10:05 -0800

warcraft 3 will own all, i suspect... my friend and i damn near lost our girlfriends, three summers ago, when we really got into the internet gaming aspect of it.. this neverwinter nights game looks worth picking up as well, even if i'm not much of an RPG'er.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 01:34:11 -0800

When you posted the link, CrankyDoodle, you should have included some idea of what it was. Instead of adding three exclamation marks and shouting "run right out and get it," which foolded me, you could have said something like, "BTW, this is Dungeons and Dragons for your computer, WOO-HOO!!!!!! Run right out and get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Then I could have ignored it instead of waiting 40 seconds for the page to load. Who's cranky now? ;-) Can you tell I'm a non-gamer?

By: fnord_prefect

fnord_prefect — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 03:06:42 -0800

planetkyoto: if you're not interested in the thread, why do you think we'd be interested in your disinterest?

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 04:12:24 -0800

planetkyoto: Can you tell I'm a non-gamer? Could have fooled me, you sound just like a poster in a gamer forum.

By: macadamiaranch

macadamiaranch — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 04:18:34 -0800

i'm glad the reviews here so far are positive! my boyfriend is salivating in anticipation. the fed ex guy left the call tag on the porch yesterday morning. i'm looking forward to it as well--i've gotten tired of Dark Age of Camelot and Dungeon Siege & Morrowind aren't doing it for me. we're also really really anticipating Shadowbane here at my house too!

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 05:52:34 -0800

Man, just when you thought we were all being paranoid, this pops up. Go figure. Fwiw, my thoughts exactly.

By: eas98

eas98 — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 07:14:19 -0800

Ah, it's just like Morrowind, which sucked. Nowadays, game makers give you an engine, a construction set, and online playability, but neglect in giving a game some quality depth to allow you to enjoy all by yourself. Give me back my Dungeon Master series, or Phantasy, or even Wizardry.

By: GriffX

GriffX — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 07:56:44 -0800

Ah, it's just like Morrowind, which sucked. Bosh. Morrowind is fantastic, and although I've been playing quasi-regularly for a couple of weeks, I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. w00t Morrowind! ;)

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 07:57:42 -0800

if you're not interested in the thread, why do you think we'd be interested in your disinterest? I'm not trumpeting my disinterest, I'm repeating the weekly MeTa plea to write informative link titles. Is that so much to ask?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:31:57 -0800

eas98: Nowadays, game makers give you an engine, a construction set, and online playability, but neglect in giving a game some quality depth to allow you to enjoy all by yourself. Yeah, (wo)man, but the whole IDEA of NWN, from the get-go -- the reason it has been so hotly anticipated for YEARS now -- is that it is an extremely ambitious and fresh ENGINE and CONSTRUCTION SET with ONLINE PLAYABILITY. The fact that some companies will put out a meager campaign for their RPG game and then throw in a toolkit as afterthought has nothing to do with Neverwinter Nights -- it's a completely different attitude. The notion to is to give D&D geeks something new: the opportunity to really run a good campaign, a pen-and-paper campaign, on a computer without completely destroying the playing experience. Balder's Gate is obviously fun enough for enough folks that it's become a franchise, but it's not D&D; it's only a D&D-based CRPG. D&D providing the flavor, dev team providing, explicitly, the (limited, IMHO) direction of the game.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:44:19 -0800

Ah, it's just like Morrowind, which sucked. It's probably better to compare it to Baldur's Gate I or II, or Planescape: Torment, or any of the phenominal games Bioware's done in the Forgotten Realms universe. Bioware's focus has long been on the story. For Neverwinter Nights the DM toolset is indeed huge, but they've still got phenominal writers, level designers and directors on staff. If you've never played a Bioware RPG I strongly recommend digging around the discount shelves and grabbing one. Solid, engaging, the kind of game that when you're done, you'll dream about the characters and the story line for weeks to come. There's no reason to expect NWN to be any different. All that being said, I'm not buying it yet 'cause I'm already bogged down in great games. This is going to be an awesome summer for gamers.

By: macadamiaranch

macadamiaranch — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:52:25 -0800

I'm not trumpeting my disinterest, I'm repeating the weekly MeTa plea to write informative link titles. Is that so much to ask? Maybe it was better taken to MeTa then? Bosh. Morrowind is fantastic, and although I've been playing quasi-regularly for a couple of weeks, I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. w00t Morrowind! ;) I've been having a hard time getting into Morrowind, although I may not be making the best character outline decisions. I do like how detailed you can be in creating your character & how you can continually build upon various skills & traits. For those who have started playing NWN--how are the characters going? While my boyfriend is all about the campaign possibilities, he got me hooked into playing RPGs with him through the skills & traits of the characters (the Sim-ness of it all is what I like.)

By: physics

physics — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:04:31 -0800

I've been playing WarCraft III for the past couple of months (beta tester), and while the game is good, I'm not nearly as addicted to it as I was to Starcraft. In fact, I haven't played WC3 in over a month, but I suspect the single player experience will be good (the beta is multiplayer only). It has some interesting new aspects such as day and night (sightline reduced during nighttime), heroes (gain experience through killing and have special powers), items (health, mana, mines, portals, etc), creeps (random AI guys you kill for hero experience), and more. It's basically a mix of RPG and RTS. It's good, but my expectations were perhaps too high. I've heard of Neverwinter Nights from time to time, but haven't had the pleasure of checking it out. Not being a D&D player, it makes sense that I haven't caught the bug. But the concept definitely sounds interesting.

By: Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 20:37:55 -0800

I think the current golden age of PC RPGs is about due to die. Ever since Fallout and Baldur's Gate came out, we RPG fans have had a lot of quality to sink our teeth into. I remember the dark days before those games. . .and I'm afraid that those times will come again.