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Neverwinter Nights Coming in June
dextr0us writes "The apocalypse has come. Neverwinter Nights beat Duke Nukem Forever to the release floor. According to Neverwinter Nights Official Site it seems that they are taking pre orders, and the official date for the pre orders is 6/25/02. As a fan of pen-n-paper, without the geekiness, Neverwinter Nights solves my dilemma!" Update: 03/25 12:38 GMT by Hemos :Just a small note: I'm still available for beta-testing. *grin* CT: Hemos is not available for beta-testing. He
has work to do first ;)
"Come to think of it, has anyone heard anything BAD about NWN?"
No, but you didn't hear anything bad about Daikatana...
Until it got reviewed / laughed at.
I'm looking forward to NWN as well, but I want to see a review or two first, and play the demo.
Maran
Yep, I've heard some bad things.
1) No swimming.
2) No climbing.
I can't get over when an RPG takes out some very basic physical actions in order to make the game just a little easier to code. Simply put, I think those two actions add/take a great deal to/from the game, depending on if they are in the game or not, or if they are implemented well.
When I'm in a game, I want to be completely surrounded by the fantasy. I don't want to remember that it's just a game, and not being able to do simple actions like swimming and climbing rip me right out of the fantasy, and plop me down in reality.
They have had ample time for this project; they should have done it right. Don't get me wrong - I'm excited about the game - I'll finally be able to bring my old campaign to life again, but I am slightly disappointed in the engine.
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
>"..As a fan of pen-n-paper, without the geekiness, Neverwinter Nights solves my dilemma!"
.. (IMHO)
I must say I am not very informed about the features of Neverwinter.. but computer RPG will not reach my expectations before they actually provide an option of having a live Dungeon Master (Gamemaster or whatever) in the session..
It is the DM / GM aspect of the storytelling I liked the most. When one can have a DM to make human randomized events happen in a computer game RPG I'll finally have the digitized Pen & Paper experience I always wanted. Diablo, Baldurs Gate, even Dungeon Keeper, all were good but failed on that particular point
life+universe+everything=42
In the blue corner, Bauldur's gate 2, arguably the best RPG ever made, great quests, but no ability to swim or climb.
In the red corner, Evercrack, arguably the worst crime against humanity perpetrated by a software company. Too addictive, hideous repetative gameplay. The abitity to swim definitly does not save a game if it lacks anything above the kill get exp. heal routine.
Quests, characters and gameplay are more important than Swimming/ climbing
scuz me? I dont think this hobby (pen and paper rpg) is any more geeky than playing a game on a computer.
tell my ex marine buddy that he is a geek, and he'll drive his size 11 combat boot up your nose, tell my truck driving friend that he is a geek and he will drive his big rig over you. in fact I havent had a "geek" in our pen and paper gaming group in over 10 years.
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Which beats both these games.
AC has superior online playing features than EQ and BG, The graphics arent as good as EQ but the gameplay is great, it has the most complex spell system, it has a complete class system with monarchism, it has all kinds of enviornments from forrest to mountains covered with snow, weather system with rain effect, snow effects, etc, waterfalls, its just a virtual world.
The tactics come into play when you have diffrent enviornments.
The monsters in AC are very smart, they attack with strategies instead of just random hits
BG had good AI, but it wasnt a multiplayer kinda game, at least not like EQ or AC.
BG is more compareable to diablo, I'd be fine with NWNs being more in the style of diablo, but i'd prefer something bigger so thousands of players can play with each other or at least hundreds
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
In addition, I would recommend ordering from a Linux reseller such as Tux Games in order for the sale to be counted as a Linux sale.
-Karl
A release date for DNF has NEVER been set. 3DRealms official date was, is, and will be: "when it's done."
Anyone that claims anything else doesn't know what he/she is speaking about.
+++ATH0
This game is going to be great. You know from playing everquest and watching it for the past 3 years i have noticed something. The anonymousy of the internet has spawned a whole new group of people interested in RPGs.
:).
RPGs have always been considered something 'geeks' do, but I've recenlty spent some time actually meeting some players of everquest in real life. There are more playing in my area than I ever thought there was. Most of these people I met were not 'geeks' but people enjoying life and expierences more than a lot of 'non-geek' people. I've seen active athletes play everquest, a lot of people we wouldnt think would do it.
NWN could be a great thing for D&D, it could change the way people look at D&D and more people might start to appreciate it. I think it could open peoples minds to different possibilities. I'm not saying that it will, but I've been amazed at what I found just playing EQ which has been active on the market for 3 years.
I cant wait for this game to be released
What's geekier? D&D? Or D&D over a computer network?
The first step towards help is realizing you need it. Just say "I am a geek, and I'm not ashamed." 10 times every morning when you wake up and you'll be on the road to recovery.
One: I love them for supporting Linux and releasing the game for it at the same time as the windos version.
Two: Don't forget that the toolkit, i.e. the parts that you need to create your own campaign, are currently windos only.
Reasons are some missing tool (C++ Builder or something, currently in beta for Linux).
For me, the toolkit is the only reason to buy NWN. I don't like (A)D&D, but I'd swallow it if it means I can run online campaigns.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I know of almost no games that have been released in time
Ultima Underworld II was released 1 month ahead of schedule and remained one of favourite games of all time, and surprise, it wasn't buggy! I still remember the pleasant surprise I had walking into my games store seeing the game in demoed a full month before it was supposed to be released.
We're boycotting these guys, remember?
1. A simple adventure design engine. If the DM has to learn some horrific and cumbersome system to run a simple game, he or she is going to go back to pen and paper.
You've got to get a community going like you have with the FPS games--large numbers of people cranking out maps (some good, many bad) with software that (while not trivial to use) isn't a huge pain in the ass.
2. Some facility to improvise. Any DM can tell you that the players NEVER follow the plan, and some ability for the DM to make modifications in the game on the fly ("Damn. They're going over there. Better generate some NPCs.") will make a better experience. Anything else locks the players into what seems as static as any ordinary so-called RPG.
Also, while I greatly anticipate this game and personally think it will do great, I am still curious about a system using non D&D 'rules' but made in a modular system as they are. Well as they claim, who knows what it will really be like until the final is released? I think D&D rules did a great job for simplifying a very complex system through short cuts and probability rolls. However, pretend graphics was not an issue. Are there computerized systems out there for a much more complex rules system in existence now? I am just thinking that computers could give us the ability to be much more complex, and do things that would have taken 4 hours of complex rolls, table lookups, conversions and decisions by a team of DMs for just one 'move'. It seems that we still see the same simplified systems (levels and battle heavy systems that allow little if no flexibility to role play), but with graphics and sound.
Not to say graphics and sound are 'bad', they can be used to augment the immersion factor of the game. But I have yet to see any game, movie or TV show that could ever come close to portraying what my imagination can picture when reading a well writen story/novel. So, should I just adjust to what is out there, or are there any efforts underway to use the more advanced power of computers to help us create more complex worlds and systems? I would even be interested in computer programs that let you continue to have table top games, but now you have lap tops and such that connect to actually calculate moves, combat, skill, reactions and the like... I guess you could have primative graphics to 'help' then too... but only primative if the CPU is too bogged down with the system calculations. (I guess it is obvious where my priorities lie :)
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.