Neverwinter Nights 2 officially announced

[Raia]

http://www.atari.com/nwn2/

To be developed by Obsidian, which is made up of people mostly from Black Isle Studios (Icewind Dale, Fallout, Planetscape: Torment) with plenty of input from Bioware.

Me happy.

[Kiodi_Y]

Makes me wonder what Bioware are working on given that they've handed development of this and KOTOR 2 to Obsidian, surely not just Jade Empire?

[Lazychu]

Makes me wonder what Bioware are working on given that they've handed development of this and KOTOR 2 to Obsidian, surely not just Jade Empire?

Dragon Age and another title that's stil under wraps I think.

[Kiodi_Y]

Wooooooooooohooooooo! I've just creamed my pants...

*ahem*

http://www.bioware.com/games/dragon_age/

Totally new engine

Combat similar to KOTORs

Epic open ended storyline

Top down party-based tactical 'combat mode'

Cinematic 3rd person camera 'exploration mode'

Full character customization (race, sex, class, abilities, spells, etc)

Separate singleplayer and multiplayer campaigns

End-user content creation tools

Rock on Tommy!

Also their site confirms a "New Project - Console" in Dev.

[xibxang]

I remember when I first heard about the original NWN back in '98. I'm sure it had been talked about before I picked up on it too. So how come we had to wait 5+ years for the first and now NWN2's being promised for 2006?

It's not that I'm complaining, but how does that work out? Is it a case of having more staff to work on it, or will it be a series of bolt-ons to the original code?

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I've just returned to playing the first one. It's pretty good actually.

So is it really true that it takes about forever to complete?

[Raia]

I remember when I first heard about the original NWN back in '98. I'm sure it had been talked about before I picked up on it too. So how come we had to wait 5+ years for the first and now NWN2's being promised for 2006?

It's not that I'm complaining, but how does that work out? Is it a case of having more staff to work on it, or will it be a series of bolt-ons to the original code?

I think it's because they're upgrading the Aurora engine rather than developing a whole new one. Seems sensible to me since the engine even as it is can do more than is currently being asked of it and they're not going to radically depart from the core structure of NWN.

So is it really true that it takes about forever to complete?

Both the original storyline and the expansions storyline are supposed to be 80 hours. So a good length but not overly drawn out.

[BigShimmeryWall]

Finally some screens:

[Alan Stock]

Nice screenshots. The original Neverwinter Nights was very pretty as well, lovely ambience in the environments. The game did drag on a bit though. I played for months with a friend over the net in co-op, never finished it off though. I suppose playing with another person makes everything last longer because of all the communication. Top fun though.

The thing with those titles is they never feel fresh. It's always the same old monsters, environments, dungeons, combat, inventory management. It gets tiresome. I don't think I can face another. The drawn out conversations and snoreworthy plots don't grab me either.

Maybe I've just gone off RPGs for good?

[Wickedkitten]

Neverwinter Nights was fresh as hell to me. I can't see myself playing it online though

[Rayn]

Neverwinter Nights was fresh as hell to me. I can't see myself playing it online though

←

Online is the way it was supposed to be played. Single player is ok, multiplayer (done properly) is fantastic.

[part]

Excellent news. If its just half as good as the original it will be well worth playing.

[Geo]

I thought the original NWN nights was crap compared to Baldurs Gate 2, I really despised it. Never played it online tho so i'm probably missing out on half the fun.

[Talk Show Host]

A review copy landed yesterday on my desk and i played it for 4-5 hours in the afternoon. I won't be playing it until some time though (got to go finish up Double Agent and PES6) so i thought some early impressions do not really need a new topic.

I've been a fan of Bioware games for many years and i have been waiting eagerly for this. The first Neverwinter Nights was marvelous in its multiplayer offerings (and RPG creation utilities) but the single player was really nothing worth mentioning about. In other words, it sucked!!

Neverwinter Nights 2 seems to treat its single player better. There seems to be an actual story this time. Though it starts pretty basic (you are an orphan that you have been raised by a foster father who has secrets about your past), after a few hours all hell breaks loose in the village you were raised. The first thing that hits you is that you sense there is going to be a progression through the story this time and you really get the feeling that you will be caught up in something big.

Cut scenes help too, as they are created using the KotOR technique with the close-ups, where the conversation options appear to the bottom, so they convey what is going on pretty well. Unfortunately, the character animation in these is not very good -which is a let-down- but adequate to very good voice overs –combined with a great soundtrack- help to achieve a balance.

Gameplay is the same DnD stuff we know and with the new rules there are a myriad of options to choose from when you level up. Character creation is based on PnP and the attention to detail is staggering. On the other hand though, the choices about how a character looks are pretty standard and nothing to write home about.

Battles are acted out like before, but now your companions really are more active as characters (and you can control them too), though it seems that they will not reach BG2 levels in the interaction department. The battle animations are good but not great and the spell effects are breathtaking. In general, the battles seem much improved and convey an action feel (behind all those stats) that feels really in place. The camera is the same as before (which was behaving very strange for my tastes) and has some awkward viewing angles sometimes (enter a room and you may find your camera in the same level as the wall, therefore unable to show anything until you adjust it).

There are some bugs that are very annoying (the "examine" function rarely works for example -I hope it has been fixed for the retail release because without it you can't play-) and some graphical glitches (like tearing and a problematic bloom effect) appear here and there. The graphics in general are a major step from the first game and are quite configurable (In my 3.2, 1GBRAM and GeForce 6800GT 256 pc, the game run quite well with most options on high).

Finally, I didn't get a chance to see the toolset, but from the documentation I read there are some great improvements.

All in all, it seems like it is a step in the right direction for the single player, which was my main concern. Even though it is really early to know for sure, it gave me a an epic sense from the beginning.

More as soon as I play it again.

[diggler]

Does it have full voice acting for every line of dialogue this time?

[Talk Show Host]

Does it have full voice acting for every line of dialogue this time?

Yes. All the cut scenes have voice overs, and sometimes even in the game world. But speaking for quests, to merchants and stuff like that are text-based, with the same dialogue box as in NWN.

[McMond]

I'm actually really looking forward to this as I loved the original NWN, maybe a little biased as it was the first Bioware game I played.

As long as we get more control over our henchmen/party members (like BG and Icewind) then I'll be happy.

[Rubber_Johnny]

Has anyone seen the special edition pack? It comes with a massive array of extras, like a pewter ring, and a cloth map, loads of stuff for an extra £5, better than most 'special editions'.