Neverwinter Nights 2!!!

[Thanee]

I'm using an emulator on my PC (also have the original ROM, but never played it, since I do not have an SNES ).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Cergorach]

Steel, what kind of setup did you get? Are you going to use a dual monitor setup for development? If so, what kind of vidcard(s) are you using?

 

[Steel_Wind]

Steel, what kind of setup did you get? Are you going to use a dual monitor setup for development? If so, what kind of vidcard(s) are you using?

CPU: E6600 Core 2 Duo
Mobo: ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium (w/ NForce 590 chipset. This mobo was just released and differs from the Deluxe version which does not use the 590 chipset.)
RAM: 2 x1 GB OCZ DDR2 800 RAM
Video: eVGA 7950GX2
Sound: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
Seagate (16mb) Sata II 320 HD
Sonata II case with 450 watt ps

For monitors I have been using a Dell 2005 FPW as my main monitor for about a year now. I grabbed an Acer AL1916AB 19" LCD Panel as a secondary panel. This was not much more $$ than a 17" panel or I would have just got a 17" as a secondary monitor. Yes, for serious development, the NWN2 toolset cries out for a second monitor - but a 17" will do and so will any old CRT you have lying around if your desk will allow it to fit.

7950GX2 SLI will not drive 2 monitors in SLI mode, and the secondary display automatically turns off when you use SLI.

I splurged on the motherboard which hit the market only this month and supports Quad SLI with another 16xPCIE slot for a physics card should I feel the need. I went with the eVGA 7950 as I might want to pick another one up next year and I wanted to play it a little safe with the choice of my vid card manufacturer.

If I was to buy a new "primary" monitor, I would probably have grabbed the Acer AL2216WBD 22" Wide-Screen LCD Panel --- 5ms - 1680x1050. It's about the equivalent of the Dell and the price is a lot lower than a Dell 2005FPW or 2007WFP (current equivalent Dell model).

With a 1680x1050 monitor, I felt that a 7950GX2 was necessary to drive it at that resolution with a decent frame rate and all eye candy on. If you are just going to run the game at 1024x768 or at 1280x1024, you would be much better off getting a single eVGA 7900GTO video card if you can find one. The 7900GTO was a limited release card with *slightly* slower memory designed to dump NVidia's flagship 7900GTX cores they had in stock to make way for the DX10 cards hitting the market in the next few months. The 7900GTO is a 7900GTX for $253. The are sold out just about everywhere though but if you can find one they are the best value on the market right now. I could not find one from anyplace that ships to Canada so I got 7950GX2. If I could have found the 7900GTO, I would have ordered two of those instead.

Release of the new 8800 core DX10 cards will be available in the USA via NewEgg around November 8. They will not show up in Canada until January, however, and I was not prepared to wait that long. You might consider getting one of these instead.

If not, the 7950GT is also a fine choice if you are not running NWN2 at high resolutions or not being overly concerned about frame rate and if you do.

 

[Agamon]

I'm reasonably sure, that NWN2 beats the gfx of the game I am currently playing.

Heh, at first glance at the thumbnail, I thought, "Is that Paperboy??"

 

[Tokiwong]

I probably will get it eventually

 

[Ranger REG]

You mean like there was only 3 years from 3rd ed. to 3.5?

Exactly! WotC figured "let's follow videogame sales model." And they're right! We have more Gullibles in our own fan community than in the MMORPG and iPod communities combined.

 

[Banshee16]

Is everyone as excited as I am about Neverwinter Nights 2 being released on Tuesday?!?!?! Holla if ya hear me!!!

It's on preorder....very much looking forward to it.

If it's as big an improvement over NWN 1 as BG2 was over BG2, it'll be pretty cool. All I know is that I played NWN1 to death.....the single player was....lacking, but I really enjoyed the multiplayer component.

Banshee

 

[takyris]

Minor note: Anyone head over to Gamebanshee's weapon-and-armor-making preview?

http://www.gamebanshee.com/editorials/nwn2diary1.php

With complete weapons like bows – where bits and pieces can’t really be swapped out – there are usually multiple models to swap between, and basically EVERY weapon model in the game is tintable. This means that for longbows, I have no less than five models to choose from, and three tints to play around with on top of this, allowing you to set the appearance of your bow in just a handful of clicks.

Wow! That's fantastic! This really is a step up from NWN! I mean, five different bow models and three tints! That's a whole 15 different bow possibilities! What could cruddy old Neverwinter Nights do?

Well, let's see... 8 versions of Top, 8 versions of Middle, 8 versions of Bottom, and 4 different tints for each section. That'd be 8x4 x 8x4 x 8x4.

I'm not really a math person, but is 32^3 more or less than 15?

I'm not saying the bows were beautiful. I'm sure the new bows are going to be better looking. But if the game designer is trying to sell us on the awesome flexibility of the NWN2 weapon system, it might help them to remember that a few people who buy and play NWN2 actually remember NWN.

If you're going to snow us with a sales pitch disguised as a diary, at least put a little effort into it.

 

[Thanee]

But that's just for longbows...

Bye
Thanee

 

[takyris]

Hey, I'd be happy to do the math for shortbows, too.

The thing is, I'd have no problem if the point of the article was, "Yeah, fewer possibilities, but they look better, and it's easier to get something that's easy on the eyes." That's a valid selling point. It's using "selling points" that were actually done better in NWN that boggles my mind.

Don't get me wrong -- I'll still be buying it (probably sometime next year when my computer has been upgraded). I'm just a bit confused by what they've chosen to use as their selling points. And I really really hope that this Obsidian product has an ending and the strong story they promised.