Neverwinter Nights 2!!!

[Scorch]

This reminds me of something... It's not that you're complaining, or anything, but over the last few years I've seen tons of people moan about having to play (various games) at 1024x768 as if it was 320x200, or something - whereas I've always viewed 1024x768 as the highest practical resolution I'd want to run most games at.

1024x768 was the sweet spot there for a few years but these days it is more about screen real estate for me than higher resolution for better eye candy. By screen real estate I mean more room on screen where I can see what is going on that is not cluttered by maps, hot bars, status bars for characters, etc. The problem is that even though the game graphics are scalable, the other stuff is not most of the time. So if I am running at 1024x768 and my hotbar is taking up 100x500 of those pixels, it will always block a certain section of what I see going on in the game. If I drop down to 800x600 the hot bar is still taking up 100x500 pixels and even more of what is going on in game is blocked.

Another issue is that with flat screen LCD Monitors, anything other than the native resolution looks a little blurry. So I am constantly trying to tweak my settings so I can stay at 1680x1050 resolution.

WizarDru once pointed out to me that this is the reason he is more of a console player than a PC platform gamer. PC Platform games are a constantly moving target where you feel you have to upgrade your graphics card, memory, processor, etc. to get the best performance out of the latest game. On the other hand, a console game you buy now will still run just fine on the console you bought two to three years ago. Of course both sides have their pluses and minuses.

Scorch

 

[Matchstick]

Question: Does anyone by chance have a link to a downloadable version of the patch other than using the in-game updater? I have it installed at home, where I have a dial-up connection, but I can download from work, where I have a T1. Anyone have a link to the english patch I might use? It's currently still not available on Atari's site.

I don't see one anywhere. You can look here:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=506590&forum=109&sp=30

and most especially here (this looks like where it should get posted):

http://nwn2.obsidian.net/support/patch_english.html#crit

I even went on the Atari FTP server, and they have a directory for it there, but there's no patch in it yet.

 

[Simplicity]

I am LOVING this game so far. It took a little tweaking to figure out what settings I could run without graphics artifacts... but now that I've found it. I'm running pretty well on what I consider a fairly lowend system for gaming (P4 3.2Ghz, ATI 9800). Graphics are significantly better than NWN in my opinion, and I drool over the idea of running this puppy at the resolutions I've heard people getting it to.

I'm playing as a CN Warlock right now. Wow, these guys are bad mofos. I had no idea, but I seem to be able to repeatedly lay the smack down on hordes of enemies (and yes, there are hordes to face). 2d6+slow at 3rd level on a ranged touch attack every round is rather nice.

The dialog options are pretty detailed so far as well, and I've certainly been able to get my chaotic on. I'm really curious how things would have went if I'd been getting my evil on... Hmmm...

The good:
1) Story so far. Really holds your interest, and makes you feel like your an adventurer, not an exterminator.
2) Character customization (stat-wise). Holy crap there's a lot of choices.
3) I like the interface. Much better than the radial of NWN. They've learned something from MMORPGs. Inventory is perhaps a little lame, but other than that. Good stuff.
4) Many dialog options. It's not rare to see 4 different options in the dialog. Not sure they all lead to very different places, but [Slit his throat] and "Hey, I've got healing" probably do different things.

The neutral:
1) I could still have used more feat choices, I think. I'm spoiled by the PHBII.
2) Graphics. Better than NWN. That's not saying much. BUT, my card is old, and it's not fair to compare to games like Oblivion. I've seen scenes with around a dozen enemies on the screen. You don't get that in Oblivion.

The bad:
1) Graphical glitches. Nothing too major and nothing lowering my settings didn't instantly fix.
2) Sound-loops. Occasional hiccups. But it's always come back and never crashed.

 

[Goodsport]

I'm running pretty well on what I consider a fairly lowend system for gaming (P4 3.2Ghz, ATI 9800).

Yikes! I'd never be able to play the game at a decent setting on my system (P4 2.53 Ghz, NVidia FX 5900 Ultra, 1024mb RAM).


-G

 

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Folks,
Does the NWN 2 game include the Tool Set to do module creation (or use for a D&D projector set up) or is that something different? Thanks.

 

[Simplicity]

Yikes! I'd never be able to play the game at a decent setting on my system (P4 2.53 Ghz, NVidia FX 5900 Ultra, 1024mb RAM).


-G

Actually, I think that would play the game just fine. The video card is the same gen as mine (and also on the higher end of than generation). The CPU is a little slower, but my performance isn't bad. I'm running 1280x1024, with low shadows and medium textures. There's reasonable room to go down from there (no shadows, low textures, lower res).

 

[Thanee]

Hi Folks,
Does the NWN 2 game include the Tool Set to do module creation (or use for a D&D projector set up) or is that something different? Thanks.

The toolset is part of the game, yes.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Henry]

Yikes! I'd never be able to play the game at a decent setting on my system (P4 2.53 Ghz, NVidia FX 5900 Ultra, 1024mb RAM).


-G

Don't lose heart; I have a Sempron 2.4 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, and an Nvidia 7600GS video card, and I'm rockin' with even Medium-res graphics. Your video card might (might!) be your weakest link there, and the rest of your rig sounds faster than mine.

 

[Banshee16]

Don't lose heart; I have a Sempron 2.4 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, and an Nvidia 7600GS video card, and I'm rockin' with even Medium-res graphics. Your video card might (might!) be your weakest link there, and the rest of your rig sounds faster than mine.

I've got an Athlon running at 3.5 Ghz, 1 gig RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT. Should that be enough then?

Banshee

 

[Henry]

I've got an Athlon running at 3.5 Ghz, 1 gig RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT. Should that be enough then?

Banshee

You oughta be flyin' -- those are the box's recommended specs, almost.