Neverwinter Nights 2!!!

[Matchstick]

Mine just must be the 128 meg video card, because I have a 3GHz processor with 2 gigs of RAM. I can't remember the card model, but it's an ATI.

I wish I knew that for certain, I might think about upgrading.

 

[trancejeremy]

How much video memory a card has doesn't really matter compared to what model it is. A lot of times companies will bundle a lot of memory on a card in order to make it seem better to consumers, but in a lot of cases, it doesn't make a difference. (Because the card won't be fast enough to take advantage of higher textures)

 

[KenM]

For those that have the game, does it give you more options on how your character looks with character creation? I felt that was limited with NWN 1.

 

[mmu1]

For those that have the game, does it give you more options on how your character looks with character creation? I felt that was limited with NWN 1.

I don't remember how many options NWN gave you, but in NWN2, you basically get to choose from 4-5 faces per race / per gender, around a dozen hairstyles, and... I dunno, 20-30 different colors for hair, eyes, eyebrows and skin. Body types are still set. The fact that there are some sub-races to pick from adds a little more variability, but it's still definitely not City of Heroes.

 

[Simplicity]

All the basic races, each with a different body type. About ten different hairstyles, and a toggle for facial hair. Eye color, skin color, hair color are all pickable (from kind of a crazy number of colors... I guess that was easy to implement. ). (Oh yeah, and I forgot that there are different face types as well).

It's certainly no City of Heroes in the character creation department, but I felt it was pretty reasonable. Although, I would say that it's not the high point of the engine. Once you get up close and personal with the characters, you can start to see the limits of the graphics. Part of the problem is that the graphics are TECHNICALLY so much better than NWN that the the "uncanny valley" starts to creep in.

It's unsettling to watch a reasonable facsimile of a person gaping and eye-rolling while having a conversation. Some of this is due to my weak graphics card, but still.... urg.

 

[KenM]

One other question, does it have more emotes for multiplayer then NWN 1 had?

 

[Matchstick]

Big old grain of salt here:

I don't know first hand about the emotes, but I did see something on the NWN2 boards about the emotes being "gutted".

 

[trancejeremy]

Has anyone bought this online? I tried buying it at Amazon.com, who claim they have it in stock, but their estimated shipping date is next week. So I cancelled there and tried Gogamer (who has is for $39.99), and they say they ship withing 24 hours. But they haven't, either. Seems like places are having trouble getting hold of copies of it.

 

[Banshee16]

By the time I could get it installed, I only had 30 minutes or so to play last night. Even that much, I have to say, I'm not sure what the heck people are whining about on the Atari boards. The graphics aren't as good as Oblivion, but they're pretty good....and the people complaining that the graphics were worse than NWN1's....I don't know what those folks are smoking, but I want some.

In the opening town, it feels a little sluggish panning the camera around. That could be because there are so many people around, scripted events, etc. I haven't been out of the town yet, but so far, it's very impressive. Fairly good character customization. I do find that some of the character's face models are a little ugly.....but on the other hand I like the FR authenticity. It created a Sun Elf, and it's neat that the colours I can choose for hair, skin, and eyes are taken from a palette that is limited to only those colour ranges described for Sun Elves in the FRCS. Same with Moon Elves, etc. Kind of neat.

Oh, and Prestige Class uniforms....very cool! Characters with a Prestige Class get a set of clothing unlike anything the other characters get.

I'm very impressed so far. But I have to get much further into the game to make a decision.

Banshee

 

[Simplicity]

By the time I could get it installed, I only had 30 minutes or so to play last night. Even that much, I have to say, I'm not sure what the heck people are whining about on the Atari boards.

I can't believe the amount of vitriol being spewed at this game. The Atari boards and the reviews on the gaming websites make me really sad. You'd think Obsidian had written a game that kicks people's dog or something. The main complaints seem to be:

1) It's not as cool looking as Oblivion! (Duh. More people per screen + networked play)
2) Multiplayer isn't flawless yet (Well, it wasn't in NWN1 right out of the box either. The DM client is still in BETA for crying out loud. Give them some time. Yes, it'd be nice to live in a world where software worked perfectly out of the box. That's not the world we live in.)
3) Camera issues. There's four different types of camera. No, it's not a first person game.
4) Choppy graphics (Turn off shadows! Turn down resolution! Or buy a better computer. Don't whine because you have an old machine)

1up.com gave the review a 5/10. 5! The reviewer wrote something to the effect of: "I guess if you like D&D... maybe you'd like it." Gamespot gave the *graphics* a 6/10. Total score in the 8 range (which is LOW for Gamespot). Space Rangers 2 got a 7/10 for graphics. Whaaaaaat? The difference between the graphics in those two games is like night and day. Europa Universalis got a 7/10 for graphics. That game looked like CRAP (even in its day).

This game seems to have a lot of depth from what I've seen so far (about 6 hours of play),
and the graphics seem good to me.