NEVERWINTER NIGHTS 2 CHARACTER CREATION SERIES

And itвЂ™s a beautiful baby - not only the game they thought fans really wanted to play, but also the game they really wanted to make. While BaldurвЂ™s Gate I and II have been capturing the hearts and minds of role-players everywhere over the last four years, Neverwinter Nights has been in the background, the baby that Bioware has been quietly working away on. So would the people in the cheap seats clap their hands, and the rest of you stroke your beards in appreciation of the game called Neverwinter Nights. For many fans though, those two were simply the support acts, because this is the one theyвЂ™ve been waiting to see. However, since Dungeon Siege and Morrowind have sashayed down the games catwalk with their big and beautiful 3D implants, RPGs are suddenly looking very rock and roll. No matter how far down you come in the pecking order, youвЂ™ll always find someone uncooler than you. But considering how the wider world views computer gamers, this is just geek snobbery. The one with the helmet haircut and the hand-knitted scarf that made him look like his neck was in traction. If, In The great playground of computer games, the FPS is the school bully and the RTS is the brainy kid, then the hardcore RPG is definitely seen as the kid whose mum gave him the wholemeal bean sprouts and hummus sandwiches every day. Clearly, NWN is going to set a new high watermark for the genre it may even change the face of gaming forever.

NWN also promises to set new standards in graphical terms, shedding the archaic 2D of BaldurвЂ™s Gate for a fully realised 3D world, as well as going nuts with pyrotechnic special effects. As Greg Zeschuk, joint CEO of Bioware explains: 'The thing I think players will like most about the game is its flexible nature - youвЂ™ll be able to play Neverwinter Nights in almost every conceivable way, certainly more than any other game.'

Then thereвЂ™s the hugely powerful NWN Toolset, which allows you to construct your own game modules and play through them with your friends (or complete strangers on the Net if your friends frown on such behaviour). In a very cool twist, the DM not only oversees the action but can enter the fray at any stage by possessing a creature in the game world. Taking pen-and-paper RPGs as a model, Bioware has created an impressive Dungeon Master mode, which allows one player to take control of the game, shaping and directing the experience for the other players.

NEVERWINTER NIGHTS 2 CHARACTER CREATION SERIES

As any self-respecting goblin-fancier will tell you the BaldurвЂ™s Gate series is still widely held as the yardstick for fantasy RPGs, and Neverwinter Nights promises to deliver an experience thatвЂ™s just as epic and absorbing as its forebeards, er, bears.Д«ut the most exciting thing about NWN, and the thing that could cause major ripples even in the wider gaming world, is the inclusion of innovative new multiplayer features that give players the power to create their own gaming experiences.

For rpg traditionalists, especially those with a shady history in the glamorous realm of pen-and-paper RJPGing, Bioware is the incumbent lord of anything even remotely resembling a virtual dungeon.

Neverwinter nights 2 character creation