Comments on: Review: Neverwinter Nights 2 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/ Each week Tony and Thom bring you the latest insights into technology, video games, movies, computers, and geek life! Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:33:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Tony http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-5485 Tony Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:03:53 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-5485 1) Check drivers. Sound, video, and MOTHERBOARD. 2) To improve performance lower (or turn off) shadows. These seem to make the biggest difference. Also make sure you are patched up to the newest version through the auto-updater as they made changed to the way shadows are rendered in the newest patch. 3) Make sure you are setting the proper audio type in the options (EAX 1/2/3, etc.) for your what your sound card supports. 4) Defragment your hard drive. This makes a huge difference as a lot of things are getting swapped in and out. 5) Shut down any unneeded programs before entering the game. Hope that helps! 1) Check drivers. Sound, video, and MOTHERBOARD.

2) To improve performance lower (or turn off) shadows. These seem to make the biggest difference. Also make sure you are patched up to the newest version through the auto-updater as they made changed to the way shadows are rendered in the newest patch.

3) Make sure you are setting the proper audio type in the options (EAX 1/2/3, etc.) for your what your sound card supports.

4) Defragment your hard drive. This makes a huge difference as a lot of things are getting swapped in and out.

5) Shut down any unneeded programs before entering the game.

Hope that helps!

]]> By: Tyson http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-5474 Tyson Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:43:09 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-5474 good review, I bought the game yesterday and it works terribly. When I first did the auto detect to see what I should be running it on, it set most of the graphic settings to high quality which made the game unplayable with lag so I changed most of the settings down to medium and it plays decently. My only problem is the audio, I don't know why but at first it starts out good but after 30 mins of playing the audio fucks up, the charachters repeat what they are saying (while they say it which is annoying) the game music starts to sound terrible. I think I need to update my audio drive but I have no clue how, can anyone help? AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processpr 3800+ 2.0GHz 2 GB of ram GeForce 7900 GS good review, I bought the game yesterday and it works terribly. When I first did the auto detect to see what I should be running it on, it set most of the graphic settings to high quality which made the game unplayable with lag so I changed most of the settings down to medium and it plays decently. My only problem is the audio, I don’t know why but at first it starts out good but after 30 mins of playing the audio fucks up, the charachters repeat what they are saying (while they say it which is annoying) the game music starts to sound terrible. I think I need to update my audio drive but I have no clue how, can anyone help?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processpr 3800+ 2.0GHz
2 GB of ram
GeForce 7900 GS

]]> By: Tony http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-4187 Tony Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:13:54 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-4187 I havent played extensively with the newest patch (1.03 I believe) to check how performance has been impacted -- according to the changelog they made a lot of optimizations to get things running smoother. Also according to the patch notes they increased the speed of the camera. I have Nero Ultimate Edition installed and had no issues installing or playing. I also had no issues with entering buildings or smashing crates. It is correct that some crates are simply scenery and cannot be smashed, but this is easy to figure out by pressing the key on the keyboard you have mapped to highlight things you can interact with -- this also helps you find dropped loot that may be too close to a table or whatnot to see otherwise. I havent played extensively with the newest patch (1.03 I believe) to check how performance has been impacted — according to the changelog they made a lot of optimizations to get things running smoother. Also according to the patch notes they increased the speed of the camera.

I have Nero Ultimate Edition installed and had no issues installing or playing. I also had no issues with entering buildings or smashing crates. It is correct that some crates are simply scenery and cannot be smashed, but this is easy to figure out by pressing the key on the keyboard you have mapped to highlight things you can interact with — this also helps you find dropped loot that may be too close to a table or whatnot to see otherwise.

]]> By: Nicklas H http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-4185 Nicklas H Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:55:28 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-4185 Dont buy this game. In order to get it to run you will probably have to uninstall all burning software you own. Thats right. Uninstall NERO, D-Tools, Alcohol etc because if you have them installed the game will complain, telling you: "Youre a pirate! and cant play! Hahah" Im not joking, the only way i got to play this game was downloading a hacked NO-DVD patch even when i bought it.... no help on forums :( thanks anyway for everyone trying to help, too bad none of you are DEVELOPERS! When i got it to run.... well... welcome slogginess.... oblivion had 20-40 fps playing... and this has 5-15... ouch. Cant enter any buildings.... about 1/100 of all crates can be opened (no, im serious! not joking). The outside environments are nice but the interials... well... its like NWN1 all over again but with lower framerates. The camera is AWFUL! Your char cant run while strafing, no no no... Mouse look controls must be middle mouse button (so if you have a 2 button mouse you cant look around properly =P) The only way i managed to play was using Free Camera, and scroll using the keyboard. If you have played World of Warcraft and wish to set up similar controls you can forget that. Its just not possible =P Dont buy this game... just dont, its not finished. Lets just hope it will be in the future.... Im going to wait a bit before i demand my money back. Dont buy this game. In order to get it to run you will probably have to uninstall all burning software you own. Thats right. Uninstall NERO, D-Tools, Alcohol etc because if you have them installed the game will complain, telling you: “Youre a pirate! and cant play! Hahah”

Im not joking, the only way i got to play this game was downloading a hacked NO-DVD patch even when i bought it…. no help on forums :( thanks anyway for everyone trying to help, too bad none of you are DEVELOPERS!

When i got it to run…. well… welcome slogginess…. oblivion had 20-40 fps playing… and this has 5-15… ouch. Cant enter any buildings…. about 1/100 of all crates can be opened (no, im serious! not joking). The outside environments are nice but the interials… well… its like NWN1 all over again but with lower framerates.

The camera is AWFUL! Your char cant run while strafing, no no no… Mouse look controls must be middle mouse button (so if you have a 2 button mouse you cant look around properly =P)
The only way i managed to play was using Free Camera, and scroll using the keyboard. If you have played World of Warcraft and wish to set up similar controls you can forget that. Its just not possible =P

Dont buy this game… just dont, its not finished. Lets just hope it will be in the future…. Im going to wait a bit before i demand my money back.

]]> By: scrammy http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3791 scrammy Fri, 01 Dec 2006 09:00:34 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-3791 Hi Tony, Great review. I just finished the game and I felt like you gave me clarity about my feelings about NWN2. I had this amorphous experience with the game; not love/hate but rather really like/really dislike. It's kind of like meeting a person you used to have fun with, except the things that you'd forgotten that you disliked about them came rushing back. I felt like saying "Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there..." I also have a decent machine, and found that it wasn't nearly optimized for it. No multithreading support? (Except for the toolset) Why? From a plot and production values perspective, the ending was especially horrible. Thanks again for the insight. Scrammy. Hi Tony,

Great review. I just finished the game and I felt like you gave me clarity about my feelings about NWN2. I had this amorphous experience with the game; not love/hate but rather really like/really dislike. It’s kind of like meeting a person you used to have fun with, except the things that you’d forgotten that you disliked about them came rushing back. I felt like saying “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there…”

I also have a decent machine, and found that it wasn’t nearly optimized for it. No multithreading support? (Except for the toolset) Why?

From a plot and production values perspective, the ending was especially horrible.

Thanks again for the insight.

Scrammy.

]]> By: Tony http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3556 Tony Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:12:10 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-3556 Hi Amadeo. I stick by what I said and feel no reason to defend things, but I wanted to clarify based on one of the points you made. With the replayability I gave it a 3, which is slightly above average. I dont like how many reviewers use a scale such as 1 to 10, but only use the upper 1/4 of the scale. For example, a good game might get 9/10 but a bad one 6/10 -- if its a bad game they should be giving it 2/10. So, on my scale 2.5 would be an average run-of-the-mill game; I scored NWN2 above average in all areas except performance. Also, since it has a single player component (as opposed to games that are solid multi like MMORPGS, or shooters such as the Battlefield series) I need to figure the replayability of the singleplayer campaign into things as well; as in, does the game make me want to play through the SP campaign multiple times? Finally, at the time of review there were no additional SP campaigns available, so that had to weigh in also regardless of the "potential" the game has at some point in the future. Thank you for writing in an offering your view -- we appreciate it. :) Hi Amadeo. I stick by what I said and feel no reason to defend things, but I wanted to clarify based on one of the points you made. With the replayability I gave it a 3, which is slightly above average. I dont like how many reviewers use a scale such as 1 to 10, but only use the upper 1/4 of the scale. For example, a good game might get 9/10 but a bad one 6/10 — if its a bad game they should be giving it 2/10. So, on my scale 2.5 would be an average run-of-the-mill game; I scored NWN2 above average in all areas except performance. Also, since it has a single player component (as opposed to games that are solid multi like MMORPGS, or shooters such as the Battlefield series) I need to figure the replayability of the singleplayer campaign into things as well; as in, does the game make me want to play through the SP campaign multiple times? Finally, at the time of review there were no additional SP campaigns available, so that had to weigh in also regardless of the “potential” the game has at some point in the future.

Thank you for writing in an offering your view — we appreciate it. :)

]]> By: Amadeo http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3552 Amadeo Mon, 20 Nov 2006 10:19:17 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-3552 I'm not sure if I agree totally with this review. I have concerns with two points: 1. You mention that the game feels the exact same as NWN 1. I think the goal of these games is to simulate the real DnD experience. I'd certainly expect my monk to level and play the exact same as it did in NWN 1 and ideally the same as the hours spent playing pen and paper. I agree its a concern though if all the items are the same. Getting new fancy gear is a damn important reason to keep playing. 2. You gave a pretty low score on replaybility. Considering I'm still playing the original NWN to this day, you might want to mention that its early on and no good fan/premium modules have come out yet. I look forward to the wonderful fan creations that are yet to come. Thank you for your review though, and your experiences, especially about the performance issues, were informative. I’m not sure if I agree totally with this review.
I have concerns with two points:

1. You mention that the game feels the exact same as NWN 1. I think the goal of these games is to simulate the real DnD experience. I’d certainly expect my monk to level and play the exact same as it did in NWN 1 and ideally the same as the hours spent playing pen and paper. I agree its a concern though if all the items are the same. Getting new fancy gear is a damn important reason to keep playing.

2. You gave a pretty low score on replaybility. Considering I’m still playing the original NWN to this day, you might want to mention that its early on and no good fan/premium modules have come out yet. I look forward to the wonderful fan creations that are yet to come.

Thank you for your review though, and your experiences, especially about the performance issues, were informative.

]]> By: Shawn http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3529 Shawn Sun, 19 Nov 2006 12:49:40 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-3529 I find that NWN2 plays fine on my (mostly-)4-year-old computer (Athlon XP 1500, 768M, 9800pro 128M). Granted, its at 1280x1024 and most graphics settings are off or low, but the game is still quite fun, and it still looks much better than NWN1. I'm disappointed to hear that 2 isn't multithreaded, though. I guess its because its been in development so long. I find that NWN2 plays fine on my (mostly-)4-year-old computer (Athlon XP 1500, 768M, 9800pro 128M). Granted, its at 1280×1024 and most graphics settings are off or low, but the game is still quite fun, and it still looks much better than NWN1.
I’m disappointed to hear that 2 isn’t multithreaded, though. I guess its because its been in development so long.

]]> By: Jacoby http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3512 Jacoby Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:04:18 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-3512 Your machine is definately up to par, even advanced beyond most users who will be playing the game. When the original NWN debuted it too was buggy, especially if you were an ATI user. Blame the drivers if you want, both companies were at fault for releasing products not ready for use. I would prefer that a review be done with a mid range PC so we know the game is playable for the rest of us... I really thought the article was well written and saved me $50. I won't be buying the game. There are currently many options for the D&D enthusiast. DDO is very good, WoW is still going strong and Bioware is developing Dragon Age which promises to be awesome. I've done the whole NWN thing, it was cool and I enjoyed it but the massively multiplayer games are where it's at now. I just can't see going back. It's comparable to the feeling you get when you first get broadband, the thought of gettting dial-up again is sickening. For the D&D roleplayer, the original NWN is still very viable and can be played on a college students budget. The extra content is amazing and the versitlity of options cater the the backroom gamers most of which don't have cranked up gamming machines. Your machine is definately up to par, even advanced beyond most users who will be playing the game. When the original NWN debuted it too was buggy, especially if you were an ATI user. Blame the drivers if you want, both companies were at fault for releasing products not ready for use.

I would prefer that a review be done with a mid range PC so we know the game is playable for the rest of us… I really thought the article was well written and saved me $50. I won’t be buying the game. There are currently many options for the D&D enthusiast. DDO is very good, WoW is still going strong and Bioware is developing Dragon Age which promises to be awesome. I’ve done the whole NWN thing, it was cool and I enjoyed it but the massively multiplayer games are where it’s at now. I just can’t see going back. It’s comparable to the feeling you get when you first get broadband, the thought of gettting dial-up again is sickening.

For the D&D roleplayer, the original NWN is still very viable and can be played on a college students budget. The extra content is amazing and the versitlity of options cater the the backroom gamers most of which don’t have cranked up gamming machines.

]]> By: Tony http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3506 Tony Sat, 18 Nov 2006 14:15:52 +0000 http://uncompressed.org/2006/11/16/review-neverwinter-nights-2/#comment-3506 Hi Jackson, thanks for dropping by. With all settings maxed, and things zoomed in the game really does look beautiful. Our bandwidth isnt capable of supporting the full rez 1680x1050 screenshots that were reduced for the images above in the article, but when looking at the originals the pictures inside the keep are amazing. If you are interested in seeing them in all of their glory, just email us at uncompressedshow@gmail.com and I can send them to you (on gmails bandwidth bill, not ours ;)) Cheers. Hi Jackson, thanks for dropping by. With all settings maxed, and things zoomed in the game really does look beautiful. Our bandwidth isnt capable of supporting the full rez 1680×1050 screenshots that were reduced for the images above in the article, but when looking at the originals the pictures inside the keep are amazing. If you are interested in seeing them in all of their glory, just email us at uncompressedshow@gmail.com and I can send them to you (on gmails bandwidth bill, not ours ;)) Cheers.

]]>