PC News and Game Reviews

NWN was a must for any fans of the RPG genre, the successor to the superb Baldur’s gate series and long forgotten, eye of the beholder classics. Full 3D view and slick interaction justifiably made it the flagship for next generation RPGs. NWN II was initially staggeringly in its depth of character development, items, monsters and looked very good, performing well with even a small army on screen.

Its fatal flaw, which NWN did not suffer from, was the number of bugs. The game seemed overly complex, with simple cut scenes causing your game to crash and resulting in the campaign having to be re-started. In fact, there was warning on the loading screen telling you to save your game as often as possible. These bugs put a lot of players off what was ultimately a good game, if a little stretched.

The add-on pack is just that, new levels, monsters, classes, items and effects. It’s the usual price for a non-independent game and is designed to allow you to import your NWN II character. Curiously, there is a welcome note in the manual in which the producer basically says that they released NWN II too early and that Mask was how the game should have looked and played.

As you’re playing a character that was able to complete NWN II (you have to create one otherwise), game play is more complex from the offset then a standard RPG. You need to know the game to play it, as your using a powerful character. But immediately you can tell that the developers have worked hard on the engine, its seamless and bug free. The loading time between maps is reduced and levels are kept to a reasonable size to ensure your PC isn’t unnecessary taxed. If NWN II had looked and played like this then it would have made a much bigger impact.

The main campaign is tough, well paced and just the right length (about 10 hours). Character development to “epic levels” is possible, allowing your character to become a juggernaut of destruction. There are dozens of new feats and spells (you do need to play with the manual open to figure out what they do) which allows new ways to win battles and solve problems.

The game only falls down in its plot devices. Most games in the Baldur-NWN series have complex plots with the protagonist central to the story. Mask goes to far though, and has a horrid feature called the “spirit meter”. Not to give the plot away too much, it basically dictates how long you can spend on any map, how often you can rest, whom you can kill etc. It seems like the game creators wanted to limit your ability to regain spells or health by resting, so to make the game more challenging. It’s worked into the plot and very hard to get away from. Predictably, there is a cheat out there that doesn’t disrupt the game at all but drastically improves the game play. Its just a bad idea that could haunt the developer for some time.

This aside, the dialogue is also very heavy and you have to be careful what you say since your party members can get annoyed and leave. There are even dialogue sequences whereby you have no choice at the end but to kill the bad guy you’re talking with, therefore making the conversation totally irrelevant.

Otherwise the game plays well and looks good. I would have to recommend it to anyone who enjoyed NWN II and wants to see the game to its full potential. I would also welcome further add-on modules (the scope is unlimited with an engine like this) but no more spirit meters please.

The thief series was excellent. It game birth to the FPS, the First Person Sneaker?

The first game was excellent and can still hold its own against today’s dynamically lit, high dynamic range master pieces……with as much story as you could fit on a grain of salt!!! Thief created a world you enjoyed exploring, unlike the dark corridors of Doom 3 (flashlight, gun, flashlight, gun and so on….). You got a real feel for who Garrett was…and revelled in his cut throat antics.

The second serving was equally excellent. The graphics got a few bells and whistles added….but more importantly the plot developed in classic Thief style! So with the third instalment I looked forward to more o the same high class.

Was I disappointed…..yes. The first warning signs were the title “Thief: Deadly Shadows”. That title reads like this to me: “Thief: Console friendly”. And alas it was a horrible perversion of what was excellence. The 3rd person aspect of the game did not lend anything at all to the gameplay. In fact I believe it did the opposite. In 3rd person mode I could see around corners by panning the camera…..obviously a huge advantage for the would-be thief!!!!! So basically the Thief series was “dumbed down” for the drooling console masses……and I did not like it!!!! However it must be said…..from all the games in the series “the cradle” level is still the best/scariest I have ever come across. Of course playing it in 3rd person detracts from the fear of peering around dark corners…..but it was still a masterstroke of level design.

So where is Thief gone now (Thief 4?)……Ion Storm are long gone now….so is that the end of this epic? Its kind of sad that the game that created a genre has not had many rivals in the field…and that that game is also dying out!

Well after many the tough quest I think I have completed the main quest in Oblivion. My reward however may as well been a half rabid mongrel dog with no hind legs……

After saving the world…I was rewarded with “Dragon Armour”. Chancellor Ocato promised me the armour of kings (or emperors) for my heroic deeds. It took 2 long weeks to fashion. I rushed to the Imperial Armoury. There was a lot of confusion regarding this quest as the text speaks of an “Imperial Compoundâ€? (never heard of that before!!??!!). Anyhoo the armour is the in armoury in the Imperial Prison (Imperial Compound!!!??!! wtf)

I eagerly approached the armour as it glistened on the table before my eyes. As I donned each piece of armour I watched my defence plummet to an all-new low. I looked the shite, but the armour is terrible. I would have been happier with the mongrel dog above….thank you Oblivion for a lousy reward!!!!

Well I’ve a few more quests to go…….

Hi there,

I must say that in all my gaming I have come across very few games that I could not finish due to sloppy coding on the developers behalf! Well Oblivion is about to be named and shamed in this list of ultra elite bug riddled tripe!

Now don’t get me wrong…its still a great(about to become good) game…but what’s a great game when you CANNOT progress past a part because one of the programmers fell asleep on his keyboard….and door_open = 1; became door_open = 0;!!!!!!

I recently set off into Miscarand on the quest to find the Great Welkynd Stone within! I was going fine when I got to the “door of no coding”. I cleared the huge room in front of the door which leads me deeper into the dungeon. I then stepped on a pressure pad that should unlock the door and allow me to proceed. Instead what seems to have happened is that 2 Dread Zombies now stand guard at the door (which will not open). The zombies have a never ending pool of hit points. I tied for about 20 minutes to kill them but had barely got them down to half hit points before I got bored and gave up!!!!

Now either way I don’t see the point in killing them. The stupid door will not let me progress through the quest. So basically the game is un-finishable, as this is a main quest. Of course after 10 seconds of googling I was not alone with the Miscarand problem…it is a known bug! How in the name of jasus did the testers not find this bug? Its not like it’s a glitch…..its a fecking door that WILL NOT OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Oblivion you join the ranks of the horribly bugged….up there with the likes of Hidden and Dangerous! Well done boys!

Now if you manage to get through Oblivion without getting infected with Vampirism….then you are indeed a lucky player. Before I caught it in earnest…I had managed to dodge it several times.

Basically there are 3 ways of contracting haemophilia polymorphism (vampire disease). The first time I caught it I was clearing out a vampire infested lair. It was a quest I started in the Imperial City Arena. I was sent by the champion gladiator to find out about his father…who was a blood sucking vampire!

1) I found his father and put him to the blade….but during the fight obviously got covered in dirty vampire blood. My first thought was to go to a church, the two being linked from hours watch “Dracula, the Prince of Darkness”. I prayed at the altar, and luckily that was that.

2) The second time I was “bitten” in my sleep. Not really very fair as I had no chance to defend myself, however it is understandable based on how vampires ply their trade (sneak gits!). Once again I made for a church. But stupidly I got side-tracked with a camp I found en-rout to the church in Bruma. By the time I got there a day had passed….and I had “turned”!!!!

3) I’ve heard that the Dark Brotherhood will also “gift” new members with Vampirism. I chose to slay the messenger from the Dark Brotherhood…he still lies on the floor of the Chorrol Mages Guild!!!

Once you’re a vampire it’s not all that bad. You get new powers, but also burst into flames in sunlight unless you feed on a victim each night. You will not find it hard to find victims, and I would advise you to indulge whenever the chance arises. I got stuck indoors for hours on end as I had not feed enough to walk in sunlight. It can be a real pain in the ass so do help yourself to the local peasantry.

Now there may come a point when you want rid of the pox…be warned…once it’s gone you CANNOT become a vampire again. I wont spoil the quest…that’s already been done 1000 times! Get you to a church and follow the trail from there (this quest is riddled with bugs)!

A few nice features in Oblivion would have been the ability to turn NPC’s into vampires! If you feed on the same one 3 or 4 times he may turn. Also it would be nice (though probably impossible to code) to allow other NPC’s to ploy their respective trades…to give the world a more ALIVE feeling. For example a random encounter with another thief as he breaks into a manor you are robbing….etc…..