Atari

The Witcher Enhanced

I took a quick look at the Witcher Enhanced version and am happy that as an owner of the original game I will be getting most of this goodness for free. If you haven’t played The Witcher you’re doing yourself a disservice and I command you now to go read the Gameshark review . The enhanced version will come packed to the gills with extras from game guides to extra adventures to massively improved load times. If you’re a huge fan of the game like I am the extra swag in the box will certainly entice you to pick up this new release, if only they would lose that horrid copy protection.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

I was very curious to get a peek at this new expansion pack for NWN2 from Obsidian. While being a huge fan of the original I have never been able to get into NWN2 for a number of reasons but in fairness it’s hard to top a game that many people are still playing five years later. Storm of Zehir offers some really interesting features that might appeal to those of you having the same issues as myself when it comes to NWN2.

First is the overland map system which offers some unique game play. You’ll see your party represented on the map and are free to roam about wherever you would like. Skills like Spot, Perception and Survival which seldom come into play in computer games are used extensively here. My party was able to spot not only loot drops and encounters but also hidden dungeons. Random encounters spawn over the map, but in a refreshing change don’t head straight for you like a pack of teen age girls at a Jonas Brothers concert. These encounters have to spot you as well, and when they do if you’re too powerful for them they will turn tail and run. My demo man Scott informed me that you have free ability to roam and you can find places you shouldn’t go into, which if true is refreshing. I’d like to be punished for my bravado and have to turn tail and run myself. One day I’ll find the guy who thought level scaling encounter in role playing games was a good idea and shield bash him, but I digress.

Also new is the ability to create and manage your entire party and with the ability to adjust the camera and almost achieve the isometric view of past greats like Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale it is clear who Obsidian and Atari are targeting here. One improvement that stood out was n the conversation system, as you speak to people you can easily switch whom is talking from your party and possibly get different conversation choices. It’s a little clunky right now as you have to click each character and scan the conversation but I was told on release an icon will appear in the conversation window on each character that has different choices. Also mentioned but not discussed in great detail were party feats and a party benefit system.

New tile sets, prestige classes and of course spells and beasties were also mentioned. Finally they were eager to explain the trade system, apparently you can set up a trade empire and say get iron ore from town A and cart it to town B and sell it for a profit. I think the puzzled expression on my face told Scott I really had no follow up question to that feature that we could print.