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Not that I update the blog all too often these days, but I shall be back in Toronto for the week.
I leave you with a glimpse of my desktop. It's a pleasant place to be... not so much lately, simply because my computer's been acting up quite a bit (I may have to reinstall Windows sometime) but usually... a rather pleasant place to be.
And nothing is hotter than a cute girl wearing a pair of chunky headphones. I wish I had taken this photo.
Going out soon, Jared's last night in town. Enjoying a bit of Baroque at the moment. The fact that I can listen to BBC Radio 3 on the internet makes me happy. Makes me feel like a child again, really.
Organ music makes me happy.
Just a little something from my sketchbook.
I'm a little loopy on cough medicine, but eh, whatever. I'm going to write you all a full review of a game I just finished last night.
*SPOILER WARNING*
I'm going to focus on the official campaign somewhat... yeah, I realize it's a module oriented game and everyone can make great campaigns, but it shipped out with a campaign that was frankly supposed to be pretty damned awesome.
I'll start with getting the game... I got the game the weekend after it came out at EB. Installation was a piece of cake (all PC-DVD games are these days, none of them need switching up of discs or anything) and it automatically asked me if I wanted to update as soon as I installed.
This is a good thing. You might think: Oh noes, it was shipped with bugs! Okay, yes, it was shipped with bugs, but at least I could fix most of them upon install. Every game these days ships with a massload of bugs.
That said, I still ran into my fair share of them until the 1.02 hotfix came out. Like the 2D Missing Texture bug. Dear gods was that annoying.
I should speak a bit about all the other features before moving onto the campaign. Like video. Okay, video quality wasn't what I expected, and in an area with multiple light sources (normally indoors) it chugs along at a pretty slow framerate on my PC. You'd think for graphics of that quality, it wouldn't chug too badly... but you'd really be wrong. Still, nothing game-killing, and the fact that there's a pause button means that even when I'm chugging along at 5 fps I can still take care of everyone with cued actions. No problems.
The sound... well, a lot of the character speech effects are recycled from the original Neverwinter Nights, which isn't a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all. The dialogue in the game is immense. However, while most of it is pretty good, some of it is painfully terrible. Like, "I read the script like a robot" terrible. Which was very disappointing, really, to the very last bit.
So, the campaign. It's pretty good. I have my gripes, it's not the best RPG campaign I've played in a while... I mean, it's so combat oriented I found myself partway through Act 2 when I decided to scrap my rogue in favour of a more combat-oriented character. Even the sidequests for the 'sneaky' NPC ended up being a simple matter of butchering all the guards and taking hostages to get into a vault... rather than the sneaky derring-dos that should be possible for sneaky characters.
The plot is decidedly linear. Sure, you can travel anywhere, but when there are no sidequests to be found just about anywhere except from your usual suspects, there's really no point. In fact, I was disappointed that I couldn't break into anyone's homes. In the first of the Neverwinter Nights expansions you could break into people's homes for goodies and points towards Chaotic. Now, it seems everyone has invincible locks and doors.
To say that this is merely disappointing would be an understatement. I mean, in theory, many of the developers of Fallout moved to Obsidian. And Fallout was the best RPG... well... ever. You could break in anywhere, steal anything, complete the entire campaign without firing a single shot, if you so wanted, as you should be able to do with a decent GM at a tabletop game.
Having a stronghold was kind of cool. Of course, it didn't actually play as much of an impact on how the game panned out as other reviews are touting. The stronghold battle sequences really relied on how good you and your companions were, not how good your troops were. They were bound to die anyway.
The stronghold, however, does provide a steady source of income for you, so it's worth playing. I actually liked the stronghold simply because it was a fun challenge.
I did actually complete a romance plot... of which there are two, one for each sex. Which is... frankly, kind of weak, because romance plots tend to permeate through all facets of RPGs these days and play a huge role. Instead this felt like it was tacked on. Nothing resulted of it, really, and it was probably the cheesiest romance climax ever. And nothing really built up to it either... not the way it was in the original Neverwinter Nights or even the KotOR series.
And the ending...
Well, dear god. Okay, the boss fight was fun. The short clips at the end of what happens to everyone... however... was sorely disappointing. Mostly because of the voice acting. Whoever they got to read the end was... wow. Terrible. I remember beating Hordes of the Underdark and being rather satisfied with the voiceover at the end... but this time...
I mean, they could've gotten Nasher to do it or something, couldn't they? It was atrocious. All that hard work and... bam, disappointment.
I'm done knocking it now, really, so I'll return to more important matters. Was it worth it? Well.. yeah. It's worth buying. It's a fun game and there are plenty funny moments in it, as well as fun things to do. And I can't wait for the community to churn out some fun modules for me to get cracking on. The co-op out of the box is nice too... I get to play on occasion with Rainsberry online, and though we really haven't even made it out of the intro yet, it's still nice to be able to play with someone. Voice support, though, would really be appreciated.
Bottom line? It's still a fun game, if you can stand horrible voice acting interspersed throughout it and a frankly disappointing ending. The fact that it's infinitely expandable is well worth the money... I mean, soon we'll probably be seeing the same persistent worlds we saw with the first Neverwinter Nights, virtual MMOs to be playing online. And if you're a D&D geek, you'll love it. I mean, okay, with all the games out lately that have been based on the d20 system, Neverwinter Nights 2 is the most comprehensive and the only one that you can really build your own adventures in.
Just play a combat character if you're going through the main campaign, that's all.
This conversation should explain why.
[16:37:07] johannkwan.com - soundmindottawa.com: I am disturbed by this ad I saw online.
[16:38:11] johannkwan.com - soundmindottawa.com: I dunno if it's just my mind
[16:38:26] Leah: is she having an orgasm?
[16:38:31] johannkwan.com - soundmindottawa.com: but when I saw it, it looked like "get your daughter involved in math and stuff, or else she'll have orgasms"
[16:38:36] johannkwan.com - soundmindottawa.com: that's what I thought!
[16:38:47] Leah: muahaha maybe we're both crazy
Did my last entry not publish? Oh well.
Anyway... I should really talk about the eskimo problems Dave and I ran into at Connor's (one of our watering holes) but we already wrote songs about it, and it's well out of my system.
Suffice to say there was a crazy eskimo who kept using his race as an excuse to steal our stuff. Like my nachos.
I'd like to talk about something super cool. Sound Mind. It's a zine we have here in Ottawa, and I'm doing the webdesign.
Right now not all that much is up. A temporary music page (which'll get better as time goes on), and a forum.
But it'll get better and better as time goes on, so go for a visit, sign up on the forum, and check out the music.
I am hurt and angry and very disappointed. I get the feeling that Saddam's farce election closed this close to midterms to swing the election hard.
Of course, everyone forgets conveniently how long the stupid farce of a trial has lasted.
People are so easy to manipulate. Grr. If only man WERE by nature a political animal... *sigh*
I have just discovered every Canadian person's dream.
Every NHL game is now being posted by the NHL on a very special section of Google video.
I will never have to miss a game again. Which is good. Since I don't have a TV.
They're definately not all up yet. But I'm hoping they will be.
Long live Hockey.
Oh yeah. And Go Leafs Go!
Essays and exams are killing me.
I leave thee with these lines... from this blessed source of happiness and laughter.
"Food has lost its flavour, days drag on for what seems like weeks.
I watch two pigeons making love. It signifies nothing.
Blackness, blackness! Why do you mock this simple wookie, o sable cape of night?"
Fin.