The Big "How Is It?" Thread

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5 minutes? It took me 54.

 

It doesn't seem to use all my system resources. I mean, I can window key out the game and do other stuff on my computer without loads of lag. I can't do that with many other games to be honest.

 

So what graphics card do you need to not get annoyed by the game?

 

I've only got a 6600 and it works fine. Don't listen to half what you hear. My set up is average at best and it runs the game fine.

 

@Harbs: GeForce 6600GT, 6800 or 7600 up should be good enough. I think 6200 barely stands chance, as does anything 7K below 7600. GeForce 5900-5950 (normal, XT or Ultra) is going to be powerful well enough but might be aged. Same with 5600/5700 Ultra (although they are ooold and weaker). As for Radeons... I guess 9600XT, 9800pro and that kind of stuff should hold its ground, but I don't know much about the newer models and it often happens that new cards have better technology and drivers and all, but are slower and less efficient (e.g. my GF 5900XT is more powerful than anything below 6600GT, with the possible exception of the best of GF4 Titanium and, according to some stats, it's still more powerful than GF 7300).

But it also matters what kind of computer you have in general. You may have a GF5700 on a 3 GHz PIV proc like Uytuun and you may have a GF5900XT on a Celeron 2.4 GHz like I do, and gives me a headache when I attempt to compare the effective potential. At any rate, NWN2 is a high-end venture.

@Barmy: What proc and how much RAM do you have there?

[ November 07, 2006, 21:18: Message edited by: chevalier ]

 

Anything 16FPS+ is beyond what the eye can deciefer when you're playing a CRPG. That really shouldn't matter unless you're playing an FPS where the frames changing actually make a difference on targetting. (as in you can point an click on the guys feet, legs, chest or head and you still perform the same action).

Of course the counter to that is without a good framerate characters might end up jumping around from spot to spot, but like I said, if at 16 FPS you can tell it's a slow refresh you have a really really good eye.

Also, I'm finding part of my performance issues do in fact seem to be all the background programs I'm running. I shut down Xfire, MSN, AIM, Steam and Winamp and everything ran smoothly at low graphics, gonna try it with a few of those cloesd at medium. I only have 1Gig of ram. I'm planning on building a new computer (hopefully I'll build a new one every year and sell the older one for just under cost to build), so I don't want to upgrade this one.

 

I suggest defrag, making sure you have enough free space on HDD, shutting down anything you don't need, informing yourself about what settings tax your system the most (and cards differ here, e.g. mine loves lights, utterly rules at billboarding but sucks at particles badly), what other settings you don't really mind in your subjective perception (e.g. you have a better-than-real-water obsession or you don't give a damn about what water looks like so long as you can see it's water).

 

Chev - 2800 sempron (underclocked as I have a crappy cooling fan and the computer kept crashing) with 1gb ram.

 

I've got a 7800 card and the game runs wonderfully in indoor areas with graphics pretty much cranked. Outdoors it's a different story: very low FPS to the point of being almost unplayable. Turning shadows and reflective water off helps a lot but it's still pretty bad. I also get a huge improvement if I turn textures down but then the game looks worse than NWN1.

This game does NOT have anti-aliasing. Huh?? NWN1 had it, for Pete's sake!

IMO the game's fundamental problems are the same as KOTOR2's (no surprise since Obsidian made that too):

it's incredibly linear; you get very few real choices in the direction of the plot -- sure there's lots of dialog choices but they're essentially just placebos. Ultimately, it doesn't really much matter what you say you'll get the same end result;

nearly half the game is just you sitting and watching cut scene after cut scene. I want to play an RPG, not watch a movie.

There's too many henchmen and you get stuck taking them all. Playing a paladin? Too bad, you must take the chaotic evil Ranger on a certain mission and he hangs around your base forever after that. The whole influence system isn't great because in order to get enough influence with an NPC you have to use them often and with so many henchmen that's just impossible. You lose track of who has what equipment; who has what special ability, etc. Everything gets watered down. Half as many henchmen with more depth would have been much better.

If you played KOTOR2 then this should all sound quite familiar...

 

Has anyone tried setting hardware acceleration off in dxdiag? That helps alot in some other games.

 

There's no denying K.O.T.O.R 1 & 2 were awesome, but this is DnD! The game is enjoyable and all, but there's no real challenge. For instance permanent Death has been replaced with K.O.T.O.R.'s unconcious state. THat blows, dying makes games a lot more challenging and shouldn't be removed, it adds to the experience and the sense of achievment when you beat a tough enemy. And now everyone levels at the smae time, meaning you no longer have to protect sorcerer's etc. while they're at a lower level because they'll level at exactly the same time as you... even if they're unconcious- this didn't even happen in K.O.T.O.R! anyway, my advice is wait a while, this ain't worth full price. But i'd buy it anyway because all i need is to see the DnD logo.

 

What? You can't die? How ridiculous!

 

I'm getting a bit fed up of this game now to be honest. I wish I hadn't spent £30 on it now. Ah well, can't be helped. It needs some serious work on the patch and mod side before it fulfills its potential. A few good sides, too many bad.

 

Barmy - you were raving about it a couple of days ago!

 

Harbs - Yeah, I know. It seemed alright to begin with and I was really looking forward to reaching Neverwinter and walking around the big city for a long time, picking up sub-quests and finding joinable NPC's and experimenting. It's not exactly lived up to my expectations to be honest. Neverwinter the city is just boring, simply because I can't do what I want to do and keep being forced to do stuff. Maybe if I started with an evil Warlock or something, I might be able to spice the game up a bit...

I'm also VERY fed up of Neeshka's voice actor, who sounds like a 10 year old they pumped with 20 cans of Cola before recording. The game started out promising and fun, but the annoyances have built and built... hopefully they'll be a few patches out pretty soon and hopefully some kind modders will work on some fixes of their own.