Tag: Aurora Engine

Gaming

Blog 850: Shadows of Undrentide

Rao Dao Zao

Yes, I know what you’re about to say. “You hated Neverwinter Nights, so why are you playing its expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide?”

Honestly, I do not have a satisfactory answer for you. A big part of it is that I have two games waiting on my shelf for the Windows XP machine, but I want to stay on the main PC during August while the Edinburgh Fringe is on — because the main PC’s attached to the printer and I’ll need to print show tickets. Not the greatest justification, but what is that saying? “Wars have been fought over less”?

And, well, there’s also pure morbid curiosity. Did they manage to rescue the art and the potential when they made more bits of the game? It’s already installed and its siren call is irresistable.

Sometimes I hate myself.

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Gaming

Blog 847: Neverwinter Nights

Rao Dao Zao

As far as I can remember, I played Neverwinter Nights precisely once at the time, and the same again for its first expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide (before missing out on its second expansion Hordes of the Underdark). A while back, gog decided to hand out the complete Diamond Edition for free, so I figured it might be time to give it another shot. I created a Paladin who seemed to be utterly unable to hit anything and gave up on it not far into chapter 2.

But I was haunted by this failure; I had to try again and see it through. This time I made a Fighter — who I knew would be boring to play, but at least should be able to hit things and not die.

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Gaming

Blog 459: Combat and The Witcher

Rao Dao Zao

I should like The Witcher. I really should. It’s a giant single-player action-RPG, full of sex (very little romance, though) and bad language. On paper, the only turn-off is the grimdark, and there’s enough banter to offset that.

In reality… I’m not so sure. The most prominently off-putting part of the game is its combat system, which seems to be trying to simultaneously pull itself in two entirely different directions — resulting in an unhappy mishmash.

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