Happy Holidays

Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays to all. Between the holiday rush and some traveling, I've been out of the loop for a bit. I have some time off around New Years and I'm looking forward to getting some building done. Check back for more.

In other news, I finished Fallout3 right before the break. I have to admit that it was something of an accident and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I spoke with another friend of mine about it, and he had the same experience of just following the plot and suddenly feeling rushed towards the credits. We were also a bit disappointed with the end sequence. Both of us are taking a break for a while and maybe we'll fire it back up and start exploring again. I'm sure you'll be on the edge of your seat waiting to hear more. ;)

But! Until then! Have a safe and happy holiday. Good luck in any travel you undertake and enjoy any time off you have from whatever obligations pull at your throughout the year.

NWN2 Toolset vs Fallout 3 GECK

I've been quite for a while. Part of this has to do with the holidays, taking a break after the Halloween project and releasing Waterdeep, and starting a new job. Part of this also has to do with playing quite a bit of Fallout 3. I've even got past the constant crashing and been able to really enjoy the game thanks to some help from the forum (see http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=920596).

So... imagine how happy I was to hear that Bethesda released a toolset for Fallout 3, called the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK). Now I'm in trouble! They even have a great tutorial site at http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php/Main_Page. People are still just cracking it open, and it might be too soon to really tell what people think of it. I cracked it open yesterday and today and found the tutorials to be good, the interface to be decent for what it is and the entire prospect of building my own mods for one of my all-time favorite settings intriguing. Of course this brings up a big question: Do I continue to focus on NWN2, or is it time to switch? Let's compare the two games:

Best setting: Tie
Both games are set in imaginative and rich worlds with endless possibilities.

Best mechanics: Tie
Both games have underlying systems that I sometimes enjoy and sometimes dislike. NWN2's basis of the 3.5 rules can be both entertaining and limiting. On the other hand, Fallout3 does feel like a hybrid of the old Fallout rules and a recycle of Bethesda's older games (Oblivion, etc.).

Best gameplay: Fallout3
Let's face it. There's been so many complaints about the camera, the interface and the pathfinding in NWN2 that Fallout3 just wins. It's just overall more fun. The targetting mode implementation does a great job of brining back the old turn-based Fallout games, but the focus on something that plays like an FPS gives it a much more immersive feel.

Best tactical gameplay: NWN2
Having said that, you can't deny that the focus of NWN2 is tactics and control of companions, which is something that Fallout3 lacks. Being able to pause, take direct control of followers and even just having the party health always displayed in the interface makes it play like a much more tactical game.

Best toolset: Tie
I don't know enough yet to really asses Fallout3, but at first glance it seems they both have places where they shine, and places where they fall down a bit.

Best overall art direction: Fallout3
I just think that some of the art (placeables, NPC models, items) in NWN2 aren't that great or don't fit into a unified vision. The community can always make more, but then you're talking about a much bigger project. Fallout3 had a lot more to pull from in the previous two games.

Best multi-player support: NWN2!!!!!
And here is the big one for me. Fallout3 is single player only. From what I can tell, the way the game was built mandates that. It will never be multi-player. Obviously I'm more interested in playing this type of game with my friends, so this point might have less weight with other builders, but for me this is very important.

Best community: Unknown
The NWN community seems much more active and has much more history than any of Bethesda's games. However, the NWN2 community seems to be slowing down. There have been a few posts lately about this. Personally, I'm not 100% sure why. If the GECK is even half-way decent to build with, then Fallout3 single player mods could really give NWN2 a run for their money. This has the potential to further weaken the NWN2 building community.

What does this mean for NWN2? Personally, I think Obsidian needs to finally deliver on the multi-player support and focus on the DM client. That's really what sets this game apart from other games. The NWN1 Toolset was popular in large part for how easy it was to build with. Moving towards the more complex exteriors has taken that away, even though we have a lot of other benefits and more options. Now its the multi-player element that is really the thing that can save NWN2.

Of course, this is all a bit oversimplified and coming from my perspective. Still, I'm curious to see how things unfold over the next year.