when i bought Icewind dale 2 i played a little and it was just as before no npc talk like in baldursgate so the party didnt feel alive and what was so special about it i played it for about 8 hours and after that i quit and i have put it away it wasnt fun at all...is something wrong with me? i love baldursgate planescape torment fallout 1-2 arx fatalis
but in my homble opinion this sucks

Icewind Dale II definitely doesn't "suck"; you shouldn't blame the game for not being to your taste. ;) In its genre, IWDII is actually quite good, and a lot better than IWDI in my opinion. The Icewind Dale series are mostly focused on more and more challenging battles and battle tactics, and less storyline than the other Infinity Engine games, and is therefore a little more multiplayer-friendly than Baldurs Gate II was - running errands, solving minor quests and having a lot of party interaction doesn't really work in BG2-multiplayergames, trust me on that. ;)
It's just... different. There are people who prefer a bit more hack n' slash than BG2, but a little bit less mindless than, say, Diablo II (no offense to DII-players, of course); and that's what Icewind Dale basically is. I think IWDII is also a lot more balanced than BG2 ever was, but that's more of a personal opinion.
Now I have to say I prefer BG2 (or PS:T) over IWDII, but that doesn't make Icewind Dale II a bad game; it just makes it differently than the others. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Yep I agree with Groj [img]smile.gif[/img] . It's just a game, it doesn't 'suck' or 'not suck', you find it to your taste or don't. Of course there's no party interaction - you made up all the characters which you should have known in advance you were going to do. If there had been you'd probably be complaining that the personalities the game gave your own personal characters wasn't what you had in mind. You could always roleplay your own interactions you know ;) . I liked it fine - for what it was designed to be, it did it very well - lovely graphics, music, I loved the 3rd edition rules, lots of tough battles.

yeah your both right im gonna give it another try and i really liked those mage spells graphics^_^

the spells are cool, the plot is cool, and it does not suck. IMO

I sort of feel the same way that Cristian does, I mean the graphics, the character creations options, and the difficulty of the battles make the game more fun than it is boring.

But, it still doesn't have the feel that BG and TotSC has.

Why can't BioWare, Interplay, and or Black Isle create a game that has the 3rd edition rules, all the nice spells, improved enemy AI, nice graphics, and yet still have a NON-LINEAR plot similar to that of the BG series?!?!

Even if the story doesn't turn out to be as interesting as the 'Bhaal Spawn' series, atleast try and make an attempt at designing a game in which you can take on the plot and other quests on your OWN time-line!

The way that they have IWD2 set up, it almost forces you to be a powergamer since every enemy and battle becomes progressively harder.

Now I know that some of you are going to snap back and say that, 'I like this dungeon crawling stuff', and that may be so, but you can't honestly say that you wouldn't prefer to have a non-linear game.

Under the assumption that 90-95% of you agree with me, then why couldn't the developers see the same damn thing. GGgRRrrRRRrrrrrrrr!!!!

Oh well, like I said, I still enjoy the game for what it's worth. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Because the engine is obsolete. The future of gaming lies in 3d and for that we have NWN's.

You cant say a game as good as IWD2 sucks. Don't just look at the storyline which i think is good, but the graphics, the new weapons, the new enemies....... Its a world of posebilities.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Honestly! I HATE 3D!!!

It's nothing personal, but a "Tomb Raider" camera angle is just not suitable for RPGs or Real-time strategy.
And it looks bad! No matter how hard they are trying to convince everybody that very soon 3D-Games will look like real life, they don't and won't, and even if they did I wouldn't like it. Putting RPGs in 3D is like replacing the artworks in a Fantasy Book with Photographs of bad B-movie actors dressed up as Elves and Dwarves.
I have seen many a good game series going down to bad gameplay less story but more action and more sales: Monkey Island, X-Com, Ultima, etc.
I really love the graphics of BGII and would be content with any sequel that featured no more than BGII or Icewind Dale II (where I miss the Artworks in the weapons detail display).
I could ramble on endlessly but to tell the truth I'm getting a little tired as I have given similar speeches to all of my friends (who mostly agrred) and a lot of strangers (who were mostly afraid).
So if anybody feels alike just give me some positive feedback and if anyone wants to be the stern defender of the new technology (which quintupled the prices of VGA-Cards faster than you can say "Backstab") don't be surprised if I call upon my old friend Melf

What does three-demensional have to do with taking the time and effort to design a game that is not linear?

I have to agree with Faceman about the Infinity Engine.

I think it's graphics look just... peachy, but that shouldn't be the issue.

I mean, the VAST majority of people who buy the infinity games, play them all the way through, then play them again and again and again, not because of the graphics, but because of the superb roll-playing atmosphere and experience.

Now I must concede that they did quite well with incorporating a roll-playing atmosphere with 3D graphics into Neverwinter Nights.

But I think they screwed up big time by not allowing for a full party, or atleast the ability to stop your mercenary from running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

But that's an entirely different topic.

As for as IWD2 goes, I think the game is about a 7.5 out of ten.

As they should have designed it so that atleast a 1/4 of the game can be spent doing side quests, so that you can take a breather once in a while and strengthen your party.

Alright, I'm done quiping! ;)