[elkston]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

To Willow:

You have a smiley next to a hint that "Wyvern" is D.W. Bradley. Is that an inside joke or is it a fact that was confirmed?

LionHeart:

Yes, I played BG2 (but not 1) and enjoyed myself. Like I said, I have finished most of the "recent" games.

When I started BG2 I had only superficial knowledge of D&D and was afraid this would hinder my enjoyment. But, I learned everything I needed to know from the game and had a blast in the process. It set me up to play the other D&D games like the IWD series and more recently TTOEE (though that required a bit more learning due to a rules change).

One CRPG series that I don't see talked about on IronWorks much is the Gothic series: Gothic I and Gothic 2. Along with Wizardry 8, these are my favorites of the more modern offerings. Richly detailed 3d world, 3rd person "over the shoulder" perspective, full voice acting, interesting characters...
can't go wrong. Gothic 2 is coming out in the USA on Ocotober 28th, but the same english version was released in the UK in June of this year, and many fans have imported it from sites like gogamer.com