Author Topic: Neverwinter coming to PC next year  (Read 4251 times)

Offline idolminds

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Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« on: Monday, August 23, 2010, 10:32:05 AM »
Neato!
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    Atari and Cryptic Studios Announce Neverwinter Coming in 2011 for PC
    Storyline for new Co-Op Roleplaying Game Inspired by R.A. Salvatore's Upcoming Book Trilogy

    Los Angeles, CA (August 23, 2010) -- Atari, one of the world's most recognized videogame publishers and Cryptic Studios, the acclaimed developers behind City of heroes, City of Villains, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, announced today the development of Neverwinter for PC. Neverwinter is a new online roleplaying game based on Wizards of the Coast's global property Dungeons & Dragons and the beloved city of Neverwinter.

    Once a bustling location, Neverwinter has faced a great many disasters in the past hundred years. Rule of the city remains unclear following the unfortunate demise of the last Lord of Neverwinter and factions still battle for dominance after the all-consuming Spellplague took a high toll on the population. Even Neverwinter's dead are beginning to rise from their graves and march upon the city they once called home.

    "We're beyond thrilled to develop a brand new version of Neverwinter. It's been years since the original became a gaming icon and we're honored to work with such a great franchise," said Jack Emmert, COO of Cryptic Studios. "We've been working closely with Wizards of the Coast and R.A. Salvatore to create an authentic D&D adventure filled with compelling fiction and exciting gameplay."

    In Neverwinter, players choose to become one of five classic D&D classes and team up with friends or computer-controlled allies to form five-person co-op groups. Players also create their own storylines and quests utilizing an extremely user-friendly content generation system, tentatively codenamed Forge.

    "Wizards of the Coast is excited to invite millions of fans back to Neverwinter with the launch of R.A. Salvatore's Gauntlgrym," said Liz Schuh, Brand Director for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast. "And we're excited about the prospects for great digital gaming experiences based on this epic world."

    Neverwinter for PC is scheduled to release in Q4 2011 and is part of a multi-platform event, including a book trilogy from New York Times best-selling author R. A. Salvatore and a tabletop roleplaying game from Wizards of the Coast. Book one in Salvatore's Neverwinter trilogy, titled Gauntlgrym, releases on October 5 of this year and lays the groundwork for the Neverwinter storyline. The novel previews the settings, characters and monsters from the PC game and details the events that lead up to this highly anticipated PC gaming experience.

    To learn more about the game, please visit: www.PlayNeverwinter.com
Gamespot Q&A
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GameSpot: Give us an overview of Neverwinter. What is the game and how will people play it? Will it be a full-on massively multiplayer online role-playing game, like City of Heroes or Champions Online?

Jack Emmert: I wouldn't say MMORPG at all--Neverwinter is a cooperative RPG. You can play with a bunch of friends and experience Neverwinter and D&D in a brand-new way. We're trying to create new sorts of games that we call "OMGs" (online multiplayer games).

In terms of Neverwinter itself, players will find it's a brand-new Forgotten Realms. Years and years have passed, and Neverwinter has fallen into ruins. A brave few are trying to eke out their lives and to rebuild the once great metropolis, but many threats stand in the way. And this is where the players come in…
Sounds interesting. Plus its the first videogame to use the 4th Edition D&D rules.

Offline Xessive

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Re: Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« Reply #1 on: Monday, August 23, 2010, 12:19:33 PM »
Nice. I hope they do it justice.

Offline idolminds

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Re: Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« Reply #2 on: Monday, August 23, 2010, 02:06:20 PM »
It'll be interesting to see how they translate the 4E rules to a realtime game. I would LOVE a nice turn-based strategy RPG using the 4E rules.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« Reply #3 on: Monday, August 23, 2010, 02:34:49 PM »
It says you can go solo....
...But can you take AI bots w/ you?

EDIT:
Nevermind - you can take "computer-controlled" allies w/ you.
« Last Edit: Monday, August 23, 2010, 02:56:30 PM by MysterD »

Offline MysterD

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Re: Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 06:36:06 PM »
You know something? Cryptic's NWN (Online) sounds A LOT like Bioware's NWN1, in concept - except now we have an official MP Co-Op campaign here instead of an official SP campaign.

I would NOT be surprised if Forge and user-made campaigns winds up more popular than whatever official campaign Cryptic puts out.


Offline MysterD

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Offline W7RE

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Re: Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« Reply #6 on: Sunday, March 10, 2013, 03:10:18 AM »
Neverwinter is having it's second beta weekend right now, and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I don't know how much has changed since it was announced, but it does feel a lot like an MMO in its current state. In town there are people everywhere, and there are "channels" for town, which are different instances of the same city to keep things from being too crowded. You port to other areas of the map, and see other players out questing around you. A lot of the quests lead to a short instanced area that you do alone, so you spend a decent amount of time by yourself (maybe 25-30% of your play time). There are dungeons you can queue for and complete with 5 players, you get your first mount at level 20, you level up and get new armor/weapons, etc.

There are 60 levels, but I read somewhere that they basically expanded the 20 levels from D&D so the journey to max level would be broken up more.

There's a separate beta going on for the foundry, and the content those people are making shows up in the non-foundry beta. I've done a few of these and I'm really liking the potential. I did one a little bit ago where a halfling has you gather some people to play cards with, but it's a trick to use a demonic deck of cards to send you all to hell. You battle your way through hell to get back out. Last night I did one taht reminded me a lot of the dungeon layouts in Legend of Grimrock. Not sure if that was intentional or not. I made a video of it:




As you can see, the combat is action based. You aim at what you want to attack, and attacks are bound to left click, right click, Q, E, R, 1, and 2, with potions on 3, 4, and 5. You press F to interact with people/objects.

Races:
Human
Half-Orc
Elf
Half-Elf
Dwarf
Halfling
Tiefling
Drow (will be in at launch for people who buy the big pre order pack thing, couple months later for everyone else)

Classes:
Trickster Rogue
Devoted Cleric
Control Wizard
Guardian Fighter
Greatsword Fighter (I've seen footage of this one, but it's not in the current beta)

Offline W7RE

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Re: Neverwinter coming to PC next year
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 12:22:13 PM »
MMORPG.com has 10,000 beta keys for the upcoming beta weeked (this weekend, starting on March 22).

http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/428/Neverwinter-Beta-Weekend-3-Key-Giveaway.html