The question is, does the performance (quality or speed potential or any combination of both - basically whatever you get from the game) justify the kind of steep requirements the game has and the amount of resources it eats up?

I'll honestly say I haven't played yet, so I shouldn't vote -- even though I'm quite sure I'm going to vote nay when the time comes.

So, without further ado, state your opinion and cast your vote. Thank you for participating.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 15 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Does the performance justify the resources? (15 votes.)

Does the performance justify the requirements and resource consumption? (Choose 1)
* By far! (Strong yes) - 7% (1)
* Probably (Weak yes) - 0% (0)
* Not really (Weak no) - 33% (5)
* No way! (Strong no) - 40% (6)
* Just the results, please - 20% (3)

looking at the requirements for the game to rn, compared to the graphic i would give it a weak no. it is a nice game, but it dosn't look that good (graphic wise) and compared to how little world of warcraft require and how good that actually looks, i would say obsidian/bioware has focused to much on silly details without actually getting the graphics so good as to justifiy the heavy requirements.

Predictably, it looks prettier than the predecessor, and at the same time it looks worse than anything on the market which touts its graphical capacity. I'll allow the notion that the game is just unoptimized (badly), and the users are beta-testing it right now after parting with their fifty bucks so the developers could bring it up to date in half a year with a dozen patches.

Some of my bitter experiences with it. (http://www.lawl.net/img/)

I agree with Equester, the graphics aren't up to par.

I find a strange my pc can handle a game like WoW, but my brother's can barely handle NWN2 and his pc is far better than mine.

Granted, I wouldn't be complaining if the graphics were any better, but in all honesty, they're bland... There might be a lot of details and cool spell effects, but overal, it feels bland...

Never played WoW so i cant comment on the comparison but to me the graphics look 'adequate'. Theyre not the best on the market but then again theres nothing really wrong with them and the graphics of an RPG dont bother me as much as they would on a first person shooter say. I prefer the 2d isometric graphics of previous D&D games, the environments looked stunning and it saved all the bother of the camera angle issue/fault and had fairly low system requirements. So no i would say that in comparison to previous D&D games the performance of NWN2 doesnt justify the system demands.

In the game's current state, the performance is so poor even on high-end systems that it's hard to justify from the standpoint only of graphics vs. system requirements.

I don't see how consuming system resources is relevant to anyone unless they're rendering out videos or putting together some huge photoshop presentation with NWN2 running in the background. The game has a tendency to occupy your undivided attention.

My main issue is that when I set my grahpics to max or minimum I get the exact same slow laggy performance. Something is clearly wrong with that, and it can't be my computer, (since the problem doesn't exist with any one of the 50 games I have installed).

Bio-ware is known to me the same way Blizzard is, they put a lot of effort into their games and they always come out great. It's unfortunately they turned to Obsidian who I only hear of as a destroyer of good products.

So what you're all saying is that it is really not worth the effort and expense to get a new PC to play this game?

So what you're all saying is that it is really not worth the effort and expense to get a new PC to play this game? Well I would not fork out on a new pc just to play this game. Ive been thinking of upgrading for other games like Total War: Medieval 2, Battlefield 2142, Age of Empires 3 and SW: Empire at War. So for me an upgrade is quite essential but it seems that your perfectly happy with your current system apart from the fact it wont play NWN2, I guess it depends on how much you want this game! You could just wait a year or 2 until the system requirements for NWN2 are fairly mediocre and save yourself a bundle.

Not really Harbourboy, the story and gameplay is good, really good.

It's just the performance that sucks, I trust it will be fixed in patches. A lot of it has to do with memory leaks and other stuff that demand a lot of resources from your pc.

On the other hand, the requirements are too high for the graphic quality.

Like I said before, I find that WoW has better graphics.
They may not be prettier (NWN2 wins by far) but at least there's more animations and the graphics are functional. NWN2 is not functional, it's confusing.

I'm sorry about comparing this to WoW, since NWN2 has the potential to be far superior, but I've been playing too much WoW the past months. So that's the only thing I can compare it to now.

Who cares? Bloody hell. If you can put the disc in and the game plays, what does it matter. Nobody in their right mind will buy a new machine just for the sake of one game anyway (Harbs, if your comp is old and shiity then you're probably due a new one anyway). I just don't see the problem to be honest. Oh no! Playing this game uses all my system resources!... big deal, I don't run anything else while playing anyway :p .

Mountain and molehill spriungs to mind

^ Playing a game that promises all the bells and whistles, but turns out to deliver only three percent of that at an obscenely slow speed is like driving a Testarossa that doesn't go above the first gear and only steers to the left.

But then, what do I know, I'm clearly not in my right mind. :rolleyes:

What else do you want? The graphics are awesome and the game runs fine. If it's running very poorly on your system, then it's obviously your setup or your PC as mine works fine, as does nearly everyone elses.

You're pretty hard to please :lol:

What do I want? Well, nothing performance-wise, I paid for enough hardware to have it run more or less fine.

It's funny how when people with tailored gaming computers complain about their frame rates, everyone along with the devs tells them to turn off shadows, lower draw distance, kill water effects. Why did you put those in if they make the game unplayable, guys? People who maintain $3000 gaming rigs should get maximum performance out of a game that looks so yesterday, without needing to compromise.

And what do I want? A few things.

- I want animations that aren't schematic. Animations in this game are miles behind NWN1. It's a fact. Also, they are based on a proprietary animation model, so no, the community won't be improving those, like they could in NWN.

- I want to see arrows in my bows. We could see them in NWN, why not here?

- I want to see cleaves. When Khelgar great-cleaves six people around him, he hits only one from head to toe, and the six others seem to die for no reason. Cleaves were animated in NWN, why not here?

- I want my characters to not roll eyes in all directions during cutscenes. It's creepy. Look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you, *****!

- I could appreciate it if my characters were not standing like golems when idle. To be honest, even golems were livelier in NWN. The PCs in NWN2 simply stand like tin soldiers and look dead ahead of them. In NWN, they would at least look at the object you highlight with the mouse, why not here?

- I'd love player character models with a bit more effort put in them (oh, whom am I kidding). The females look like males with breasts, and the males look wooden. No, NWN didn't have this kind of detail in the models, but at least you could tell the genders apart in it! Hey, you can't even get the clothes off your chars. When I take the armor off my rogue, she remains wearing a spacesuit straight from the Endar Spire.

- The first thing you see in this game is a hideous elf. Aside from elves who are universally hideous and look like Grays, most other faces in this game actually suffer from the detail in which they are rendered. Obsidian artists seemed to have never played the likes of GuildWars or even Oblivion, their work loses to the latter, not to mention the former. Oh, the faces in NWN were not repulsive - why are they here?

I'm not even halfway through the game, but I could go on with just the list of things that are worse than NWN from a purely technical perspective. There's a lot of stuff left to be desired from this game that uses a licensed engine (which means they didn't have to build it, leaving plenty of time on the actual resource development) that recycles sound effects, voices, AND music from its four year old predecessor.

Let's be honest with each other mate, the majority of those things you listed are minor, petty things and don't hinder the gameplay really. The only thing I agree with is the recycling of the sounds and voices. I don't want to the reminded of this games horrible predecessor at all. But come on, most sequels recycle sounds from the previous version. BG2 did it more than any I know.

This game has it where it counts, like decent dialogue, cut scenes to keep you interested and a decent storyline. As opposed to NWN which had a shocking storyline, appalling dialogue and not much else at all to keep you interested. One word to describe NWN = Boring! Whereas this game is good fun and quite addictive.

I think the artwork and character models could've used improvement. The little "petty" things can easily ruin what would be a good game. We don't want to play 2-bit stick figure games, we want to play beautiful interactive and powerful games.

And yes, that list has some minor things in it. But they add up and all together makes me more and more angry that Obsidian didn't put any real effort into NWN a series that's turned out amazing. The original NWN was amazing, and the Xpac's even moreso, but while NWN2 improves on gameplay and story... it's way behind on everything that let NWN1 succeed as much as it did.

The majority of those things is what makes a game for me personally.

If I wanted a decent storyline and dialog, I'd read a good book. I trust my imagination to create much better visuals than the Obsidian team seems to be capable of.

Yeah, I agree, it has a more engaging story than the original campaign in NWN (which I never got to even finish in single player - booooring). But at the same time, that story is just as linear as NWN, and there are much fewer places to explore. You just have to follow the rails of the storyline, and you're not allowed to deviate... just like a book. Freedom of choice? Roleplaying? Look elsewhere.

NWN had multiplayer to compensate for that. While you might disagree, but NWN was intended to be a multiplayer game, and it's what made it popular and great to most of us. Hell, Roleplay Corner started on the premise of NWN's multiplayer. NWN2, on the other hand, is painfully unfriendly to multiplayer and just doesn't seem to be built for it.

I agree with Catbert, though I do enjoy NWN 2 much more than the original. I think it was mentioned a while ago that lots of promised features were dropped due to the timeframe. That means that it may be included in a furture expansion pack, which we have to pay for.

It's more of a single-player game than NWN (which was made hugely popular with it's online community). I think that's refreshing in this day and age to be honest.

You're going a bit OTT in the slagging off of the graphics and character models as well... did you expect this game to smash all boundaries and be the most eye-watering game ever? It's just as good as any otheers out at the minute really, pretty 'standard'. Not brilliant, not ****. Also, graphics do not maketh the game. How many times have you replayed the BG series? :shake:

You make no point, really. With optimal system requirements that come straight from the future, I think I have the right to expect graphics which aren't just so-so. I expect something stunning, not the sub-par package of NWN2. Compared to the standard of the day, the graphics are just bad, and recycling resources from a four year old game is what I'd call a ripoff.

Yeah, BG2 did use resources from BG, but there were less than two years between the two, and there's no argument that BG2 lost nothing that BG had. Not the case with NWN2. Like omni said, a lot of petty things are missing, but in the end it seems like all the little bolts that hold the product together have not been put in it. I, personally, am pretty damn frustrated - I want to see how it ends, but it hurts me to play it.

But the game is fun, no? More enjoying than NWN at the least. That's all you can expect from a sequel, really.

I bet more people like it than dislike it, put it that way. You've built yourself up to expect something that will knock you off your feet and you've built yourself up for a fall. Just relax and treat the game on its merits instead of comparing it with every other RPG under the sun.

Is it fun? Kind of. I want to know the plot, but it's a big aesthetic turnoff. And it's not like the storyline is anything special. It repeats overdone snippets all over the place.

Folks burning Viconia on a stake, mean kids picking on an Ithorian on Telos, the klan patrol about to play pigsticking with Neeshka. Damn racists, they're everywhere.

Then, take the mythallar and bring it to Garrick who might help you identify it. And now, take a shard and bring it to a wizard in Neverwinter who might help you identify it. No, really?

More and more of that. It's not an awesome story, it's just more personally written than the NWN OC. Okay, I'll enjoy it one time over, but I don't think it has replayability, so I'll turn to multiplayer and get smacked with the fact that the game is not designed for that. Oh shucks, guess it's not so fun anymore.

Who cares? I care. I would soon be pissed off by things like the camera moving slowly. And yes, I am expecting something reasonably spectacular given the nuclear powered system requirements that this game expects.

Well get Oblivion then if all you're looking for is a graphics fest.

Oblivian is lame lol. I played it for about 5 minutes and put it back in the box after uninstalling it... In fact, shortly after I reformatted my computer as well.

Oblivian would be good if it didn't rely on your FPS skill, but rather your ability to grow as a player. Also, I don't like running for hours and I don't think anyone can learn to become a professional alchemist, blacksmith, magician, fighter, etc. all at the exact same time :p .

NWN2 on the other hand is a full blown CRPG of the best kind minus the graphics it deserves minus the little things that were promised plus the understanding that Obsidian is a horrible development company to turn to.

The game also loses replayability because you can't skip long cutscenes. At best you can speed them up a tiny bit by skipping a few of the lines of conversation. Unfortunately movement during the cutscenes still takes forever. Obsidian needs to learn how to take full advantage of the esc key like Blizzard has in WoW.

Well get Oblivion then if all you're looking for is a graphics fest.Oh please. Don't tell me to get a unicycle if wheels is all I care about when I say that I don't really like a car without wheels. I want a car, dammit. :eek:

More and more of that. It's not an awesome story, it's just more personally written than the NWN OC. Okay, I'll enjoy it one time over, but I don't think it has replayability, so I'll turn to multiplayer and get smacked with the fact that the game is not designed for that. Oh shucks, guess it's not so fun anymore. yes ignore what kept nwn going for so long, sorry to burst any bubbles but it wasn't multiplayer or persistent worlds. it was the countless of player made mods.

^ depends on whom you ask ;)

I hope we'll all agree that it wasn't the marvellous original campaign, though. Which is precisely my point. I have a few friends who are obssessive NWN modders, and they say that the steep learning curve of the new toolset combined with the limitations of the game is why they'll stick with NWN1. Which is what a lot of people say right away... and that's kind of sad, but true. From a modder's point of view, NWN2 offers little. Its multiplayer fell out of focus, and new game resources became harder to implement.

This heated debate over one new game is fascinating.