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Latest General News Headlines:More from Mysteries of Westgate Press Event - May 13, 2008, 11:55 pm by Cap'n CJ Mysteries of Westgate Press Conference - May 13, 2008, 11:28 pm by Fairie Mysteries of Westgate Hands-On - May 12, 2008, 10:35 pm by Cap'n CJ Mysteries of Westgate Press Event - May 12, 2008, 10:06 pm by Cap'n CJ Latest Poll Results - MMORPGs - May 12, 2008, 1:01 am by Taluntain Weekly Wizards of the Coast News Round-up - May 11, 2008, 4:15 pm by Taluntain Mysteries of Westgate End of May Release? - May 7, 2008, 5:35 pm by Dalveen Neverwinter Nights CEP v2.1 Released - May 6, 2008, 11:13 pm by Fairie Ray Muzyka of Bioware Interview by The Guardian - May 5, 2008, 10:37 pm by Dalveen SP Happenings #188 - May 4, 2008, 9:27 pm by Taluntain Latest Active Threads on Boards o' Magick:
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More from Mysteries of Westgate Press Event Posted: May 13, 2008, 11:55 pm by Cap'n CJ  We've got more from the Ossian Studios press event for the upcoming Mysteries of Westgate adventure pack for you. Hit the following links to read their individual write-ups of the event, and see some tantalising screenshots!
[Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 13, 2008, 11:28 pm by Fairie Thieves-Guild.net were lucky enough to be invited to the Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate press conference in Los Angeles last week. Alan Miranda and Russ Davis from Ossian Studios were on hand to talk about Atari’s first Neverwinter Nights Adventure Pack. Here's some more in-depth information about the new pack:Mysteries of Westgate is compatible with either NWN2 or NWN2 with Mask of the Betrayer installed. Having MotB installed will allow you to access all of the additional expansion content including the new base and prestige classes. The Mysteries of Westgate Adventure Pack will include the following: * new VO - done by Giant Sandbox, and recorded at Blackman Productions, who also did the VO for Mass Effect, Jade Empire, KotoR and HotU * 25 minutes of new music * a new sewer tileset * 3 optional companions * 4 new creatures including the Quelzarn and Wererat * over 100 new and unique items; available from merchants or as loot The new content will initially be locked but will be made available in the future (except for the custom items) most likely via a free downloadable hak pak. You can view the full article here. [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 12, 2008, 10:35 pm by Cap'n CJ Warcry has had the chance to have an extended hands-on with Mysteries of Westgate, the lucky rogues. They've given a nice write up of it, and for your reading pleasure, here's a snippet:Miranda told us that the team was held up slightly when it was determined that the Westgate setting required a sewer tileset for Undergate. He indicated that this was the most difficult period for the team during the development process as they had never created tilesets before. As a result, things were hit or miss for awhile and required innovation in the creation of toolset improvements that would facilitate the tileset's creation. The steep learning curve to create the sewer tileset also caused a slight delay in other aspects of the project such as scripting. The development of several toolset plug ins, however, including a power bar and a spell checker helped get things rolling along. In addition to toolset improvements, Ossian created several new things specifically for Mysteries of Westgate including the sewer tileset (which IS gorgeous), 100+ placeables, custom sounds, four new monsters, three new companions, some custom load screens and over twenty-five minutes of tailor-made music by David John. The full article is over at Warcry. [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 12, 2008, 10:06 pm by Cap'n CJ With the Mysteries of Westgate release getting ever closer, Atari have been ramping up their advertising of it with a press event dedicated to the adventure pack. Maximus, of NWVault, was lucky enough to attend, and he's written an article about it, complete with 10 new screenshots. Here's a peek:Ossian Studios, was founded by former BioWare employee, Alan Miranda and his wife, Elizabeth. They were originally scheduled to release a Premium module for NWN1 titled Darkness Over Daggerford but the premium module program was cancelled before its release. Making the best of the siutation they took the bold step of releasing it to the community for free and received several awards including some from us. During the months that followed they secured a contract with Atari for a new program for NWN2 to distribute premium modules called Adventure Packs, and pitched several ideas. The final decision resulted in their all out efforts to build MoW. One of the really cool things about Ossian studios is that they've recruited members of the community much like BioWare has done over the years. These include such Hall of Fame winners as Luke Scull (aka Alazander), Kevin Smith (aka codepoetz), Mat Jobe (aka Nemorem), Russ Davis (aka Tiberius209), Alex Hugon (aka Hugie), Leonard Bedner (aka Challseus), Brian Watson (aka MadWombat), Zach Holbrook (aka Maerduin), Rich Barker (aka Phantasma) and several other very talented community members. It's great seeing members of the community move on to become professionals in the gaming industry and because they are so close to the community, they know what players want and they've put that attention into their work. What's even cooler is that all of them are remote and haven't even met face to face yet were able to create a professional game for publishing. You can read the whole thing at NWVault. Thanks to Maximus for the heads up on this one! [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 12, 2008, 1:01 am by Taluntain  What we asked:Q: How many different massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have you played to date? (522 votes total) 1-3 (211) 40% None (146) 28% 4-6 (69) 13% 7-9 (42) 8% 10-15 (24) 5% 21+ (23) 4% 16-20 (7) 1% Exactly two fifths (40%) of the poll participants have played 1-3 MMORPGs to date. 28% of those who have voted haven't played any MMORPGs yet. 13% of the participants in the poll have played 4-6 MMORPGs to date, followed by 8% of those who have played 7-9 of them. 5% of all who have voted have played 10-15 MMORPGs, closely followed by 4% of those who have played more than 21 MMORPGs, believe it or not. The numbers of those who have played 16-20 MMORPGs to date are the smallest, only 1% of the poll participants. » Current Poll » Previous Polls [Add/Comments: 3] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 11, 2008, 4:15 pm by Taluntain  » Previews for May and Beyond» Dungeon Adventure: City of Blood » Thank you, Playtesters! » Dungeons of Dread Internal League » Against the Giants Preview 1 » 4th Edition Excerpts: Weapons » Spotlight Interview - Keep on the Shadowfell » D&D Miniatures Victory Points: Mounts » D&D Insider Beta Announced » Ampersand: The Scoop on D&D Insider » Dungeon Side Trek: Night of the Straw Men » Richard Baker's Swordmage » 4th Edition Excerpts: Skill Challenges » Xen'drik Expeditions: Flotsam » Attention D&D Fans! [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 7, 2008, 5:35 pm by Dalveen A recent blog of Alazander's suggests that the much anticipated Mysteries of Westgate will be released near the end of May.Here is the paragraph: Two more spotlights have been posted recently: Rinara's Travel Guide and The Rise of the Ebon Claws. The tenth spotlight is due soon and it'll be the last: we've pretty much run out of material, and the game will, fingers crossed, be released later this month. There's a MoW press conference in LA in the next couple of days, and I expect things to ramp up then in preparation for release. Hopefully we'll see a few reviews from the major gaming sites over the next couple of weeks. You can read his full blog post here. [Add/Comments: 2] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 6, 2008, 11:13 pm by Fairie  In anticipation of the release of 1.69 patch, the CEP Team has released CEP 2.1. Chock full of goodies, including but not limited to the Social Pheno work by Tom Banjo. New placeables, clothing, creatures, scripts, this is a major update. Saddle up horses and ponies alike, and rest assured that the code from the CEP horses and the Bioware riding systems work in unison. The CEP Team wanted to make sure folks were able to incorporate this in preparation for the 1.69 release. We'd like to thank them for all their hard work and for making this available to the community.Read the full article here and more information on the hack can be found here. [Add/Comments: 2] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 5, 2008, 10:37 pm by Dalveen  One of the co-founders of Bioware, Ray Muzyka, has recently been interviewed at The Guardian Newspaper about how he started the company, and how his previous training as a medical student has helped him.Here's a section: Three years later, they decided to set up their own development studio. "One day we were having lunch and I just said, 'hey wouldn't it be fun to make a game?' and Greg says, 'yeah, I know some guys who are good programmers, let's hire them'. The next day we incorporated a company, combined all our savings, maxed out our credit cards and launched into this… very interesting endeavour." The result was Bioware, now one of the top ten most important videogame studios in the world according to Game Developer magazine. Last year, the team released Mass Effect on Xbox 360, an epic space RPG considered - alongside the likes of Bioshock and Super Mario Galaxy - as one of the games of 2007. It is about to be released, in enhanced form, on PC. Oddly perhaps, Muzyka (pictured) is certain part of this success is down to the co-founders' experiences in medicine. You can read the interview at the Guardian. [Add/Comments: 1] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 4, 2008, 9:27 pm by Taluntain  We've had another recruit join the news team recently, so clap your hands for Dalveen! All of our recent news reinforcements have been doing a very good job and I can only hope that they keep it up and earn all those perks that come with being on the team.A couple of days later than anticipated, but solely due to the delay on the software developer's part, I've upgraded our message boards to the latest available version, which has brought many significant changes and improvements. The main new features are members' social profiles, profile customisation, picture albums, social groups and much more. The upgrade thread in Sorcerous Sundries has the full details. While all the new features are freely available for everyone's use, the SPS account holders will be interested in learning that their contributions enable me to allow them to upload pictures with larger dimensions and size, and twice as many as non-SPS account holders. SPS account holders are now also able to upload an animated (gif) profile picture. The board upgrade has been keeping me busy for the better part of this week, but I'm far from done yet, so keep an eye out for things to come in the following weeks. If you've been away from our community for a while, or haven't joined us yet, now would be a great time to get involved (again)! » Previous SPH [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 4, 2008, 5:33 pm by Taluntain » 4th Edition Excerpts: Racial Benefits» 4th Edition Excerpts: Swordwings » D&D 4th Edition Game System License FAQ » 4th Edition Excerpts: Multiclassing » Dungeoncraft: The Campaign Arc » Vicious Venues - The Grotto of Whispers » Ampersand: Traveling Show » Spotlight -- Halfling Paladin » Spotlight -- Emerald Orb Wizard » 4th Edition Excerpts: Angels » Epic Destinies in D&D 3.5 Novels » The Sellsword on Sale (Forgotten Realms) » Shadowmoor Available (Forgotten Realms) [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 4, 2008, 4:54 pm by Dalveen The website Theives-Guild.net have recently inteviewed Alan Miranda and Brian Dunn of Ossian Studios about their latest highly anticiapted release for Neverwinter Nights 2, Mysteries of Westagte.Here is a snippet: * Will the game be played entirely within the confines of Westgate or will the party travel to locales outside of the city? If the latter, where? Alan: The game mostly takes place within the walls of Westgate, however, there are a couple of exceptions where the player leaves for a short time. You’ve probably seen the ingame movies we’ve released with the quelzarn attack – that happens out to sea a little from the port. The other case is a small jaunt during one of the sidequests. While we did consider making some rural areas just outside the city walls, we felt that we had our hands full with all the content (areas, quests, etc.) we needed to create within the four city districts, so decided to focus on that. You can read the whole interview over at Thieves-Guild.net. [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 3, 2008, 11:06 am by Cap'n CJ Once again, Tiberius of Ossian Studios brings us a spotlight on the upcoming adventure pack for Neverwinter Nights 2, Mysteries of Westgate. This time around, the focus is on the war between two rival thieves guilds in the city - The Night Masks and The Ebon Claws. Here's a quick snippet:With only the briefest moments of exception, the Night Masks have dominated the underworld of Westgate for the past twenty years. Recently, however, a new group has arisen: The Ebon Claws, and while such rivals are usually quickly and brutally dispatched by the followers of the Faceless, the Claws, unusually tenacious, have not only survived the Night Masks’ assault, but have thrived and prospered. So confident are they now in their position that they have begun to openly war with the Night Masks, many times as the aggressors. Shockingly enough, it is often the bodies of known Night Mask operatives found in the morning streets, their domino masks mockingly stuffed in their own mouths and four dark, gangrenous, filthy lines – the eponymous "ebon claw" of the new guild – dug like trenches into their pale cheeks. As usual, you can read the whole thing at the official forums. [Add/Comments: 0] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 2, 2008, 4:39 pm by Cap'n CJ  In real life, death usually isn't a good thing. Generally that's seen as "the end", however, in video games this isn't so. Evan Shamoon, over at 1up.com, has written an interesting article on the subject. Here's a quick peek:Even after working on a slew of rather forwardthinking titles (the Thief series for Looking Glass Studios, and now a project with Steven Spielberg for Electronic Arts), designer Randy Smith admits that the portrayal of death in games is very different from its portrayal in other forms of media. "In a movie or book, even one about violent events, death typically carries significant narrative gravity," he says. "Something to contemplate and reflect upon: mortality, tragic loss, the finite versus the infinite, all that jazz. In a videogame, by contrast, death is often just a temporary nuisance -- a failed jump or missed bullet, a lightweight frustration. The videogame version [of death] emerges from a collection of assumptions about what games are supposed to be: Games are supposed to be about goals; the goals are supposed to be judged and scored; consistent inability to achieve positive goals should lead to failure; games are supposed to be about dangerous and violent topics...altogether they mean that in a game, you should sometimes fail, and the failure should be death." You can read the full article at 1up.com, but this is quite an interesting topic, so let's get some opinions going! [Add/Comments: 6] - [View Comments/Permalink] - [Top] Posted: May 2, 2008, 4:25 pm by Cap'n CJ  This week's Neverwinter Nights Podcast is up, and this time they've got an interview with Tiberius, who should be familiar with some of you as a member of Ossian Studios, creators of the Mysteries of Westgate adventure pack. You can listen to it at the usual place.
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