NWN2: MotB And The Witcher

With all the great console games coming out this holiday season, it’s easy to overlook two small releases from Atari which haven’t received much face time on ad banners compared to some of the big games. Due to my extreme admiration for PC gaming, I have been following both these titles since they were first reported. Finally within the last month, both of them found their way onto my PC. Mask of the Betrayer requires the original Neverwinter Nights 2 game to play while The Witcher is its own game. While they are both excellent games, they are also very different from each other while using the same engine. It’ll make more sense as you read on.

Like I mentioned above, both games are published by Atari and they use some form of Bioware’s Aurora Engine to create the visuals. They are both RPGs with complex story-driven plots and isometic cameras. However for enthusiasts of a more down-to-earth camera, they both over an OTS (over the shoulder) camera mode to be more close to the action. So why did I mention both of these games? It’s because they’re different, and they both try to shift the focus of modern RPGs from being a happy-go-lucky good guy to one of moral ambiguity.

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbow Six Part 1

The “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six” series began in 1998 as a Windows PC game developed by Red Storm Entertainment, called “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six,” loosely based on a then incomplete book called Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. Stop me if I’m going too fast. In an time where games like Quake 2 and Half-Life had you shooting aliens, robots and rooms full of explosive barrels; Rainbow Six offered something different: realism, planning, strategy, and teamwork. These key elements were passed down, unscathed and in some cases improved, to the two sequels that followed: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 2: Rogue Spear and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield (seriously who comes up with these ridiculously long names). All seemed good for the series until. . . . Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown.

Deus Ex 2: Visible Taint

Deus Ex 2: Invisible War had all the makings of an excellent sequel, it had the name recognition of its game of the year predecessor, it was set in a well crafted universe that was open to a sequel and the director and producers involved with the original game were also involved with this project. Despite all of the good things going for it and the excellent reviews it was getting on the Xbox, PC gamers felt slighted. Why did PC gamers feel slighted? Do I ask more rhetorical questions? Read on to find out.