Quite simply, this a must have for NWN2 fans. This is an extremely polished and superbly crafted adventure, and the attention to detail is simply astounding. The game draws you in from the start and doesn't want to let go. I had a hard time tearing myself away from it, it's THAT good. I simply can't find anything to criticize, except perhaps that I wish it was longer.

When asked what they were proudest of with Mysteries of Westgate, Alan Miranda replied that "City Adventures are tough to do. The team likes this one." The Ossian development team can take a well deserved collective bow: they NAILED this one. Be patient folks, this is worth the wait. You are in for a real treat.

Speaking of passion, it was definitely in evidence by the Ossian attendees. Along with Alan was Russ Davis. We knew that both were avid RPG enthusiasts by their exuberance in discussing MoW and its features – and that both were very proud of their creation.

In closing, I’d like to say that I’m definitely looking forward to a review version of the game. I have great confidence that it will get a good mark from JustRPG!

We interrupt the podcast schedule to bring to you this special news bulletin.

Atari and the Neverwinter Nights Podcast sent our very own, Michele aka Liso66, to Los Angeles for a special press event surrounding Mysteries of Westgate.

She interviewed Alan Miranda, CEO of Ossian Studios , and Russ aka Tiberius on the spot! Michele was teased by a few hours of playing MoW and tells us how she did. Check out new screen shots below.

GameSpy: How did you come to work on Mysteries of Westgate?

Miranda: Well, after we released Darkness over Daggerford for Neverwinter Nights Atari approached us in August of 2006. It didn't take much convincing to show them that Ossian could easily replicate our success with Neverwinter Nights 2. We started coming up with ideas for where to set our next game and eventually settled on the city of Westgate, which is possibly the most infamous city in the Forgotten Realms.

Throughout the two decades of the Night Masks’ brutal reign of terror over Westgate, there have been few concerted efforts to stop them. And such should not come as a surprise, for anything that even hinted at breaking their stranglehold on the city would be swiftly and efficiently quashed; the Masks are nothing if not brutal. To be sure, there are several organizations within the city that might at first glance be good candidates to come to the defense of the city’s beleaguered merchants. The church of Lathander is centered close to the grand arena in the magnificent cathedral known as the Morningstar Haven. The church of Ilmater also has a strong presence in the city, though in keeping with its clergy’s mantra of suffering, it has no quarters as grand or plush as the Lathanderites. Sadly, even combined, for the two groups often act together in the same harmony as the two deities they represent, they have not the forces to counter the insidious threat posed by the followers of the Faceless.

The game itself has been completed since last September but the delay in getting it released is due to a new online digital store that Atari is setting up to sell the game. It should be similar to what BioWare did to sell their Premium modules both in terms of functionality and DRM restrictions, meaning you'll need an Internet connection to validate the game before playing it. The BioWare site took more than seven months to create, so it's not a simple project but Atari is confident the store will be ready early June and the module will sell for $9.99US.

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.

Hoist the anchor and hold onto the rail… There be pirates aboard the podcast! Dave, left defenseless at the helm, is unable to stop Skunkeen’s mutiny… so he joins in… will the podcast ever be the same?

Bob aka FFBJ is subjected to Dave’s rambling interviewing techniques which have been deemed torture by numberous human-rights organizations. Rest assured Bob weathers the storm and delivers an intimate look into making a world come alive.

Toolset

* The toolset and game now load hak files in the same order.
* Fixed an issue where you could not tint multi-selected tiles.
* Light spheres shall now display properly.
* Sound spheres shall now display properly.
* The creature cache in Area Properties shall now work as intended.

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.

This time Trey and Michelle bring you episode 53 of the one and only Neverwinter Nights Podcast!

This week we have Russ aka Tiberius as our main interview. Russ has been modding since NWN1 with the Hall of Fame hit, Saleron’s Gambit series 1-5. Russ has also made the transition to NWN2. Along with his current solo project, (The Maimed God’s Saga) He has joined Ossian Studio’s, and contributes his talented writing skills.

* More news from BenWH at AME - The remaining NWN2 finalists for module categories announced
* AME IRC chat scheduled for next Saturday May 3rd 4GMT/11am EST
* NWNP and Realms of Annakolia DM Round Table Saturday May 3rd 10:00am EST/9:00am CST
* Adam Miller Lute Hero

Figure 1-2. Identification of Sandbox Games

If you want to understand the immensely popular sandbox genre, there’s no better way than to study a carefully constructed flowchart. Figure 1-2 will aid you in the identification of most sandbox crime games. Try it on your friends – it’s 123% accurate.

The Game Setting

* 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.

Read the full interview ans see 19 new screens showing the Sewer Tileset Here

Well, there's no point in beating around the bush any longer, so let's get right down to it. A few months ago we were contacted by Blizzard in regards to the Diablo3.com domain name. While they appreciate all the work that's been put into running this big Diablo fan community over the years, they still want the domain name. Hmm, I wonder why? Now before you get all up in arms about it, allow me to explain a few things.

First off, this fan site isn't going anywhere, it's just getting a new name: Diablofans.com! Blizzard is actually being really cool about it, giving us all the time we need to make it a smooth transition before we hand the old domain over to them. So be sure to update all of your bookmarks and point 'em to diablofans.com instead. Your user accounts will all still be perfectly functional and, along with this new site name, we'll soon have a big site redesign up and running as well. A new name, a new look. Huzzah!

Secondly, while Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn't be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we've been waiting for all these years. They acquire new domains all the time. While this is true, I personally can't help but think that this is a confirmation of sorts that they're working on the next Diablo game. Sure, they can claim it's because they want to protect their intellectual properties 'n what have you, but I can't imagine they would all of a sudden be so interested in the diablo3.com domain if they weren't working on a new Diablo 3 game behind the scenes.

From a design perspective, the most shocking change to 4th Edition is its explicit resemblance to MMOs -- specifically, World of Warcraft. Classes now explicitly fill one of five roles in combat, mimicking the MMO trinity of healer, tank and damage guy. Powers are being designed to be usable more often so that you don't have to call a halt to the adventure for the wizard to sleep eight hours. And enemies are being designed with a more careful eye to the hit points and damage relationship.

Following the company's recently reported expansion into Europe, Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax has announced that it has founded ZeniMax Asia, a new Tokyo-based subsidiary to publish both its own titles and others throughout Asia.

The new division is to be headed by general manager Tetsu Takahashi, and is currently slated to bring Star Trek: Conquest, Star Trek: Legacy, and Fallout 3 to the region from its own slate, as well as 2K's Major League Baseball 2K8 and both the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of Rockstar's Bully.

This grandeur intersects with gatekeeping, a function felt most consistently in RPGs and shoot ’em ups, but regularly occurs elsewhere. Bosses are a plump full stop to bring a stage to an end, open up a new area or provide the next widget fragment in your quest to reunite the mystic widget medallion. They’re the reason to conserve medikits, special attacks and fancy-pants ammo, and hone your skills. When the beast topples and the chaos settles, it’s a definite crescendo-closure that lets you breathe out a heavy sigh before hungrily breathing in whatever fresh treats await around the next corner.

First place you’ll become acquainted with is the Harbor Loop district. You won’t be surprised to learn that the docks are one of the roughest parts of town - that’s the way it is in most port cities. Of course, most cities don’t have a criminal organization as powerful as the Night Masks. They like their victims fresh, so be on the lookout for street thugs when you get off the boat. Best thing you can do is try to blend in by having a drink at the Black Eye tavern. It’s a good place to find work, too - or trouble, if that’s your preference.

Trey and Dave have a fireside chat with the folks over at Realms of Annakolia . An NWN1 persistent world. Included are DM Barry who is a team member of the Community Expansion Pack (CEP) and a Neverwinter Connections Grand hall of Fame Dungeon Master! And his other half DM Charissa two time and recent Grand Hall of Fame Neverwinter Connections Player of the year. Together they created the PW for NWN1 called Realms of Annakolia. Also joining us is DM Feather. She’s received the November 2006 DM Hall of Fame and the November 2005 Player Hall of Fame awards. And apprentice DM Raven caws in every once in a while too.

* Some inside news from BenWH at AME - Part 1 Nominations Announced Today!
* Neverwinter Vault Announcement - New community project!
* NWN Podcast has a permenant spot on the front page of WarCry!

Up Next: Russ aka Tiberius. Russ has been modding since NWN1 with the HoF hit, Saleron’s Gambit series 1-5. Russ has also made the transition to NWN2. Along with his current solo project, (The Maimed
God’s Saga). He has joined Ossian Studio’s, and contributes his talented writing skills.

Still, players needed something to generate the experience -- where do the "forest" or "castle" come from? Gygax and Arneson's answer was another human brain: the Dungeon Master's. The DM of a D&D campaign runs and arbitrates the game, doing everything from designing the world and describing it to his players to providing goals and obstacles to controlling the actions of NPCs.

Contemporary video games also have a Dungeon Master, but there he's much harder to pin down, because his job is spread across many people: dozens of programmers, artists, and designers all lend a hand in creating a game's challenges and rewards, visuals and atmosphere. Hardware and software also share some DM responsibilities, by for example controlling NPCs and by drawing the game world on TV screens.

We were also lucky enough to get a sneak peak at Dungeons & Dragons Interactive while at NY Comicon. The D&D Insider gives players a lot of interactive tools to help run their game and make life easier. The days of the never ending notebook are over. Now many of these resources can be found online. D&D Insider hosts digital version of Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine as well as helping with organized play, community efforts, and utilities.

The character visualizer allows you to make a very customized 3D version of your character to use in the online Game Table program. There are loads of armor, skins, weapons, and styles to make your character look unique. This model is similar to an MMO character creation screen, however it allows for tons of options. The D&D game table gives players a place to move their virtual miniatures on the game board. The game table is designed by the DM in advance with some very easy to use tools.

Take the phenomenal Planescape: Torment. The game has the text compositions of many novels over, all carefully detailed to compliment the artistically designed ambiance. This is a game which combines literary brilliance, an amazing script, with a rather weak but carefully crafted game-engine - meaning the player can use both their imagination and their vision to pull together the world within their mind.

The enjoyment I derived from this masterpiece, yes - masterpiece, and the artistic meaning and merit which I attribute to this game is far superior to that which I would give to any book or painting.

Interactivity helps a lot, but with free choice aside the mere nuts and bolts, the expression, of PS: T is worth a couple of Mona Lisas in its own right. It's unfortunate you can't hang videogames on the wall. But who do you know with a van Gogh original in their hallway anyway? And books aren't asked to fulfil this requirement, either.