Neverwinter Nights 2

The first Neverwinter Nights took the familiar role-playing game mechanics based on the Dungeons and Dragons license and added a robust multiplayer component with an extremely powerful editor tool allowing for player created content. Obsidian's sequel is not looking to reinvent the wheel, but rather to take what was good from the first game and build on it while fixing what was bad. One major area that is getting attention is the party system. In Neverwinter Nights, the option was there to hire NPCs from a roster of henchman, but they did not interact with each other or affect the story. Neverwinter Nights is the spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series, which did have a strong NPC component where party members had their own quest lines and frequently interacted with each other. Neverwinter Nights 2 goes back to this idea of an interactive party with a maximum of four members. Other party members can hang out at your stronghold once you get it about halfway through the story. The stronghold introduces another huge new portion of Neverwinter Nights 2. The player will gain access to a dilapidated castle, and will have to spend some time hiring hands to work in it, fix it up, build defenses and eventually train and build an army. During the story, your enemies will lay siege to your stronghold, so if you have not spent some time to train up an army and improve the castle defenses, you could be overrun. The Aurora toolset was an enormous draw to the first game and the sequel also comes with a powerful construction tool. Many of the tile sets (like grass) have been replaced with a paint-style tool allowing creators to further customize their environments. Neverwinter Nights 2 should please fans of the first game and suck in any D&D fans that were missed in the casting of its net.

Pros:

• New Stronghold system allows players to take and manage a castle that will play into the game's story.
• Deeper party member interaction (more like Knights of the Old Republic II).
• Improved construction toolset.

Cons:

• Not as open-ended as Oblivion or Gothic 3.

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Call Of Duty 3

If you haven't played a Call of Duty game, you're missing out on one of the finer shooter franchises in recent memory. The Call of Duty series features World War II combat inspired more by World War II movies and less by realism and actual events. Relying heavily on scripted sequences and less on complex AI routines to do the work, Call of Duty games still offer exhilarating game play for fans of the genre. That being said, if you've seen one you've seen them all. The graphics get better with each one, but in the end the single-player always works out to be the same. Not that it's a bad thing, but if you've have enough prime rib, more prime rib is not what you're after. Where Call of Duty 3 differs this time is the multiplayer portion, which has been given a serious overhaul by developer Treyarch (who is taking over the series from Infinity Ward). Multiplayer matches will now feature vehicular combat (long overdue) and defined character classes as well as new game modes (like War) and the classics. Treyarch is also raising the multiplayer limit up to 24 and changing the lobby system on the 360. Taking pages from the successful multiplayer layouts from Halo 2 and Battlefield games, Call of Duty 3 looks to deliver an all new World War II multiplayer experience (if there can be such a thing). So while the single-player may feel ho-hum, the multiplayer might be the next big thing.

Pros:

• What?! A WWII shooter without a Normandy beach level? This is a good thing.
• New multiplayer modes as well as old classics.
• Vehicular manslaughter.
• Clearly defined character classes.

Cons:

• Single-player is tried-and-true, but tried all the same.
• PC gamers left out of the fun this time around.