Spider

I really haven't found PA to be that bad. For me when I click it, it activates with the next attack and typically stays on. It does go off randomly at times, but it's fairly rare (although maybe I'm not using it enough). The button I do have an issue with though is Defensive Casting. That one is an absolute nightmare to get to activate. If my character has performed any action in the current round, it typically involves pausing every second, clicking and clicking it to see if a new round has started. Then when it goes on, the character can't cast a spell until the next round starts. And it gets turned off all the time causing the character to either lose another action or get hit with AoO. Modes should work just like Stealth and Search mode. Click them and they go on regardless of where you are in a round and stay on until you actively turn them off.

Don't worry about the mage. That'll happen later and Torio definitely won't be involved in any way shape or form. Unless there are several mages to chose from, but I doubt that.

My Wisdom 8 character had at least two Wisdom based dialogue options so far in the game, so I'm not sure there is a set limit on them.

Although I don't think you need her to tell you who to recruit in order to recruit them. I think it's just a hint on who to look out for. As for Guyven:

You can definitely have more than one prestige class, JE is not cheating with this. I am currently playing a Rogue (7)/Fighter (4)/Shadow Thief (5)/Shadowdancer (1) and I have not cheated or hacked the game in any way. But you can't be NW9 if you're a Shadow Thief apparently, since it was not available to me during my last level up (the first since I became one of the nine). Also, to the one who wanted to know when you could become a Shadow Thief, it happens at the end of act one, so somewhere around 10-12 I think.

Broadcast Command - Hold your ground makes everyone except the one giving the command stand where they are. But once you're in combat (at least with puppet mode on) everyone does only what you tell them to do. So it's very possible to have your fighters stand in the way of your casters, the problem is that a single AoO or even two won't be enough to down most opponents. A few well placed backstabs once they get past you on the other hand...

Well, caster's are supposed to be vulnerable. If I throw a fireball severly wounding ten or so opponents, I expect my caster to be charged. I haven't had much problems with my casters being charged, selected or not, if they stand back and do nothing. But once that AoE spell goes off, they're number one on the hit list. But usually by then everything is weak enough that a fireburst or two finishes them off. (Qara has a way of just... dealing with things)

If you've got enemies hitting you and fear of AoO, just go into defensive casting mode and they can stand there for all they like. With some decent defensive spells (shield, stoneskin, greater stoneskin) you'll be able to hold your own.

I agree on the first part. It definitely took too long until you got a mage of some sort. I am playing as a rogue which made Neeshka (unfortunately because I like the character) kinda useless. Everything she could do, I could do better sort of thing. Although I really liked Qara when I got her. She is definitely one of my favorite characters in the game, both how she is written and how she plays. She is the very definition of the word nuker. I also would have liked to have a proper cleric around a little sooner. A druid is all well and good, but it's not the same (although the offensive capacites of Elaness and Qara combined made short work of lots of monsters). Really? On my system with a P4 3.0 and 1GB memory the load times are excellent. When it loads a particularly large area it may take a little while, but most of the time its quite fast. Compare it to a game like Gothic and it feels like I'm in heaven. (I just wish I could have installed the game on my raptor instead, but the insane patch requirements preventd that from happening).

Apart from the demo, isn't that mod more or less dead? Or have they started working on it again?

Agreed. Worst one is defensive casting though, I have a hell of a time to even get characters in that mode (and it includes pausing every other second and clicking it until the activated message appears) and then they leave it way too easily. In theory it makes sense to remove it as soon as there are no enemies next to the character (which is what I think it does) but if more are inbound it makes it a pain in the behind to get it back on again. All modes should be on until turned off. There is a setting for this and with it at max, the zoom is happens at good speeds.

You can save 5 skillpoints between levels.

Regardless of the opinion presented in that review, it deserves to have been pulled on the writing alone. It's such a bloody hack job that it's almost insulting to read it.

In regards to the autosave, it does exist but when it saves seems kinda random. I think it only triggers on the world map (but I'm actually not sure on this) but it definitely doesn't do so everytime the world map is used. I think there is either a time code there somewhere or maybe it saves every other time you use the world map. Given how quick save times are I have a hard time understanding why it doesn't autosave on every world map transition though.

It is fixed by reloading. It may just take a couple of attempts. It's an encounter that takes place during world map travel and involves two cut scenes both of which can fail to trigger. If either does you can't leave the map and half your party stops following you. I fortunately had an auto-save just as I was leaving the previous area so while annoying it wasn't a huge deal. Had to reload it three times though.

He's pretty much spot on in the review. Except that 10k gold is pretty much pocket change when it comes to buying phat loot. The good stuff cost 20k+. Highest I've seen is 50k. Moeny just never seems to be enough. Oh, I also disagree about Neeshka. I think the character is much fun and the voice acting really good. It is kinda high pitch so I can see how people would get annoyed by it, but I like it. It's just a bit sad that my main character is a rogue so she's been sidelined. (although the pyromaniac sorcerer who replaced her is good fun as well)

I was curious about the -- in the wake of newer, better alternatives -- line. What new and better alternatives? He can't mean Oblivion or Gothic 3 since he's complaining about the actual roleplaying (and neither of those have too much of that). So exactly what alternatives is he talking about?

I (thanks to Kaftan inspiring me to try) managed to find a dealer willing to seel me the game a day early. And so far it's been fantastic. A few camera bugs, but other than that I am loving every second of it. Haven't gotten that far though. I really enjoyed the tutorial, second to VtM Bloodlines easily the best tutorial I've played. I have one major gripe though. Having a patch that requires 5GB free HD space for a 90MB patch to install seems kinda stupid. It means I had to uninstall the game from my Raptor and reinstall it on a much slower HD. Thankfully loading times are good for the most part so it's not a huge deal, but still annoying.

Merchant's Friend is available in the US LE versions, Blessing of Waukeen in the Europena ones. I've already found Merchant's Friend on the web, but since I have the European version it doesn't seem to work. Or if it works, there is no way of telling, it doesn't show up anywhere like the blessing.

I really, really can't understand the complaints about the camera controls. I think they are fantastic. They work the same way as in Silent Storm. Press mouse wheel and you can tilt and spin the camera as much as you like and scrolling with the wheel zooms. I really can't see the awkwardness of this. Maybe my experience with it in previous games has had an effect or maybe those complaining about it is playing in another mode than free camera (there are four different modes).

I'm with Sand, since the patch is available on release it should be included in the review. In any case, the review should say if it used the patch or not and if not mention that it could fix some of the bugs found.

I mostly agree that it's the content in the box that should be reviewed. However, when a patch is out on release-day I definitely think that should be taken into consideration. I also think that it's any reviewers responsibility to disclose if it's a pre-release build that is being reviewed since a lot can change between those going out and the gold candidate being finished.

Actually, we have heard what the patch fixes. The patch notes are available on NWVault.

Because it was heavily tied to the Forgotten Realms and in order to make it a FR game they would have to deal with Atari. I guess Atari wasn't interested in dealing with Interplay since they owed them money on the D&D license. Or maybe Interplay had an exclusive distribution deal with Vivendi prohibiting them from even talking to Atari. There are many possible reasons why it wouldn't have worked then but could work now, but if you know more than me, please enlighten me. Edit: In reply to Sand, Interplay didn't have carte blanche D&D rights, at least not when Jefferson was being worked on. They had the right to three franchises, IWD, BG and BG:DA. That's it.