Monitor: Play

Neverwinter Nights

Words: Sandy Hunter

Infogrames
PC: $55 (Mac version scheduled for Autumn 2002 release)

Neverwinter Nights, Bioware's latest Dungeons & Dragons game, is the best software interpretation of the venerable RPG yet. Three-dimensional graphics with adjustable POV's, a rich, vast world centered around the plagued city of Neverwinter, online multiplayer fun (a la Everquest) and an electronic 20-sided die ruling characters' fates make Nights the ultimate nerd distraction. Neverwinter Nights' attention to D & D details may deter more casual gamers, as might the vast number of hours required to finish the included adventure. Fans however, eat up the packaged game and soon form cliques and play the scores of modules posted online, created using the included Dungeon Master toolset.