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Whoa. You actually read this far? I'm glad I went ahead and wrote out a conclusion this time.
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There are still a lot of aspects we have yet to touch on in regards to Icewind Dale, and since I enjoy touching things… we may as well start now. Although Black Isle has yet to choose a "musical direction" for Icewind Dale, Parker assured us he has learned from his experience in working on Baldur's Gate, and music is to be used more efficiently so as to not become overly and repetitiously repetitive and redundant.
Another question on the minds of the more creative RPG population is whether or not players can create their own maps. Although this will not be allowed for Icewind Dale, the reasons are more than justifiable. It would take a whole lot of work to get the editor to a "releasable state" because Black Isle uses over 20 separate editors for different parts of the game. By the time such an editor could be properly documented and released, more attention and press will be put on other games such as Neverwinter Nights, being designed from the ground up to allow for user created levels. Honestly, would you rather Black Isle got to work on new game projects to provide hours of enjoyment, or that they spent a lot of time releasing an editor for Icewind Dale? I think the answer is obvious, and if it isn't, I've conveniently included an answer below.
Answer: Black Isle should spend time making new games. Preferably ones that involve monkeys.
You might initially be disappointed to hear that there will be an experience cap in Icewind Dale, but thankfully it will still let your characters reach around level 15. That's pretty darn high (darn high being a technical term). I'm not sure how easy it will be to attain such a high level, but if gaining experience is anything like it was in Baldur's Gate, you can bank on having to play for many, many hours before you approach level 15. And when you do, it will be really fun to send your characters into battle with friends in the game's cooperative mode.
Personally I'm looking forward to this game, even though I can no longer stand to play Baldur's Gate. Don't get me wrong, Baldur's Gate is still one of my favorite games, but I played it way too much. Remember the old saying, "If you fly to close to the sun you'll catch fire and die a horrible death"? I don't, but it sounds pretty cool. I think you could take it to mean, in regards to games, that if you play one too much you'll catch fire. Er, crap. I hate these analogies. Let's just say too much Baldur's Gate wasn't good for me, and even with that hanging over my head, I'm still looking forward to playing Icewind Dale when it's released sometime in the first half of 2000. If nothing else, look for the game because Black Isle is developing it, and they made my favorite games of all time: Fallout and Fallout 2.
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