I just thought I should throw my two cents out.
BG3 above all else should put story first.
Now is that to say certain upgrades shouldn't be done? Its a hard question with 3D distractions come into play and it takes away from whats really important....if you let it. But it does make alot of other things possible which could be done that really hasn't been attempted yet. ..flying..climbing...jumping....I'm sure if I was getting paid to come up with these ideas I could make up some more crap.
Story, Story, Story.....NWN was ok kinda take it as a BG still getting used to the engine, but they couldn't handle the scale of the game. They wanted to make it huge, but didn't fill it up.
NWN 2 I think had alot more to the game and I had fun playing it with the first expansion...a second is in the works. It didn't feel like NWN though which took some getting used to since thats what I expect, but once you get over that its fun.
One main factor was the attention to detail that left. What happened to Bioware and Black Isle? Bioware went the way of the money big corporate and Black Isle employees went to different companies. I think Bioware knows how to make engines, but suck at making the actual game. Take the BG series for example and then take each companies program seperate from each other. Bioware NWN and then Black Isle IWD2. IWD2 a very fun game sucked for me without the backing of multi player. I think at most it probably had 30 people in GSA. Now back to NWN it took away from everything BG2 had going for it not to mention the feel of the game was ice cold take the gui for example.
Major factors for a good online experience in my eyes with BG2
GSA - Lots of people complained about GSA saying MPlayer was better, but what ever GSA was fun getting to the point where you were going to jump into the game and you were trying to find players. Now we have a problem. No one plays a game like this any more. Now its all MMO so why would we want to gear a game like that? They wont. That to me was a big factor of why it was so fun to play BG2 on GSA and the fact you had the close feeling of 6 people going out for a campaign something that isn't embraced in NWN at all unless you are a module maker and demand it or embrace it some how which can be done I suppose.
6 Pary Members (Your six buddies) - As I said above having just a few people to play with was alot more fun the having a 100 you don't RP with or at least experience the story together.
Feel of the game - BG2 they were less worried about cheating less worried about how many players they could fit into the game and more about story and a good gaming experience.
Basicly I don't think the question is about 3d or not to 3d, but about quality game makers. Now that is the question.
Bring back Black Isle the real game makers.
