What's Ahead: In terms of progress, the inherently ambitious nature of Neverwinter Nights' design is the game's worst enemy. Though its current build already features hundreds of thousands of different types of content, such as characters, monsters, and items, we still haven't seen exactly how a dungeon master will interact with his players in real time, or indeed, how an online tabletop session will actually take place. We also haven't seen much of the game's single-player campaign, which will consist of between 20 and 30 different scenarios, or how those and other scenarios will work with the game's online character vault--an option that will let you create a character specifically for online hack-and-slash sessions.

Though it's uncertain whether Neverwinter Nights will meet its projected release date this fall, it's clear that when it is released, it'll be as powerful a utility as it claims to be. We watched a demonstration of the latest build of the game at E3 and came away impressed by the power and versatility of the game's dungeon editor. Neverwinter Nights will let you quickly and easily lay out any kind of adventuring area using an intuitive interface that resembles Microsoft's Windows operating system. In fact, at the demonstration we watched, BioWare's staff laid out a simple but functional and fully populated dungeon in about 20 minutes, complete with a distinctive texture set, enemy monsters, and magical treasure. Neverwinter Nights will also feature a huge library of textures and character models that dungeon masters can use to build their very own adventure areas, including dank catacombs, bustling cities, brightly lit outdoor areas, and more. It'll also feature a somewhat challenging but exceptionally powerful scripting language that will let you create and customize literally millions of different combinations for player characters and nonplayer characters, monsters, armor, and weapons. And thanks to the game's modular design, if you create a custom item or character that you're especially proud of, you'll be able to upload it to the Internet so that other dungeon masters can download it and drop it right into their own dungeons.

Anyone who's followed Neverwinter Nights' progress knows just how ambitious the game is. What's most impressive about the game is that, judging from what's been shown, it may well realize its own ambition--and if it does, it'll change computer role-playing games forever.