Neverwinter Nights 2 sees golden dawn

In 2003, BioWare scored an Xbox hit with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. For the sequel, the development chores were handled by the upstart Obsidian Entertainment, which had a follow-up on shelves in late 2004. Obsidian's latest effort, the PC role-playing game Neverwinter Nights 2, is another sequel to a BioWare hit, albeit one with a much longer turnaround time.

Atari today announced that Obsidian has finished development on the sequel to BioWare's 2002 PC RPG Neverwinter Nights, and that it should ship to retailers in North America October 31. The game will ship in Europe on November 3.

Much like the first Neverwinter Nights, the sequel is promising a huge single-player adventure, online capability, and tools to create levels. The revamped toolkit will include all-new texture sets for new environment types, as well as implementation of the SpeedTree middleware, which lets the game render large clumps of trees and other vegetation quickly. The game itself will include a new party system that will let players build a bona fide adventuring party with up to four characters. Check out GameSpot's previous coverage for more information.