Underdark Expansion

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark (Expansion Pack) (Mac)
$29.99
I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this game. A friend and I played the Neverwinter Nights together and really enjoyed it. We wanted to continue on with the same characters; but the first expansion, Shadows of Undrentide, makes you start with a new character. So, we skipped Shadows and went straight to Hordes. First, let me say that skipping Shadows doesn't seem to have mattered. You never feel lost in the storyline. The two games must share very little plot.
Second, I was very pleased to notice a significant gain in the quality of the graphics and gameplay. Not that Neverwinter was a slouch. The game is a little old now, so my relatively new 1.6Ghz PowerMac G5 with 64MB VRAM and 2.5GB RAM handles it readily on max settings. My friend, running a 867MHz G4 with 32MB VRAM occasionally runs into some slowing even though we both have cable broadband.
We've encountered few problems, but the most annoying is exclusive to multiplayer. At certain times in the game, a 3D graphics movie will run with some dialog. However, it will only play for the lead character. If the other player is lucky, he can still run around and act. A few of times, he is unlucky and has to stare at a black screen through the movie and the fight that ensues. This never happened in Neverwinter.
I find the replay value is good, especially since I feel taht the puzzles are pretty easy even the first time but live for the tough fights. I've played it through twice with different characters and have enjoyed exploring with different character attributes. Before I play it again, I will probably buy Shadows and start a new character off there.

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Expansion Pack
$4.99
I don't mean any disrespect to Bioware or Atari, but after Baldur's Gate the Forgotten Realms series seems to have lost its appeal to me. I appreciate that this was their first attempt to bring the Forgotten Realms computer game closer to the original pencil and paper version of Dungeons & Dragons by adding the ability to have a Dungeon Master and to make multiplayer gaming more feasible for this series. However, the original campaign story-line, although not bad, did not compare to Baldur's Gate, in my opinion. The relationships and romances between PC and NPC seemed to go nowhere. The expansions to the game were, in my opinion, not expansions, but totally different games. I eventually purchased Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition, just to have the complete NWN game in my collection. However, I quickly lost interest and went back to Diablo II: LoD and recently, Fallout 3.