Now, onto buisness.
Having purchased and played both games, I can give an honest opinion on both. I'll start with Morrowind.
Never have I seen a more beautiful looking game. The engine used deals with every aspect on the island, and to such an extent where it is beleiveable. All the graphics are smooth, and fluid, and add very much to the game, even on lower settings (I have a medium grade computer, and have no problem running Morrowind, even on it's highest graphic settings). The textures and animations all fit in with the surrounding, and you rarely see anything in the game "reused". Almost every aspect of it's visual aspect is unqiue. Also, because it is not in a "zone" format, you never have to stop, and load something to see the next piece of terran. While there is a bit of load time, there are placed at points where it won't disrupt gameplay, and are usually only a few seconds long. On top of all that, it's completly 3D.
For Story line, the Morrowind story is one of the most immersive stories, ever, if you allow yourself to get dragged into it. If you don't give it a chance (like many people I know), you won't enjoy the story. The catching aspect of it, is the fact that it is actually written like a novel. It leaves you clueless at the beginging, but as things progress, not only does the character learn, but so do you. It doesn't give you the main plot right off the bat, like other RPG's and so called RPG's, it slowly plays you into it. In addition to the main plot, though, there are also hundreds of smaller side quests to choose from, and complete. as was mentioned before, you don't even have to touch the main quest, if you chose not to. There are enough little side quests to keep you busy for countless hours.
While the combat is a little cliche of most RPG's of this type, what more can you really expect? Do you really expect to poke a hole thorugh someone with a sword, and only do a piddly 7 damage, like it is worked out in the DnD world? I sure as hell don't. When I smack something with a sharp weapon, I intend it to kill, not give the guy a paper cut, and thats what Morrowind does. It is the first actual realistic combat system for an RPG. You can get to the point where your strong enough to clear out kill someone with one good swipe, armour or no armour (Granted it won't happen against the heavier armour). While the animations are lacking in differnece (three basic attacks) thats about the same amount of animations for other RPG's, that don't have to worry about the amoun of space a combat animation such as that needs to run.
The editor. While I haven't tinkered around a lot with it, I have done a bit, and I must say, while it may appear daunting at first, once you understand (like most editors) it is very simple to use. It allows unimagined wealths of expandability, and gameplay. You can create new NPC's, new dialogue, new areas, and new items, and all with minor skill. The editor manages to make use of the complex engine design to make your own worlds to add into Morrowind, but not at the cost of spending a huge crash course trying to learn it.
Lastly, while it is only single player, Bethesda did that for very good reason. They perfected the single player aspect of the game. Rather then focus on a cut and paste adventure, and then make a choppy online addition, they worked out the story to a point where it is (and this is very rare) near perfect. There, I said, this is almost the perfect RPG, IMHO.
Anyway, onto NWN.
Never, in my life (not including PoR) have I ever seen a game this horribly glitched! Most of you are probably saying "What glitches?" Well, when I buy a game for $90, and install it onto a comoputer that excedes not only the minimum, but recommended specs, and still can't run the bloody thing, I start to worry about what happened. The fact that Bioware allowed such a bug to exist shows that they do not, in fact, care more about the customer, rather about getting their pay. Designing a game, and using limited Beta testing (only a month's worth, and in a small area of people) is not a good thing, especially when compared to the Beta testing of other games (SW: Galaxies is already recruiting Beta Testers, and it's not even a year from hitting the shelves!). while I did finall manage to play this game, it was not on my computer, but rather a friends computer (which was below mine in power).
Now, the bugs aside, the game itself is mediochre. After having it hyped up for over a year, I was pretty damn anxious to play this, especially the multiplayer aspect of it. I got into the story, and my first thought was "This is cliche." The plot progression, and actual plot is nothing new and exciting (I won't reveal any aspects of it for those wishing to play, or that are playing through it), but rather it is something I have seen multiple times, with slight variations. It was extremly unimpressive, especially after being fed stories as rich as Baldurs Gate, and Planescape.
The graphics are another thing to behold. The Aurora engine is the newest RPG engine on the market, and it's graphics are below that of the Nod Engine used in Vampire the Masquerade Redemption. The characters appear blocky, even at high resolutions, and the animations are lack luster. As for the magic graphics, whats this stuff I'm hearing about being more impressive? Since when are flashy 2D lighting effects more visually stunning then the 3D counterparts? If I wanted to see 2D lights, I'd open up my console games. I'm running a computer here, and I want my graphics to be clean, crispe, and up to date.
Now, as for the editor, I can only scoff it. I don't have much really to say about it, because in all sincerity, it is crap. It has been dummed down so much, that it is not even worth using, because any half wit with a mouse can create a module, and call it awesome, which takes away from the overall feeling. That just means NWN will be full of half assed hack 'n' slash modules, and turn into a semi-3D Diablo.
One last point about NWN. I happen to consider myself a game Connesiuer (sp), and never, never, have I ever returned a game within three days of purchasing it, but I did with this one. Why? Becuase it wasn't worth my $90. Now, that is really saying something, as I didn't even return games like Diablo, after buying it assuming it was an RPG, and I was pretty damn pissed off to find that it wasn't a good RPG like Blizzard claimed.
Now, listen to me, or not. I know this was a long post, and I salute you for reading all of it. this are opinions generated from playing the games, and viewing both games firsthand. Now, if Buck ever posts my Morrowind Review on the site (hint hint
) you people can get a bit more of a thorough view of my opinion on the game. Also, anyone wishing to discuss this further, I'm more than willing, just don't be shocked if I don't respond right away, as I have long working hours for the summer.