4.1GB of HD models and textures added to Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition

(Image credit: Beamdog)

Beamdog's remastered version of Neverwinter Nights was released in 2018, bringing graphical improvements like pixel shaders and post-processing effects to BioWare's other Dungeons & Dragons RPG. (The enhanced edition also restored its multiplayer server list.) Characters still had the same blocky, polygonal heads they had in the 2002 original, however. That's changed with the HD Models & Textures Pack, which unpacks to 4.1GB of better-looking characters, as well as weapons, armor, and shields.

Beamdog notes that "using remade models on lower-end machines can lead to potential problems with the game performance" and so the upgraded models and textures are optional. You can download them directly from Beamdog, and one enterprising player has already uploaded them to the Steam Workshop, where you can also find content like the player-made modules that Neverwinter Nights was famous for.

The enduring popularity of Neverwinter Nights is another reminder of how Dungeons & Dragons shaped every corner of PC gaming. If a shinier, newer D&D RPG is what you're interested in, development of Baldur's Gate 3 continues apace, with the latest update adding the sorcerer as a playable class and a new region called Grymforge.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.