Icewind Dale 3 in 1 Boxset (Icewind Dale / Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter / Icewind Dale II)

by Atari Inc.

Product Features

• Intel Pentium III 500 or AMD Duron or Athlon processor
• 128MB RAM DirectX compliant video card
• DirectX compliant sound card
• Broadband (Cable/DSL) Connection for multiplayer Windows XP DirectX 8.0 or higher

Product Details

• ASIN: B000FGBVAC
• Item Weight: 2.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,682 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform:  WINDOWS 95/98/ME/2000/XP Publisher:  ATARI Packaging:  DVD STYLE BOX Rating:  TEEN Journey deep into the Spine of the World a harsh and unforgiving environment teaming with merciless beasts and terrible dangers. In this exclusive adventure pack developed by award-winning Black Isle Studios are the full versions of Icewind Dale Icewind Dale Heart of Winter and Icewind Dale II.Features:Icewind Dale Battle Ice Trolls Giants and hordes of terrifying Undead. Over 150 types of new monsters that will put your courage to the test in real-time bat. Adventure through a wide range of beautifully rendered environments from ancient ruins to volcanic caverns and icy plains.  Multiplayer support for up to six players over LAN or Inter connections. Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Continue your adventure in five huge new areas that add directly into the original Icewind Dale. Hack your way through a host of never-before-seen monsters to discover over 100 new items and 59 new spells. Icewind Dale II Conquer hordes of monsters in epic battles utilizing the 3rd Edition Dungeons &Dragons rule set. Cast over 300 powerful spells clash with fierce new monsters and collect hundreds of new items on your journey. Embark on your adventure with a pre-made party or customize each character. Multiplayer support for up to six players for the ultimate gaming experience. System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP Intel Pentium II 350Mhz or AMD K6(R)-III/400Mhz 64MB RAM DirectX pliant video card DirectX pliant sound card DVD-ROM drive Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP DirectX 8.0 or higher Remended System Requirements: Intel Pentium III 500 or AMD Duron or Athlon processor 128MB RAM DirectX pliant video card DirectX pliant sound card DVD-ROM drive Broadband (Cable/DSL) Connection for multiplayer Windows XP DirectX 8.0 or higher

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A COLLECTION OF GEMS - SOME RAW, SOME POLLISHED, July 15, 2009

By 

NeuroSplicer (Freeside, in geosynchronous orbit) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Icewind Dale 3 in 1 Boxset (Icewind Dale / Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter / Icewind Dale II) (Video Game)

I have a confession to make: when the first ICEWIND DALE came out I bought maybe the first copy and rushed home to immerse into it. I had just polished off the excellent BALDUR's GATE and the incomparable PLANESCAPE: TORMENT. A day into ICEWIND DALE and I absolutely hated it!

The graphics were comparable (all three games share the same engine) and the gameplay was almost identical. The music was excellent and certain tunes stayed with me ever since. The storyline was nothing to complain about - after all, any story set in "the spine of the world" can hardly go wrong! What I did not appreciate was the rushed feeling of a job on an impossible deadline.

In order to prolong the duration of the game, much smaller maps were stuffed with a far greater number of powerful foes - and almost nothing could be solved without combat. As a result, what was expected to be an enjoyable experience turned into a chore of endless autopausing, retargeting and constant battling.

Having said the above, I must admit that, in hindsight, my complains seem trivial. Little did I know at the time how far into hell greed would drive the gaming industry. Compared to 3-4 hour games, extra charges for essential content, Limited Installations and RootKits (of the likes of StarFORCE and SecuROM), well, games such as the ICEWIND DALE saga stand out as landmarks in PC-gaming history.

The expansion (THE HEART OF WINTER) improved things somewhat but the series did not find its stride until the very good ICEWIND DALE II. I remember spending endless hours with the sequel and can compare it to the original BALDUR's GATE.

RECOMMENDED.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You might not want this PARTICULAR edition of IWD 1/2, January 26, 2010

By 

R. Rivers (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Icewind Dale 3 in 1 Boxset (Icewind Dale / Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter / Icewind Dale II) (Video Game)

Icewind Dale I and II are old games. I'm not going to review the games as such, but rather this boxed set of them.

This package contains two DVDs (IWD I/II) and one CD (Heart of Winter). I'm not sure why they chose to package it this way; either DVD has enough unused capacity to fit HoW on it.

Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter both installed and ran fine on my Vista Ultimate 64-bit desktop. No complications.

The Icewind Dale II DVD, I believe, was badly pressed, as every time I ran through the installation procedure, it kept throwing the same "incorrect function" error, but every time it would be a different .bif file that it broke on. Every time, it would get further and further to completion before crashing. I've never seen such a problem before with any other program, ever. It finally stopped progressing at 84%, and would keep hanging on D:\CD2\Data\AR3002.bif.

Since it was impossible to install it the "right" way, I made an image of the disc, and installed from that. The reason this works is that the drive reads the disc slower while making an image, allowing for more error-correction. Installing from the image worked fine.

The game requires the disc to be in the drive during play, but if you make a "full" install, it doesn't actually look to the disc for any files, so it doesn't matter if they're semi-corrupted.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Hack'n'Slash, May 15, 2009

By 

Dirty Ears K-Wal (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Icewind Dale 3 in 1 Boxset (Icewind Dale / Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter / Icewind Dale II) (Video Game)

I skipped the original IWD when it first came out, because as a fan of the Baldur's Gate series I knew - or at least thought - I'd be bored with an Infinity game just based on combat. For whatever reason I picked up the sequel when it first came out, and I was hooked enough to go back and explore the entire series. The series doesn't really try to be anything more than a dungeon crawler, but it's at least a fun one.

The graphics are a little dated, but that's to be expected. IWD makes up for this in its great fantasy soundtrack and detailed character portraits. I distinctly remember the vast difference between the original IWD's portraits and those of BG2, which was released after - IWD blew them out of the water. In addition, at the time, IWD2's spell effects were great, and you can tell that they were pushing the limits of the Infinity engine, which was aged even when the game was released.

Gameplay is simple, particularly in the first game. Create a party of adventurers, go forth, and slay monsters. The story isn't a whole lot more than typical RPG fare, and there aren't a whole lot of puzzles and questing. The second game offers a little more (including a decent story), but is generally the same thing. The second game also offers a more robust character creation system utilizing the (then new) D&D 3E rules. To a degree, your choice of race and class will affect how NPCs interact with you, but not a whole lot. If you're looking for an in-depth, complex story...look elsewhere. This is a hack'n'slash, pure and simple.

I recommend the game for anyone who enjoyed the combat aspects of the BG series, or dungeon crawlers in general. IWD doesn't bring a whole lot new to the table, and I think most people know what they're getting into when they play a Black Isle game based on the Infinity Engine, but it's still a very entertaining romp.