New Neverwinter Game In 2011

I was a huge fan of the 2002 Bioware game, Neverwinter Nights (I never played the 1991 AOL version of the game).  My gaming buddies and I spent many, MANY hours delving into every official campaign and module as well as dozens of user made adventures.  2006 rolled around and we were psyched to play Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2 but the endless number of glitches and terrible GUI kept us from enjoying it.  We never did finish that game as a group.

Last night I got an email from Atari announcing a new Neverwinter to be released in 2011.  The above is a screen cap of the main site displaying the classic classes (from left to right) Cleric, Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, and Ranger.  The game is being developed by Cryptic Studios from the ground up as a co-op RPG, which is exactly what I've been dying for since playing Borderlands.  Sure, I can play (and have played) Turbine's Dungeons & Dragons Online, but it's still an MMO and I just don't have the kind of time necessary to invest in a proper MMO.  But a co-op RPG?  Hells yes.  The game will take place in a post Spell Plague Forgotten Realms and will be using the current version of the D&D rules (4e) as its base.

And here's another kickass little tidbit: R. A. Salvatore is helping to get it creatively off the ground.  And in a stroke of marketing genius, he's just published a new novel called Gauntlgrym: Neverwinter Book I as a tie-in and sets the background for the game (here's the Amazon linkage for it).

The official website is here.