Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Editions Announced

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by PsychoPere, Mar 15, 2012.

  1. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    A few weeks ago, a mysterious new website went online with the Baldur's Gate logo. Fans of the games quickly started looking through the website's source code for more information, only to be greeted with cryptic phrases.

    Today, Enhanced Editions of both the original Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II were announced. The official website has been getting hit hard by a great deal of traffic. Trent Oster, formerly of BioWare but now with Beamdog, the digital distributor / developer behind this "enhanced edition," has been answering questions via Twitter in the meantime. You can also see some text from the official website at this PC Gamer article, and Joystiq also has some information from the companies involved.

    I've never played either Baldur's Gate myself, though over the past few weeks I've found myself thinking about purchasing the first one and giving it a try. Maybe I'll finally do that when these editions are released this summer.
     
  2. Evil Twin

    Evil Twin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Sa-WEEEET!

    Makes me wonder if they're going to use a newer D&D ruleset. Wouldn't be surprised, but don't really care either way. Care more about the story than the mechanics.

    And yeah, you definitely owe it to yourself to play them. The first one is decent but 2 is just pure awesomeness. Pained me when they moved away from the Infinity Engine's gorgeous 2D backgrounds to Neverwinter Nights' fugly, tile-y 3D environments.
     
  3. Winterwind

    Winterwind Commodore Commodore

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    Well, let's remember how creaky and cranky the Infinity Engine was. It was pretty obvious in the BG and IWD series and definitely due to be put out to pasture. As for NWN... yeah, it was fugly. And beyond the visuals it was crap. I never finished it.

    As for this updated version or whatever it is... been there, done that over a decade ago so it means nothing to me. Still, for people who haven't played them, it should be good.
     
  4. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    Oster said on Twitter that they're using the 2nd Edition D&D rules. He also addressed the Infinity Engine: the version they are using "is based off the latest Throne of Bhall codebase".

    Long-time fans will likely be interested to know that the team is trying to ensure they don't break existing mods, and to ensure that existing save files will work in this enhanced edition.

    BG1 Enhanced will include Tales of the Sword Coast, and BG2 Enhanced will include Throne of Bhaal.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2012
  5. clint g

    clint g Admiral Admiral

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    This has me interested. I recently picked up the Neverwinter Nights collection to see how some of BioWares earlier work stacks up. So far I'm enjoying it well enough.
     
  6. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    About a year ago, I bought the first one on GOG, though for the life of me I couldn't get very far into it. There was something about it that wasn't grabbing me, plus most of the enhancements including one that made the interface better required BG2, so I gave up. I'm hoping these versions are better.
     
  7. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I've always wanted to enjoy the Baldur's Gate series -- they seem almost perfect. Unfortunately the Infinity Engine just completely ruins the games for me. Is there something wrong with turn-based combat? Maybe I would have enjoyed the games more if I had played them when they first came out, but then again maybe not.

    If these remakes overhaul the combat system I'll definitely check them out.
     
  8. Rincewiend

    Rincewiend Admiral Admiral

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    So, more miniature giant space hamsters then...
     
  9. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, the engine might have been good for what it was back then, but it feels terribly clunky now. When I tried playing it, I had a hard time getting the characters to do much, and I have to say, pathfinding has improved by loads since this was released, as it pretty much feels you have to babysit your characters. Ironically, my best time with the Infinity Engine was when I bought Arcanum on GOG years ago and patched it up with high-res graphics, a game that was considered to be so buggy that it was unplayable back when it was released, but all these years later it seems to be the one that has stood the test of time better, at least to me.
     
  10. TheBrew

    TheBrew Vice Admiral Admiral

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    If they upgrade the artwork to a higher resolution, rebalance some of the early encounters (some stuff is tough at level 1) and redo the UI, I am down. Lots of greatness that is a big bogged down by old game design.
     
  11. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I'm sorry to say that I've never played either of the Baldur's Gate games (my first BioWare product was Neverwinter Nights). This looks like the perfect opportunity to rectify that mistake. :D
     
  12. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Yeah, rebalancing the lower levels would be a nice addition. I love hard games, but getting a game over in a training battle is just wrong.
     
  13. Winterwind

    Winterwind Commodore Commodore

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    Arcanum didn't used the Infinity Engine.

    Bioware developed the engine and only Bioware and Black Isle used it. Baldur's Gate, Planescape, Icewind Dale, BG2 and IDW2 were the only titles that used the engine.

    And I wouldn't mind if they'd release some more info. I'd initially heard it was an iOS port but I've also heard that there will be an updated PC version.
     
  14. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, I could have sworn it used it. It looked very similar in terms of engines. I thought I had heard they used a heavily modded version of it somewhere. Maybe I'm thinking of the engine used in Fallout 1 and 2. In the end, I guess it doesn't really matter.
     
  15. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    It will be both - the iOS version was announced yesterday.
     
  16. Agenda

    Agenda Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Can't wait! :techman: Love the gate.
     
  17. Winterwind

    Winterwind Commodore Commodore

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    Wake me when word about the PC version comes.
     
  18. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    Uh, yeah... The PC version was announced from day one.
     
  19. Base_Delta_Zero

    Base_Delta_Zero Commodore Commodore

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    The BGII upgrade of BGI is already pretty sweet. I just started another run through last month as an evil mage with it, which is the hardest class to grind up in 2nd ed. (my first epic run was a pure selfish-neutral thief when the games were new).

    Forgot how friggin cool these games were. NWN is ass, from graphics to gameplay to story, BG has it all over NWN. I quit playing NWN so many times before finally finishing it and even tried the expansions hoping for better, but its all ass. It never needed to be 3D. All of that dev time should have been spent not writing a shitty campaign.

    Hopefully, I'll have finished my mage's journey through Throne of Bhaal and be rested and ready for another run by the time these come out.
     
  20. PsychoPere

    PsychoPere Vice Admiral Premium Member

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    A couple new details regarding the iPad version of BG1 are now available: the game will not cost more than $10, and multiplayer will be included. Kotaku will also have some more information tomorrow morning, according to that article.

    Also, the possibility of an Android version is under consideration.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2012