rojay

I've enjoyed the game since it was released, but I haven't played through all of the various patches, as I'm not finding quite the same replay value I did with the Baldur's Gate series. I'm not writing off the possibility, and it may have to do with the fact that I've got a bit more going on in my life than I did in 1998. For the time I spent on it, I can't complain about the price, that's for sure. I'm at least still interested enough in the game that I read and responded to this thread...

No that wouldn't be possible and I'm glad it isn't. That would kill the feel of the game. I played a game called Myth: The Fallen Lords around the same time that Baldur's Gate came out. It was a fully-3D real time tactical game - no resource management, all tactics. The camera rotated 360 degrees and you could zoom in and out. I can see how that would be difficult to pull off in a game where the environments need a lot more detail, but I'm not sure why it isn't possible. Can you explain?

The game ran acceptably on my early 2011 Macbook Pro (2.3 GHz i5 / 4G 1333 DDR3). There were occasional, slight slow-downs during certain very graphics-intensive (lots of spell effects during combat) sequences, but nothing that affected gameplay. Your laptop's fans will probably get a workout, but that's why they're installed.

I am currently in Germany, and all I can say is kill me. Get me a swimming pool of snow so I can bathe is slush. I'll spend all saturday on the Northsea, as will half of the population of northern germany. But today was a workday and I had to change my wardrobe two times during the day. It's not the heat per se, but the humidity that drives you nuts. So, as I said above: Give us that icy expansion already! Absolutely. I'm in the vicinity of Hamburg (Uelzen to be specific) and there was even a bit of rain today, even though it's warm as hell. When did Germany become the tropics? D: Ah, Uelzen! The pearl of Lower-Saxony. No, not for real, but the train station is by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, famous austrian architect and artist. My friends, if you want heat and humidity, come to New Orleans. On another note, with a 2-part expansion, where do they go with a level cap for the sequel? Apart from one notable fight, things were pretty easy by the time I'd reached the end-game. I trust they can balance the game for any level character, but I also assume that the farther into the game you get, the harder it gets to balance. If I'd not done side-quests etc., I'd have been 2 levels lower by the time I got to the end of the game. Seems like that would be a problem that would only get worse from the developer's perspective...

Steam has me at 146, which seems pretty high. I've played through to completion once, and started three or four other games to check out different character builds. I did some quick research into how Steam calculates hours, and couldn't find a definitive answer. My guess is that Steam "rounds up" minutes played at a certain point to the next hour. I have absolutely no evidence for my hypothesis, nevertheless I believe it, and as a result am going to start a religion on that basis. Also, when trying to figure out how much time I'll spend on a game, I can generally double the average amount of hours people on forums relate as having spent. I assume that's because a lot of hardcore gamers under-report how much time it took them to finish a game, and because I am old and slow. I will absolutely be purchasing both expansions; I enjoyed the game quite a bit.