Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition

[Gromnir]

Actually BG3 in upgraded infinity Engine might be for me worthy to give them some money in contrast with EEs... I just want to see writing in their original DLCs first...

there were a mod for bg2 that never actually were completed: icewind gate... or somesuch. a bg3 with a modified version 'o the infinity engine from icewind dale 2 would be something we would pay for if beamdog made.

 

btw, we played bg2:ee last night for 'bout 5 hours. that, in and of itself, is a good sign, no? the only part o' the game we has played were the arena portion, 'cause am not looking forward to spending an hour to get out o' the starting dungeon. will now offer our initial impressions.

 

negatives:

 

right off the bat we got a ctd as soon as we attempted to talk with a faerunish norseman.  *grumble* nevertheless, we restarted and have had no similar issues. am also having some infrequent and minor audio issues, but perhaps we needs check drivers before we blame beamdog for the near imperceptible annoyance. also, with the arrival o' d20 for d&d, the appeal o' bg2 has been somewhat diminished for Gromnir. ad&d rules is a stoopid and nonsensical goulash of house-rules and tournament rules that gots poured into the original framework of the d&d white box edition. we always has a hard time overcoming our dislike o' ad&d whenever we return to play bg2. however, we can't blame beamdog for our disappointment with the ad&d mechanics. 

 

positives:

 

for an arena adventure, there is a surprising amount o' character development and dialog. we chuckled more than a few times. " to the pain." *snicker* am reminded of josh sawyer's blanket derision o' humor in the bg games, but he can be a bit o' a goober 'bout such stuff. as the black pits is arena fighting, we weren't expecting much story or quest development, but we has been surprised in a good way by beamdog's efforts. am having ~5 quests at present  beyond the actual arena fighting. as we haven't gotten deep into those quests, we can't say how significant or well-crafted they is. a high % of the dialogues has voice over. in our opinion, we would much rather have no vo than bad vo. few games is made superior by their vo efforts... kotor being a noteworthy exception. as we said, we don't genuine give much attention to vo, but the quality of the black pits vo is such that we will count it as a positive. 'course the aforementioned stuff is largely inconsequential if the combat sux. has an arena adventure with bad arena combat and it won't matter if production values were positive, yes? 

 

...

 

am not gonna compare black pits combat encounters to the mods available for making core bg2 combat more sophisticated. am knowing how much some folks like the home-brewed combat mods-- every bg2 uber nerdling seems to have a favorite synthesis of mods. *shrug*  we will observe that the combat encounters in black pits has been challenging and sophisticated. we has actual died a few times. enemy ai has been impressive, and our difficulty with the battles is not 'cause the developers broke the rules or surprised us with an unexpected enemy. before each battle we can see who is in the metaphorical on-deck circle. this allows us to buy potions and prepare spells intelligently.  gold management is an added strategic consideration as at least in the early rounds, we never seems to have 'nuff gold to buy the gear we would wish. battles thus far has been at least on par with the best offerings from bioware or obsidian when they had their chance to craft combat encounters with the infinity engine.  there is a pander-to-crowd mechanic that somewhat eludes us at this point... can't tell if it follows "rules" or is a wildcard thing. 

 

overall, we is happy with the black pits. will add more impressions (mostly spoiler-free) as we continue during those hours we has available to us over the thanksgiving holiday.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited November 26, 2013 by Gromnir

[Zoraptor]

What I don't get is how would anyone make a BG3? You can't meaningfully continue the story, and advertising yourself as a direct successor to perhaps THE most acclaimed isometric RPG ever seems to be a pretty bad move.

There was a BG3-as-continuation story suggestion from George Ziets which sounded pretty cool. If it were kickstarted it'd be a no brainer back, more so even than PE.

 

(Link is from the 'codex, whatever formspring has morphed into is just giving me a blank page for some reason else I'd have linked that)

[Volourn]

"What I don't get is how would anyone make a BG3? You can't meaningfully continue the story"

 

Yes, you can. To say otherwise is to flat out lie.

[BruceVC]

What I don't get is how would anyone make a BG3? You can't meaningfully continue the story, and advertising yourself as a direct successor to perhaps THE most acclaimed isometric RPG ever seems to be a pretty bad move. Most folks who would be interested in that sort of thing are generally pretty well-informed, so I'd guess a "spiritual sequel" is about as attractive to them as a direct one, and you don't have to deal with the frothing fanboys screaming "HERESY" at every little change.

 

As a side note, I'd be perfectly happy with a 4E-based D&D game. It would be a pretty good fit for a CRPG, I think.

 

 

 

What I don't get is how would anyone make a BG3? You can't meaningfully continue the story, and advertising yourself as a direct successor to perhaps THE most acclaimed isometric RPG ever seems to be a pretty bad move.

There was a BG3-as-continuation story suggestion from George Ziets which sounded pretty cool. If it were kickstarted it'd be a no brainer back, more so even than PE.

 

(Link is from the 'codex, whatever formspring has morphed into is just giving me a blank page for some reason else I'd have linked that)

 

 

What Zora said.

 

There is so much potential and different storylines that you can develop in the Forgotten Realms if a company decided to create a BG3. People often say " but the story effectively ended in BG2, what more can you say"

 

There is a whole world and untapped events that BG3 could focus on. It doesn't even have to be about the same characters that the previous 2 games centred on. For me the issue is not "what story" would a developer tell but rather "would we get a complex, challenging and worthy game that does the previous BG justice" ?

[Nepenthe]

What I don't get is how would anyone make a BG3? You can't meaningfully continue the story, and advertising yourself as a direct successor to perhaps THE most acclaimed isometric RPG ever seems to be a pretty bad move. Most folks who would be interested in that sort of thing are generally pretty well-informed, so I'd guess a "spiritual sequel" is about as attractive to them as a direct one, and you don't have to deal with the frothing fanboys screaming "HERESY" at every little change.

 

As a side note, I'd be perfectly happy with a 4E-based D&D game. It would be a pretty good fit for a CRPG, I think.

The pnp adventure I mentioned right above your post is another continuation of the bhaalspawn story. Could very well form the starting point for bg3, having both Bhaal and Baldur's Gate as central aspects.

[alanschu]

 

 

There is a whole world and untapped events that BG3 could focus on. It doesn't even have to be about the same characters that the previous 2 games centred on. For me the issue is not "what story" would a developer tell but rather "would we get a complex, challenging and worthy game that does the previous BG justice" ?

 

Does it actually need to be called "Baldur's Gate 3" then?

[BruceVC]

 

There is a whole world and untapped events that BG3 could focus on. It doesn't even have to be about the same characters that the previous 2 games centred on. For me the issue is not "what story" would a developer tell but rather "would we get a complex, challenging and worthy game that does the previous BG justice" ?

 

Does it actually need to be called "Baldur's Gate 3" then?

 

 

Oh Alan stop being naughty

 

Yes it does because it could be set in the Baldurs Gate region, that could be the association with the originals? But on second thoughts you are right, they could say that it is a spiritual successor to the original BG game but have a different name? But it could be completely different story and characters. But then would the game have the same marketing and sales impact as people prefer to support a known name and franchise. So I don't know Alan, good point   

[Gromnir]

 

What I don't get is how would anyone make a BG3? You can't meaningfully continue the story, and advertising yourself as a direct successor to perhaps THE most acclaimed isometric RPG ever seems to be a pretty bad move.

There was a BG3-as-continuation story suggestion from George Ziets which sounded pretty cool. 

 

am gonna disagree. sounds absolutely horrible. empathy issues aside, one needs keep in mind that the proposed story is for a game... a D&D game.  story is necessarily hamstrung by stoopid d&d canon and by d&d mechanics. as bad as high level abilities were in tob, am shuddering to consider god level abilities in george's bg3, and any such story needs embrace such nonsense. as much as a decent story o' fledgling divinity might (*snort*) be possible, am thinking that a d&d game story for such fare sounds even more  horrible than a south park crpg. seriously.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Nepenthe]

Time to dust off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons_Immortals_Rules :D

 

No, seriously, though, the wheel's already been invented with Murder in Baldur's Gate, it just needs to be put into good use.

[BruceVC]

Time to dust off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons_Immortals_Rules :D

 

No, seriously, though, the wheel's already been invented with Murder in Baldur's Gate, it just needs to be put into good use.

 

Good find Nep , and its easy to see how this is appropriate

[Lord of Lost Socks]

Baldur's Gate: Revengeance

 

On a more serious note. No to endless sequels, and don't mess with complete stories. I want new stories, I don't want someone to mess with old stories that ended on a high note.

[ilhdr]

Not naming it Baldurs Gate III would be a mistake from a business perspective. I know lots of people who had NO idea that Project Eternity is the spiritual successor to the BG games. They had heard of PE, but never really looked into it. If Baldurs Gate III becomes a spiritual successor instead of a sequel, let’s say it’s called Generic Fantasy Game: Path of the Sorcerer… Who is going to buy that?

 

A: People my age won’t know about the lineage.

B: People in their teens/early 20s have heard legends told of the glory of baldurs gate, but having never played it, and not knowing GFG:POTS is a spiritual successor…. You get the idea.

 

More tricky than any of the naming and story continuum etc… Would they make it a 2nd Edition D&D game? Would they even get the D&D License?

Edited November 27, 2013 by ilhdr

[BruceVC]

Not naming it Baldurs Gate III would be a mistake from a business perspective. I know lots of people who had NO idea that Project Eternity is the spiritual successor to the BG games. They had heard of PE, but never really looked into it. If Baldurs Gate III becomes a spiritual successor instead of a sequel, let’s say it’s called Generic Fantasy Game: Path of the Sorcerer… Who is going to buy that?

 

A: People my age won’t know about the lineage.

B: People in their teens/early 20s have heard legends told of the glory of baldurs gate, but having never played it, and not knowing GFG:POTS is a spiritual successor…. You get the idea.

 

More tricky than any of the naming and story continuum etc… Would they make it a 2nd Edition D&D game? Would they even get the D&D License?

 

Good points raised and I now agree that the name needs to be BG3 

[alanschu]

Makes sense.  I mean, look at the original Baldur's Gate.  Most people completely skipped over that one because it wasn't a sequel of another game.

[Hurlshort]

Makes sense.  I mean, look at the original Baldur's Gate.  Most people completely skipped over that one because it wasn't a sequel of another game.

 

I only bought it because I thought it was a sequel to the popular card game Balderdash.

[Tale]

I skipped it because it looked like Diablo. I hate Diablo.

 

Then I dated a girl who was into it. She changed my mind.

[Volourn]

"Not naming it Baldur's Gate III would be a mistake from a business perspective."

 

  I can't help but laugh when people post such nonsense. It is illogical, dumb, ignorant, and not created in reality. History has proven that the above statement is pure false.

[Gromnir]

hostess foods went out of business and twinkie production stopped. there were a host o' clones that appeared following hostess bankruptcy. am suspecting that some clones coulda' been superior. build a better twinkie? why not? heck, you not even needs make better, right? "a rose by any other name"? nevertheless, how much were the name recognition o' "twinkie," "hostess," and other hostess products worth? go ahead and check. looks up and see how much name value gots.  

 

underestimate value o' brand recognition would be foolish in the extreme. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

Nobody said otherwise.

[Gromnir]

if it makes you feel better, consider our observation nothing more than an axiomatic statement.  

 

" It is illogical, dumb, ignorant, and not created in reality."

 

irony

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Monte Carlo]

The BG:EE is on Steam sale - 60% off. That makes it £5.99 UK which isn't bad.

[Junai]

I'm afraid Vol might be right about a Beamdog BG3:EE. Neera made me think of Jarjar Binks and the letdown which was SW Ep. 1. 

[Monte Carlo]

I got the BG1 EE super cheap on Steam.

 

It's polished enough, but without the easy mod support it won't replace the experience I have now. However, a year from now when both BG1 / BG2 EE are out and fully mod compatible... it will be a marvellous experience.

[Bester]

>a year from now

>fully mod compatible

 

Dream on.

[Bester]

Finally launched it. Ugh. They messed up the sounds. It sounds differently now. Why would I want to hear something else when I expect good old sounds of my youth? Pf..

 

Voices sound like they're more in the background. Sometimes some clogging sounds occur. WTF?!

Edited December 2, 2013 by Bester