Baldur's Gate Countdown Ends... Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition for Summer 2012

[avin]

The idea here is that this supports the Nostalgia marketing movement of Wizards of the Coast.

I think the idea here is that this is the edition which rights are supported by the owner...

 

[Yora]

When I played DA for the first time, I was amazed how much it really plays like like Baldur's Gate. Except with Mana instead of prepared spells. Yay!

From your post, I'm not sure if you ever played BG2. My perspective is that BG2 was even better than BG1. The overall story may become boring at a certain point in the game, but the actions of the NPC party members were never boring.

Remember Jaheira and the slaver? Yes, it's short and a bit simplistic when you look back at it. But between the lines, there's so much emotion going on.

[sblock]
- Excuse me, do I know you?
- You ruined me, you bitch! Now you don't even remember me.
- I know, I just wanted you to say it loud to everyone here.

- Damn, you bastard! You cursed me!

- I need to find our old ally! Where is he?!
- He's dead.
- What?!

- I have an offer for you. We were hired to protect him, but he's a bastard and if you pay us, we will not show up when you take him down.[/sblock]
So much nasty stuff, people are doing to each other, in such a short quest. That's some really dirty fighting, that I don't remember even from Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2. And that's just a short minor quest.

 

[Jablaylo]

I am so getting this updated version of the classic. I wonder if it'll be able to read my old save files...

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Announced, Server Explodes [Update]

Wonder how long until Planescape:Torment gets this treatement...

WHOOT

That was the FIRST thing I thought! Need to enhance Planescape: Torment!

 

[Thunderfoot]

<SNIP>think they'll make a Baldur's Gate 3, especially since I doubt WoTC and Hasbro want to support the older edition--they are probably allowed to do this because of the existing contract and, at the end of the day, it's a port.
<SNIP>

6 months ago, I would have agreed with this, however in light of the new push to hype the 5e, all inclusive system, the re-release of the classic 1e AD&D books and the sudden urge to "bring D&D to every household in the world", I would see this as a great way to get 2e rules out to the mass market without having to re-release those books as well.

Right now we know that WotC is re-releasing the 1e books
Assuming this is the release of the 2e material to the world at large and
that 4e is the currently supported system.
The only question now is how are they going to suck the 3e players back in?
(Support of the Pathfinder system? - doubtful, but in this strange new WotC we love everyone world, who is to say. Besides, Paizo is comprised of several old TSR/WotC staffers.)

 

[Thunderfoot]

I have never understood the almost universal love for Planescape. I've tried to play through it many times and always gave up in boredom. By contrast, I've played through the BG series 5 or 6 times and IWD 3 or 4. Even managed to get through IWD2 a couple times. As for Cespenar, I agree completely.

I agree, I never understood the love of Planescape as TSR product period. It re-named all the demons and devils to baatezu (WTF that is) or whatnot and then gave them all new names, re-organized the hierarchies of both Hell and Abyss and then created this "blood war" between them. And mostly it introduced the now overused celestials and tieflings (barf). Okay, I realize I'm in the minority, but I have yet to hear anyone explain WHY all this content was so good. For me, it just reeked of playing to the religious crowd as they got rid of devils and demons from the game, "See, no Satan worship here. Can I play D&D again, now mom?"

 

[Dire Bare]

I agree, I never understood the love of Planescape as TSR product period. It re-named all the demons and devils to baatezu (WTF that is) or whatnot and then gave them all new names, re-organized the hierarchies of both Hell and Abyss and then created this "blood war" between them. And mostly it introduced the now overused celestials and tieflings (barf). Okay, I realize I'm in the minority, but I have yet to hear anyone explain WHY all this content was so good. For me, it just reeked of playing to the religious crowd as they got rid of devils and demons from the game, "See, no Satan worship here. Can I play D&D again, now mom?"

We're not talking about the tabletop RPG setting, but rather the videogame "Planescape: Torment" that used the same engine as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Not everyone's cuppa tea of course, but widely considered an amazing game.

But . . . since you mentioned it . . . you don't have to like the setting, but yeah, you have totally missed the point of it. Absolutely nothing to do with catering to "families" or to avoid the baleful gaze of the Moral Majority.

 

[Endur]

I found that the enemies at the start of BG1 mostly consisted of weaker melee sorts like gibberlings, so having a party armed with missile weapons worked wonders. BG2 changed that as the enemy had more tools at its disposal. And I would turn off spellcasting as an AI option.

Now that I think more about it, I think I had two (or three) party members with melee weapons and the rest with missile weapons with spell casting turned off.

I did it mostly for control purposes... the missile troops didn't move that far, and I found it easier to control 2 or 3 melee characters and make sure they didn't pull additional encounters into a current combat.

Then when I saw a need for spell casting I'd micro manage one or two of the spell casters. Usually at the beginning of a tough combat, I'd micro-manage until the enemy spell casters were taken care of. Then I go back to melee and missile.

 

[Thunderfoot]

We're not talking about the tabletop RPG setting, but rather the videogame "Planescape: Torment" that used the same engine as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Not everyone's cuppa tea of course, but widely considered an amazing game.

But . . . since you mentioned it . . . you don't have to like the setting, but yeah, you have totally missed the point of it. Absolutely nothing to do with catering to "families" or to avoid the baleful gaze of the Moral Majority.

No actually that WAS the reason they switched to words other than devil or demon... Also the nudity in the artwork disappeared at the same time.

I do get that the video game and the tabletop are different, the Planescape: Torment engine was just a ramping up of the the BG/ID CPRG engine, probably could be seen as a direct descendant of some of the changes in the new version of BG that we are getting. It was the subject matter that I didn't care for, not saying that your liking of it is badwrongfun... I try to keep away from those statements, after all, there are a lot of things I find charming and dandy about the 1st ed version of D&D that most people are glad that are gone; (No spell level limits, uneven XP charts, expanded to hit tables in the 20 zone (6 20s before 21 vice the THAC0 chart, racial level limits, etc) I just couldn't get behind PS, it just felt wrong to me.

 

[Dire Bare]

No actually that WAS the reason they switched to words other than devil or demon... Also the nudity in the artwork disappeared at the same time.

Nope. The terminology change and general "sanitizing" of the game happened long before the Planescape setting was a gleam in Zeb Cook's eye. Of course, Planescape was built on top of those changes, and many blame the setting for the changes . . . but they are not directly related.

I'm actually a fan of *most* of the sanitizing changes made to the game . . . the old ways didn't offend me, but I appreciated opening up the game to a wider audience. But the erasure of the words "demon" and "devil" was pretty unnecessary, IMO, and not a good call. On the other hand, I LOVE the "native" names of "baatezu" and "tanar'ri". In my campaigns, foolish mortal scholars refer to the fiends as devils and demons (although use the terms interchangeably, just like the real world), but the fiends call themselves by "clan" names baatezu, tanar'ri, gehereleth, yugoloth . . . .

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Looks like the enhanced edition is for the Ipad.