Baldur's Gate Beamdog's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions

[Xeon]

I am not sure if they can charge a full price of a full game in an expansion format or something, there might be a backlash from people.

I think one of the devs said, that any full game must be in 5th edition D&D and a newer engine possibly Unity or something like that, and the expansion is a loophole they found to be able to release more content in IE.

Also I hope if the game has nothing to do with the story of the Bhaalspawn saga like the quote suggest, I hope they don't use the Baldur's Gate name.

 

[ArchAngel]

They already said their next project will be using a 3d engine. They are not big enough to work on two games.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

...and the expansion is a loophole they found to be able to release more content in IE.

maybe they can find more loopholes? Siege of Dragonspear is quite big so another expansion could be of equal size.

At the wiki page for The Black Hound you can read the following:

Rumors on the development of The Black Hound continued up until 2012 upon the announcement of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. The developers, Overhaul Games, revealed that they planned on making Baldur's Gate III, but did not initially reveal whether it would be a continuation of The Black Hound.[3][4][5] Overhaul Games would later clarify that a possible Baldur's Gate III would not be based on The Black Hound and instead be an original story.

So at Beamdog they are already thinking of a Baldurs Gate 3 that is not based on The Black Hound. But... what if they released The Black Hound not as Baldurs Gate 3 but just as an expansion/epilog to BG2EE? And then maybe they could do their version of Baldurs Gate 3 if they want.

Personally I think The Black Hound sounds much more interesting than a Baldurs Gate 3 from Beamdog.

 

[pippin]

If they ever do Baldur's Gate 3 as its own thing, it would have 5th edition rules, as Wiz of the Coast's mandates. They could not release Siege as a stand alone product because Wiz would not accept a game with an older D&D ruleset, after all they want people to buy 5th edition books.
Black Hound as a BG2EE makes more sense, but I wonder if Josh would like to be involved in that... it was "his" project after all.

 

[ArchAngel]

Considering SCL bombed and PoE success I hope WotC allows Beamdog to make a proper 5e D&D game.

 

[imweasel]

BG:EE, BG2:EE and IWD:EE are on sale for 5.99 euros / 5.99 dollars / 4.49 pounds on Bundlestars.

https://www.bundlestars.com/en/game/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition
https://www.bundlestars.com/en/game/baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition
https://www.bundlestars.com/en/game/icewind-dale-enhanced-edition

 

[Kem0sabe]

Why on earth would anyone want beamdog to do a bg3, every opportunity they had to add new content to the old games they went and fucked it up, they then proceeded to bug the shit out of games that were working perfectly fine and add another layer of unneeded features on top.

These fuckers shouldn't be allowed to do shit with the license.

 

[ArchAngel]

Why on earth would anyone want beamdog to do a bg3, every opportunity they had to add new content to the old games they went and fucked it up, they then proceeded to bug the shit out of games that were working perfectly fine and add another layer of unneeded features on top.

These fuckers shouldn't be allowed to do shit with the license.

The Thayan Enclave added in BG2EE was very well done. Had some excellent combat there.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The Thayan Enclave added in BG2EE was very well done. Had some excellent combat there.

The art of the new zones added in bg1 was horrible, the new nps were horrible as well, never played bg2 EE.

 

[ArchAngel]

The Thayan Enclave added in BG2EE was very well done. Had some excellent combat there.

The art of the new zones added in bg1 was horrible, the new nps were horrible as well, never played bg2 EE.

I agree, Bg1 areas were really bad and I only liked the Sorcerer of the new NPCs (and Dorn was OK for evil play). BG2EE already seen an improvement to this. At one point when you meet the monk dude again you can troll him so hard about this honour code and his duties and conflicts, it was well done by writing team. Also the new rogue companion story surprised me. And that Thayan Enclave was well done although Neera and her quest was again bad.

If this expansions sees the jump in quality from bg2ee like we seen from bg1ee to bg2ee it can be a really well done. Bg1ee was subpar, Bg2ee was average with some good parts. SoD could be good with some excellent parts.

 

[Delterius]

The Thayan Enclave added in BG2EE was very well done. Had some excellent combat there.

The art of the new zones added in bg1 was horrible, the new nps were horrible as well, never played bg2 EE.

I agree, Bg1 areas were really bad and I only liked the Sorcerer of the new NPCs (and Dorn was OK for evil play). BG2EE already seen an improvement to this. At one point when you meet the monk dude again you can troll him so hard about this honour code and his duties and conflicts, it was well done by writing team. Also the new rogue companion story surprised me. And that Thayan Enclave was well done although Neera and her quest was again bad.

If this expansions sees the jump in quality from bg2ee like we seen from bg1ee to bg2ee it can be a really well done. Bg1ee was subpar, Bg2ee was average with some good parts. SoD could be good with some excellent parts.

You are making me cautiously optmistic. What a horrible state of being.

 

[Tigranes]

His theory rests on the idea that developers get better over time. We all know that that is wrong. Decline is the logic of every studio, and it can only be postponed, not reversed.

That said, they started off from a place where you couldn't decline any further, so maybe they can break the mold.

 

[Roobenator]

BG:EE, BG2:EE and IWD:EE are on sale for 5.99 euros / 5.99 dollars / 4.49 pounds on Bundlestars.

https://www.bundlestars.com/en/game/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition
https://www.bundlestars.com/en/game/baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition
https://www.bundlestars.com/en/game/icewind-dale-enhanced-edition

THANKS ALOT MAN, gifted these to a friend for fun games of co op later on

 

[ArchAngel]

His theory rests on the idea that developers get better over time. We all know that that is wrong. Decline is the logic of every studio, and it can only be postponed, not reversed.

That said, they started off from a place where you couldn't decline any further, so maybe they can break the mold.

Well your theory fails since BG2EE was better than BG1EE. You theory works only once a certain group of people reaches their maximum. After that there is only decline. We don't know if these people reached their maximum yet.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm not going to pay money to fucks who barely 'improve' a 15 year old game and use that cashgrab to last for years without producing a real game of their own. Especially not when their first offering made the game worse than the original.

Nothing I've seen or heard about subsequent EEs makes me think that I'm missing out on any semblance of quality design, only that they started with a shit why-does-it-exist product and then improved from there over time.

As I've said for months: if this game is good, that's awesome. New IE game, who wouldn't want it. I'll suck their cock all day long. But their track record thus far - and the 'information' they've leaked about this (i.e. nothing substantial) - has very little to be optimistic about.

 

[Delterius]

But their track record thus far

Oh? I was about to get hopeful. Did you think the BG2EE additions the other poster was talking about weren't very good?

 

[Tigranes]

But their track record thus far

Oh? I was about to get hopeful. Did you think the BG2EE additions the other poster was talking about weren't very good?

Whether EEs are good or shit isn't the central point. The question is whether the EEs, either way, give any indication of Beamdog's ability to create quality original content. And despite making considerable money reselling an old game for years, they have produced (1) not a great deal of original content; (2) most of what they've created has ranged from terrible to mediocre. You have stellar writing like "There's bandits! Vicious magic bandits" (with some equally terrible voice acting); you have a shitty, ugly UI; you have a shitty, ugly cinematic; you have, for BG2's new content, basically a gladiator arena.

So it's not that Beamdog have proven themselves to be incapable of a good game. The point is that after years of being around they haven't produced a lot of evidence, and even for SOD's pre-release hype, they are pretty short on any detail, it's just high-level story gloss.

I think EEs are pointless and never justified their existence, but I couldn't tell you that SOD will be shit for sure - just like nobody can say "Hey it's Beamdog they've shown us it'll be great." So here's to hope that it'll be good, but don't take your pants off just yet.

 

[Dreaad]

Mind you regardless of all that they can't do. I have seen them make good, difficult, combat encounters. Granted that's a lot easier in IE games than most, but still, some of their in game stuff (thayan embassy) and black pits stuff (dark elves group, who all turn into 3 hasted poison spiders upon death) shows that they do have some creativity.

 

[Delterius]

Whether EEs are good or shit isn't the central point.

I get that. This is about the extra content they added to the EEs, which, last I checked, was fairly shitty. Fully voiced and supported NPCs in BG1 sticks out as a sore thumb as a matter of principle. Especially for someone already used to the official content as it was released in 97. Worse even when said NPCs, by themselves, can be considered badly implemented clichés. However, you've got a poster talking about things that came up AFTER the point where I think both of us gave up on the whole affair (meaning, BG:EE). If he's right and the additions to BG2EE are already decent, then a full blown mini expansion might be worth checking out.

 

[Tigranes]

This is about the extra content they added to the EEs, which, last I checked, was fairly shitty.

Why don't we look at something concrete? The Black Pits, the only non-companion added content to BG2EE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J76rjD3U140

1. Mediocre to bad writing ("A symphony of violence requires many instruments" 1:11), though BG never had stellar writing anyway;
2. A terribly choreographed in-game cutscene (4:00) which is basically a copypasta of the Irenicus vs. Cowled Wizards, except shittier on every level. Hurr durr let's have 3 mercs randomly attack the arena narrator really slowly (including a once-per-turn throwing axe) while the other 4 mercs don't notice or do anything at all. And then add in some terrible, terrible voice acting by the Solar.
3. The terrible, ugly UI with the terrible font, the terrible clash between every new and old element, and terribly mistmatched sizes (e.g. spellbook, 8:00)
4. The new environments look decent.
5. The combat in that video is blurgh, but those are just the early warm-up fights.

 

[Delterius]

snip

Spoiler

 

[rado907]

My big problem with the content Beamdog added was that it was horribly bugged and unstable. I carried the Monk NPC through the entire saga, and kept the annoying Wilder Wizard NPC for a while. In BG2, the Wilder quest broke down and I was unable to complete it. And finishing the final Monk quest took me two hours of struggling to activate the right triggers in the correct order.

 

[ArchAngel]

My big problem with the content Beamdog added was that it was horribly bugged and unstable. I carried the Monk NPC through the entire saga, and kept the annoying Wilder Wizard NPC for a while. In BG2, the Wilder quest broke down and I was unable to complete it. And finishing the final Monk quest took me two hours of struggling to activate the right triggers in the correct order.

They learned their lesson with IWDEE, it was playable and finishable at release (or I was lucky). And all the delays of SoD are now because they take QA more seriously after botching both BG1EE and BG2EE releases.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Quick question about BG 2 EE. Did they put that wild mage Neera somewhere off the beaten path this time?. Or did they put her in a place that forces you to avoid the whole north of town like they did in BG:EE. Resulting in the party getting hammered my red wizards?

 

[MediantSamuel]

Quick question about BG 2 EE. Did they put that wild mage Neera somewhere off the beaten path this time?. Or did they put her in a place that forces you to avoid the whole north of town like they did in BG:EE. Resulting in the party getting hammered my red wizards?

Pretty sure on either your first or second visit to the Bridge District in Athkatla she'll make herself known. Essentially unavoidable.