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Game News Baldurs's Gate: Enhanced Edition interview at GameBanshee

Zed

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Tags: Baldur's Gate; Beamdog; Trent Oster

Interested in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, the overhaul of Bioware's 1998 CRPG classic? It just happens that GameBanshee has posted an interview with Trent Oster of Overhaul Games, the developers of said title. Some stuff is still kept behind curtains (like information on new characters), but the interview still has some interesting info on Overhaul Games' future plans, the mod scene and their involvement, and also the Kickstarter stuff that happened around the same time BG:EE was announced.

Here's a slice of the interview to give you an idea:

GB: If Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition sell well, would you prefer to move on to the remaining Infinity Engine games or pursue an entirely new title in the Baldur’s Gate franchise?

Trent: Regardless of how the game sells, we are committed to making a BG2 Enhanced Edition. We are still discussing the other Infinity Engine games and a potential BG3 with our partners at Wizards of the Coast and Atari. At the moment, we're trying to be flexible and seize the right opportunities. Regardless of the outcome, we will have a team that knows how to make a great RPG and has experience on PC, Mac and iPad, which puts us in a pretty great spot. The recent Kickstarter successes paint a pretty picture for experienced teams executing on the games they love to build, so we're pretty jazzed about the opportunities even if we can't make the other stuff happen.


GB: Hypothetically speaking, where would you take a new Baldur’s Gate title? Would you shoot for a direct continuation to the Bhaalspawn storyline, explore other plot threads that the original story only briefly touched upon, take the prequel route, or do something entirely unexpected?

Trent: I'd have to go with option B or C. The great story has been told, the player character has become a god-like being at the end of Throne of Bhaal. We need to tell another great story. We would however, link as much as possible to the rich story and characters of the BG series. We're excited to do a BG3, but we need to do a deal in order to make that happen, so we've held off on committing any work to the concept.​

Again, a link to the interview. And yes, Baldur's Gate is a classic game fak u h8rs.
 

hiver

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Shame people that cant think of anything really interesting got this chance. Or they didnt yet...?
There is a way to continue more or less directly from where BG2 left off. Even with the bloody player character. There is also an alternative, bit more indirect but very connected path too.

- yeah, like im going to tell you suckers.

If some kind of mod toolset ever comes out and i get those few hundred chineze workers to move out of their lazy asses...im going to rule.
 

SerratedBiz

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GB: If Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition sells well, would you consider giving the same overhaul to Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale II, and Planescape: Torment if the powers that be would greenlight it?

Trent: Yes. Icewind Dale and Torment were on our list of games that need some loving.

Guess it comes down to how they handle the BG remake.
 
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Trent Oster said:
Trent: Regardless of how the game sells, we are committed to making a BG2 Enhanced Edition.

What kind of an answer is this? How does how it sells affect his commitment to making it once it's complete?

There's something I find somewhat shady and untrustworthy about this operation and this Trent Oster guy specifically. It might be the fact that he looks like Crispy or it might be me picking up on his Biowarean way of thinking/speaking or possibly the fact that I have no idea about the specific work he has done on previous games or what principles and ideas he represents in game dev overall. I have no evidence so far to reject him outright so I think it would be unfair to do so, but game developers/designers generally are and should be pretty easy to read. It's easy to pick up their priorities just from the way they speak, and honest designers usually don't make you question whether they are being honest or not. I guess this will all become clearer as time goes on anyway.

I'm also very surprised he has managed to get (limited) control of this IP given how many very big companies are involved in it. There's obviously a devious catch behind this all that his company is completely at the mercy of. I don't trust any of those companies who have a hand in it (Bioware, EA, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, Atari)
 
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We are still discussing the other Infinity Engine games and a potential BG3 with our partners at Wizards of the Coast and Atari.

I'll be fucked out of my brain if it's these opportunist schmuck piece of shits that get to fulfill that potential, after Obsidian's failure to snatch those rights for a BG3.
 
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You just know BG3 would be some kind of DA-like shit majestic game.

I don't trust these big titles any more.
 

Infinitron

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Trent: Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is the best version of Baldur's Gate we could imagine. We've added new content in the form of new adventures, new characters and new items. We've rebuilt the User Interface to make it work on all resolutions and aspect ratio screens. We've rebuilt the rendering system to utilize display hardware for better graphics, better performance and we've brought the game to new platforms. Basically it will be the Baldur's Gate you remember, but broadly improved.

Our initial proposal was to build an HD version of Baldur's Gate until we discovered Bioware had lost almost all of the source art and as such an HD version was impossible. We were devastated. But we picked ourselves up and re-scoped around the idea of "enhancing" the existing version with new features and new content while bringing it to new platforms. As is, we've had a very hard time keeping ourselves in check and not going overboard with the updates and fixes.

Trent: Yes, BG:EE includes the Tales of the Sword Coast as a part of the game. We are adding new items, quests and characters to the game. We've been busy building a very solid adventure creation team over the last year and the new content is looking great. We've even brought back a number of former Baldur's Gate team members to help out.
They're basically selling a mod. :decline:

I wouldn't be surprised if you could easily reverse engineer it and offer the content as a patch for the original release.

Trent: We're not really ready to talk much about the new characters and their storylines. What I can say is at least one of the new characters is found along the main story path and he brings some baggage with him. Item-wise, we're just trying to fill out the magical item selection for some of the new characters classes and kits.

No comment.

Also, "fill out the magical item selection"? There goes that awesome low-level campaign feeling. Not to mention the game balance.
 
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we discovered Bioware had lost almost all of the source art

LOL the funny thing is, it could be that this is true or it could be that BW are lying out of a clingy nostalgia to keep their precious classic's look the way it is.
 

Mozgoëbstvo

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I always heard substantial Codex lamentations about many sequels and remake of titles, but I have pretty much been shielded from certain concerns...
But now I'm experiencing an awful feeling at the back of my soul - tell me, is this the fabled "rape of my childhood" I keep hearing of?
 

Grunker

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Wow. That is easily one of the least informative, boring interviews I have ever read.
 

waywardOne

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Oster was a 3d modeler for Shattered Steel, a proto-Bioware release, and ended up as lead for NWN. Neither he nor anyone at Beamdog has any RPG credentials outside of the technical (gui, 3d modeling, barebones coding) aspects.
 

Tigranes

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Will play my modded BG1 for superior experience

Will not give you any of my money

Will not bother reading your shitty interviews.
 

jsaving

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Baldur's Gate may have lacked the breadth of BG2 and the depth of PS:T, but it's stiill better than virtually every CRPG on the market today. If BG:EE doesn't do well, developers will remain convinced that they need to dumb down their RPGs to Dragon Age levels -- and I'm hard-pressed to see how anybody could see that outcome as a good thing...
 

Tigranes

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I did it with Dragon Age 2 and I will do it again, because that's just how XTREME I am.
 

Zboj Lamignat

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Baldur's Gate may have lacked the breadth of BG2 and the depth of PS:T, but it's stiill better than virtually every CRPG on the market today. If BG:EE doesn't do well, developers will remain convinced that they need to dumb down their RPGs to Dragon Age levels -- and I'm hard-pressed to see how anybody could see that outcome as a good thing...
Let's buy the EE at least 7 times bros, it will make good crpgs return, amirite.
 

Grunker

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all you haters just don't understand

bg was always meant for the tablet, it's just they didn't have the technology back then, you see
 

sea

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Wow. That is easily one of the least informative, boring interviews I have ever read.
To be fair the interview was sent off months ago and they only just got around to replying to it - we didn't really have any information to go on at the time other than that they were making the thing. Dedicated CRPG site full of old school fans? Nah, they'd better answer IGN first, the kids need to know if the game will have Felicia Day in it.
 

Grunker

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Wow. That is easily one of the least informative, boring interviews I have ever read.
To be fair the interview was sent off months ago and they only just got around to replying to it - we didn't really have any information to go on at the time other than that they were making the thing. Dedicated CRPG site full of old school fans? Nah, they'd better answer IGN first, the kids need to know if the game will have Felicia Day in it.

Don't worry bro, I'm not targeting GB ;). At least you actually GOT a reply. I've been in communication with with buth Tofer and Oster exchancing almost 15 e-mails total (one where they said "we'll make sure you have our interview replies tomorrow"). They still haven't replied and I doubt they will.

So yeah, it's boring and uninformative because the questions were clearly meant for another time and Oster does his best to say as much nothing as possible.
 

LeStryfe79

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The series has aged like ripened shit. There was a time when I enjoyed them, but I was smoking lots of crack back then. In retrospect, these games were only fun because they were easy peasy D&Dsy. The Gold Box games were far superior in almost every way.
 

Quetzacoatl

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Hey volly, haven't seen you for a while!
 

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