Game News Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

[Roguey]

Didn't they find Baldur's Gate in the Steam registry or something similar? That makes me think it might not only be on beamdog or whatever their shitty service is called.

That's just regular BG for people who'd rather guzzle Steam DRM than get it (likely cheaper) from GOG.

 

[Outlander]

Apparently, Oster is considering crowd-funding Baldur's Gate 3 if the enhanced editions of BG 1 & 2 do well.

 

[Stabwound]

Ugh.

I don't have faith in this guy and his company to make a worthy sequel to the BG games. Overhauling the UI and graphics of existing games - sure, maybe he can do it. Crafting a brand new game in a beloved series? No the fuck way.

The sad thing is that if he were to launch a kickstarter for Baldur's Gate 3 it would surely be funded by people that don't see anything past "HURRRR BALDURS GATE" and donate/masturbate furiously.

I would much rather he tried a brand new game in his new Infinity Engine, rather than shitting on the Baldur's Gate franchise and ruining any chance of a good sequel.

 

[Dexter]

Ugh.

I don't have faith in this guy and his company to make a worthy sequel to the BG games. Overhauling the UI and graphics of existing games - sure, maybe he can do it. Crafting a brand new game in a beloved series? No the fuck way.

The sad thing is that if he were to launch a kickstarter for Baldur's Gate 3 it would surely be funded by people that don't see anything past "HURRRR BALDURS GATE" and donate/masturbate furiously.

I would much rather he tried a brand new game in his new Infinity Engine, rather than shitting on the Baldur's Gate franchise and ruining any chance of a good sequel.

Read the article first xD That might be part of their plan after the two Enhanced Editions and they're planning to add new content there too (apparently including some new areas and NPCs), so people will have a chance to gauge if they could manage or not, if they turn out shit or won't sell well it won't even come to that.

I'm also highly doubtful that they could manage any kind of budget over Kickstarter for any kind of platform Exclusivity, big part of the reason why the previous two projects gathered so much money was the promise of both DRM-free (and physical) release, as well as optional Steam activation for the people that wanted it. And they'd still have to talk WotC and ATARI into that since they don't own the rights...
It's not even planned yet and there would be many obstacles for them to overcome :p

Also more Info from their forums:

Our goal is to make Enhanced Edition the best version of Baldur's Gate ever. We're going to be opening up a forum where the community can suggest and vote on fixes and improvements. We will also be fully supporting every language BG was released in including some new ones. We've already fixed a ton of bugs in old and out dated systems. You're right summer is not very far away but this is really the beginning of what we have planned.

 

[Semper]

he talks shit and tries to hype the masses just to sell enough stuff to get atari back on track :D
to make a kickstarter project he's to own the rights which clearly ain't the case. baldur's gate is atari's last resort and to ship a new title they have to buy the rights from wizards to do so. after all this shit the last years with hasbro and atari wizards won't step on the quick buck to let this happen again.

and yes, beamdog ain't the right ones to handle good crpgs.

 

[jewboy]

"Baldur's Gate 3 has been our long term goal. We have a lot of things to put in place before such a project can be launched. So currently there is no such project but that's the one we want to do. Our thoughts have been that Enhanced Edition for BG 1 and 2 just make sense before there's any Baldur's Gate 3."

The remake of both Baldur's Gate games is a terrible idea. Everyone who loved BG2 has played it a gazillion times already. They're not going to want to play it again simply because the graphics, which are fine as they are, are improved. As for a BG3, pointless as well. If Trent "NWN" Oster thinks he can do justice to an old style fantasty cRPG he should just go and make one. Or, if he wants to kickstart fund it he should produce a short freeware game first that proves he has the talent to do it and the will to resist the greedy temptation of pandering to the Bethtards and Biodrones. Or maybe he could write a NWN module to prove his team can actually write a story. I'd rather see Gaider behind this but he has obviously gone over to the dark side. Way, way over.

As a BG2 fan, what I would love to see is the same engine and combat mechanics of BG2, but with a completely new story. Well, actually, SCS II proved how bad the default AI really is. So that should be beefed up. Maybe they could even get the SCS II author to help script their AI for them. The biggest problem with SCS II is it's buggy as hell. So making the AI more than a spare time project could clean that up.

 

[Stabwound]

Baldur's Gate 3 would surely have to use D&D 4, which would make it a total mess I'm sure. There's no way Wizards of the Coast (or whoever owns D&D) would sign off on a D&D 2 game like BG. Since his Infinity Engine fork is based off of the ToB codebase it won't even be 3.5 compatible like Icewind Dale 2.

This dude's company only does facelifts on games. I have absolutely zero faith that he would do anything that remotely does justice to the series. I don't know how truthful he is, but he repeatedly calls himself a "Bioware founder" and says he was lead developer on Neverwinter - is that true?

I cringe even thinking about what his additions to BG1 and 2 might be. If he destroys the BG franchise it will ruin any chance of there being a good sequel from a somewhat competent studio like Obsidian. I hope that if a "BG3" ever does come to fruition, it's just taking place in the general area but with a completely new cast and story.

If he really wanted to do some good, he would change up the IE so that it's much more mod friendly. Mods "kind of" work these days, especially thanks to Weimer and his Weidu thing, but there are tons of problems still and things have to be installed in exactly the right order or your game turns into a total shitstorm.

It would be very nice if he would consult with some of the pros of the Infinity Engine modding scene, like Weimer and the guys behind projects like Baldur's Gate Trilogy. They've done some amazing shit without even having the source code.

 

[jewboy]

It is true that Trent was lead designer for NWN. Considering how bad the OC was that's not something I would really be boasting about, but he is a genuine AAA game designer. For a game that is nothing like the current shit generation of games. Yeah. It wasn't great, but it was not some kind of pandering abomination either. And it's a good point about the mod community. Even though he is Mr NWN if he made some interesting mod for BG2, something that adds story and content, that would make it a lot more likely that he could get funding for some kind of BG2 sequel-in-spirit. Fourth edition rules would be a nightmare and trying to get the rights to the Baldur's Gate license is just silly. The fact that he thinks the BG2 story was good does make me think that he is not capable of creating a good one. So probably nothing to see here.

 

[Dexter]

I wouldn't write these guys off like that xD
And he was Co-Founder at Bioware and worked on their first game even (Shattered Steel), he was also involved in MDK2 and Baldur's Gate and was Lead on NWN and all its Add-Ons and apparently he was also Lead on the Dragon Age Engine, here's his Resume: http://www.trentoster.com/?page_id=20 His last project apparently got cancelled and then he left in 2009 to found this "Beam Dog" thing and took some Bioware people with him, also Co-Founded with this guy: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,6539/ and went on to develop MDK2 HD already: http://www.beamdog.com/products/mdk2-hd

Btw. I made a thread on their forum thingie to ask about the Kickstarter thing and Exclusivity and they don't seem to be entirely stupid :p

To clear a few things up:
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition will not be exclusive to beamdog.com; however, it will be available there first. We will be making more announcements regarding this. stay tuned.
While we do want more people to come to beamdog.com to buy great games our goal is the best possible launch and distribution for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Therefore, we will be making changes to beamdog.com to support this. The two biggest changes will be to the drm and the download client.

Kind of depends on which way they want to go and if they fail or not, but I won't say no to anyone trying to bring back tactical isometric party-based RPGs xD

 

[waywardOne]

I wouldn't write these guys off like that xD
And he was Co-Founder at Bioware and worked on their first game even (Shattered Steel)

Not quite true. Shattered Steel was pitched to / picked up by the existing Bioware. Also, his brother is an actual programmer, Trent did models/graphics. Reiterating, that he was lead on NWN proves beyond a doubt to me that he couldn't forge an original IP to save his ass. This is pure marketing for the iTard crowd.

Joined:
Mar 30, 2011
Posts:
23

Too easy.

 

[Shannow]

"The Black Hound" wouldn't have to be "BG3". AFAIK, it neither played in Baldur's Gate nor did it continue the story-line of our little Bhaal-spawn. So naming it BG3 was never more than a marketing gimmick. I'd expect another "spiritual successor" thingie. Getting D&D and a decent edition licensed would probably be a bigger problem.
All that said, I don't see myself crowdfunding a RTwP game from some dev I haven't noticed before, who has only one game that does him credit (HotU) and who worked at a company in which I have zero faith.
Anyway, let's see how the remakes turn out (lol, now I actually have "some" interest in them) and how things go from there.

 

[Semper]

"The Black Hound" wouldn't have to be "BG3". AFAIK, it neither played in Baldur's Gate nor did it continue the story-line of our little Bhaal-spawn. So naming it BG3 was never more than a marketing gimmick.

actually it was the only chance for interplay to release a d&d game - they hold the rights to develope and publish only baldur's gate titles. exactly those rights were later sold to atari and now they're used to republish new shit under the old flag. dunno if that includes new games in the baldur's gate franchise nowadays but i highly doubt that.

 

[Stabwound]

How would Baldur's Gate 3 work anyway? Even if it was just in name, I've read that most of Faerun doesn't even exist in D&D4 anymore, although that might be completely false.

If he tries to go the kickstarter route that would be like taking advantage of the current hype. He said his company has a contract for 2 games. Why wouldn't whoever gave the go ahead for BGEE and BG2EE fund a "BG3" as well? Unless they're doing it completely self-funded. There's no way they'd lose money on these remakes unless they're absolutely, utter shit.

 

[Dexter]

I wouldn't write these guys off like that xD
And he was Co-Founder at Bioware and worked on their first game even (Shattered Steel)

Not quite true. Shattered Steel was pitched to / picked up by the existing Bioware. Also, his brother is an actual programmer, Trent did models/graphics. Reiterating, that he was lead on NWN proves beyond a doubt to me that he couldn't forge an original IP to save his ass. This is pure marketing for the iTard crowd.

Actually, as it says he first founded Bioware together with 5 other people (including the doctors), he then went on to "Pyrotek Game Studios" and co-designed Shattered Steel, which was then contracted and after that he went back to Bioware. NWN wasn't that bad for what it was supposed to be, the main campaign sucked major ass but there are still PWs running today and Mods being developed for it. Ironically I think some people are also working on a Baldur's Gate Remake based on NWN2.

How would Baldur's Gate 3 work anyway? Even if it was just in name, I've read that most of Faerun doesn't even exist in D&D4 anymore, although that might be completely false.

If he tries to go the kickstarter route that would be like taking advantage of the current hype. He said his company has a contract for 2 games. Why wouldn't whoever gave the go ahead for BGEE and BG2EE fund a "BG3" as well? Unless they're doing it completely self-funded. There's no way they'd lose money on these remakes unless they're absolutely, utter shit.

Well, WotC/Hasbro seems to have scared away a lot of people with D&D4 so they're rather contrite in their marketing towards D&D5: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2012/01/09/wizards-announce-new-dungeons-and-dragons-an-inside-look-at-the-game/

On January 9, the game’s publisher, Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast, announced that they have begun development of the fifth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules. A rewrite of a not-even 40-year-old game might seem trivial, but Wizards’ has set an ambitious goal: To create, with the help of their fans, a “universal rule set” which unifies all players under one single system.​

“We’re focusing on what gets people excited about D&D, and making sure we have a game that encompasses all different styles,” says Mike Mearls, group manager for the D&D research and development team. “Even if you haven’t played in 20 years, we want you to be able to sit down and say, ‘this is D&D.’”​

In its current form, Dungeons & Dragons isn’t a single game that everyone plays the same way; it’s more like several different games descended from a common ancestor. Over its four decade history, the game’s designers frequently changed the rules and republished them; sometimes they did so to fix problems, sometimes just to sell new rule books.​

As a result, the fanbase is fractured to the point of making it difficult to play the game, isolating players that don’t know or enjoy particular versions. More worrying, if you’re Wizards of the Coast: A devoted player of 1977′s “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” rules might play your game every single week —even though they haven’t spent any money on it in 35 years.​

To solve this problem, Wizards has been looking back at each edition of the game going back to 1974, and identifying core rules that make the game work best. They’re also soliciting suggestions from players via weekly columns on their web site, and through community discussion threads. And in coming months, they’ll host several rounds of playtesting, allowing fans to try out new rules before they’re finalized, and identify what does and doesn’t work.​

When completed, that collective wisdom will be used to craft a new engine that will serve as as a sort of “best of” edition —and which should be familiar and fun whether you’re green or a grayhair.​

Of course, bringing all kinds of players under one tent isn’t easy when they want different things. To address that, Mearls says the new edition is being conceived of as a modular, flexible system, easily customized to individual preferences.​

...​

As they begin this new project, Wizards staff are acutely aware of how changes can go wrong; The fourth edition rules, released in 2008, upset many long-time players, who felt it borrowed too heavily from online RPGs like Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, pushing creative play aside in favor of repetitive combat.​

“With fourth edition, there was a huge focus on mechanics,” says Mearls. “The story was still there, but a lot of our customers were having trouble getting to it.”​

...​

Most of all, it feels like D&D, not a console video game, or an MMO, or a card game. That’s the first step towards bringing old players home.​

“D&D is like the wardrobe people go through to get to Narnia,” says Mearls. “If you walk through and there’s a McDonalds, it’s like —’this isn’t Narnia.’”​

They want to somewhat go back to "the old" and get all the oldfags and newfags and their money together with the new edition, which might even make a Planescape 2 possible (and Forgotten Realms seems to become the default setting again), they're even reprinting D&D 1st Edition Handbooks: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/02410000
Obviously they already greenlighted a remake and commercial rerelease of a game based on 2nd Edition, they'd just have to work off of that. As for how it all turns out in the end we'll have to see, the "Extended Editions" of the first two games are set to come out previously anyway and Baldur's Gate 3 is still far away so it's not like it'll be happening tomorrow, Wasteland 2 might even be out by then.

 

[Luzur]

How would Baldur's Gate 3 work anyway? Even if it was just in name, I've read that most of Faerun doesn't even exist in D&D4 anymore, although that might be completely false.

wait what? dont tell me they did a Bethesda and nuked it with meteors?

 

[Stabwound]

I'm just going by what someone said in a Baldur's Gate 3 discussion thread. Apparently D&D4 killed off many of the Forgotten Realms gods and much of Faerun is now a wasteland and what's left of it is disfigured and chunks of the land fell into the ocean and some other shit. I don't know if that specifically effects the Sword Coast area or not, I'm not big on D&D lore.

 

[Metro]

Didn't they find Baldur's Gate in the Steam registry or something similar? That makes me think it might not only be on beamdog or whatever their shitty service is called.

That's just regular BG for people who'd rather guzzle Steam DRM than get it (likely cheaper) from GOG.

Except GOG never puts their D&D stuff below 50% off whereas I'm sure eventually it can be had for $2.50 on Steam. Never mind the entire Infinity Engine package of games being sold for $6ish at Gamers' Gate. Not that $5 per game is expensive but, relatively speaking, GOG isn't as competitive with pricing.

 

[hello friend]

I'm assuming they have the original art resources lying around. Higher-res backgrounds? Yes please.

 

[Shannow]

How would Baldur's Gate 3 work anyway? Even if it was just in name, I've read that most of Faerun doesn't even exist in D&D4 anymore, although that might be completely false.

wait what? dont tell me they did a Bethesda and nuked it with meteors Spell Plague?

Yes, that's exactly what they did. (Wouldn't have minded, personally, if they hadn't also retconned all that other shit.)

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

"Oh look how much Wasteland 2 has taken in donations! Lets redo an old game too and cash in bros!!!"

Expect to see more of this shortly.

 

[felipepepe]

I can already see it: "Trent Oster, the legend behind Baldur's Gate 1&2 enhanced edition and NWN 1, kickstarts an old-school RPG!"...

 

[waywardOne]

Actually, as it says he first founded Bioware together with 5 other people (including the doctors), he then went on to "Pyrotek Game Studios" and co-designed Shattered Steel, which was then contracted and after that he went back to Bioware. NWN wasn't that bad for what it was supposed to be, the main campaign sucked major ass but there are still PWs running today and Mods being developed for it. Ironically I think some people are also working on a Baldur's Gate Remake based on NWN2.

Not that bad for what it was? What part was good? The toolset and multi was fine, but every dev could release their tools -- and many do, and any mod or multi credit has nothing to do with "NWN". Hills that are platforms with ramps? One signature weapon per type? The template for further shitty BIOWARIAN KWEST DESIGN? Terrible dialog to go along with terrible VO? Seriously, beyond the 1% contribution to mods & multi, wtf was good about NWN? Oh, right, the totally original portraits.

 

[Stabwound]

"We're interesting in the concept of including some of the great mods out there into BG "canon" - Trent Oster

In other words, the people that said he'd be ripping off mods seem to be right.

I wonder if he can legally just repackage every mod there is and sell it? I don't see what's stopping him at this point.

 

[waywardOne]

Let's look at Beamdog's EULA, shall we?

This Agreement grants a single user license to the Licensee. The user is allowed to operate only one instance of the software at any time. Abuse of the system will be tracked and in cases of abuse the user account will be terminated. The rights and obligations of this Agreement are personal rights granted to the Licensee only. The Licensee may not transfer or assign any of the rights or obligations granted under this Agreement to any other person or legal entity. The Licensee may not make available the Software for use by one or more third parties.

Right off the bat we can see that we're not buying anything, we're renting. We can't resell it, and if they think we're not keeping up our end of the agreement, they can terminate the license.

The Software may not be modified, reverse-engineered, or de-compiled in any manner through current or future available technologies.

So are they supporting the modders or not? Looks like not. I expect a full campaign of C&D against BG modders, especially the exe hackers, no later than this summer. They'll support modders only by using their own, probably bundled with the license, modding tools.

The Vendor makes no warranty expressed or implied regarding the fitness of the Software for a particular purpose or that the Software will be suitable or appropriate for the specific requirements of the Licensee.

The Vendor does not warrant that use of the Software will be uninterrupted or error-free. The Licensee accepts that software in general is prone to bugs and flaws within an acceptable level as determined in the industry.

Translation: They can market it to you however they want but they don't have to deliver. You agree that it can be buggy and shitty. I wonder where they got their "acceptable level" metric.

This Agreement will be terminated and the License forfeited where the Licensee has failed to comply with any of the terms of this Agreement or is in breach of this Agreement. On termination of this Agreement for any reason, the Licensee will promptly destroy the Software and all rights to the software will be removed by the Vendor.

See that part where only you, the customer, can fuck up and lose his rights?

This license allows the end user to operate one installation of the software at any given time. Concurrent operation is not allowed and will be viewed as a violation of this agreement.

This license allows the Vendor to utilize the upload capability of the Licensee through the Beamdog Player to improve the service for the Licensee and other users. The Licensee agrees there is no compensation for this usage.

How will they know about concurrent operation? Well, duh, you have to be online to play. Elsewhere it states if you're playing on computer A and you fire up the game on computer B, they shut off computer A's ability to play the game. I'm guessing that this means there's not just an always-on connection required, but that they'll have to stream content to you.

The Parties to this Agreement submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of Alberta for the enforcement of this Agreement or any arbitration award or decision arising from this Agreement. This Agreement will be enforced or construed according to the laws of the Province of Alberta.

Got a problem? Get a ticket to Alberta.



Seriously, this is moving back into ignore territory.

 

[Stabwound]

Yeah I'm looking at the Beamdog site now and they do have some extremely shitty DRM.

However, it's not exactly that you have to always be online as far as I can tell from reading their forum. What happens is you have to sign online with your Beamdog account to install the game, and then it will authorize your computer to play the game. You have to always have Beamdog open to play it from then on, but it doesn't necessarily have to be online. Much worse than the original Baldur's Gate DRM (you need the disc in the drive.)

It's still a very shitty DRM and something no one should support. However, I just did a quick search on a torrent site and see that MDK2 HD, their previous Beamdog game, is freely available to torrent. So if you're a moralfag you'll probably be able to buy the game on their shitty service and then use the crack after.

I wouldn't worry too much about the "you must not reverse engineer blah blah" because surely the original BG says that as well. Virtually every piece of software does, I believe.

Still, this type of DRM is bullshit. What happens when Beamdog goes out of business? Baldur's Gate: Extended Edition itself will be lost into eternity along with the $20 you'll probably be paying for it.