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Best way to play Baldur's Gate

What is the best way to play Baldur's Gate for the first time?

  • Play the original without any mods

  • Big World Project

  • BG: Enhanced Edition

  • Something else (see post)


Results are only viewable after voting.

Jvegi

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
5,065
:prosper:
27256.jpg
:prosper:
 

Dramart

Learned
Joined
Nov 28, 2019
Messages
540
Location
Argentina
IWD II is the real shit - I got raped so much then I first started my 1st HoF run with my fancy lvl 18ish 6 men party - by 3 fucking goblins right after I arrived.
My best run was a min/maxed 4 ppl party, my main tank had *uhm* 71 AC and my 2nd decoy 59. I think only the temple dragon and 1-2 specific monster could actually hit em. But that stupid bladesingers....oh did I hate them!
Heart of fury seems fun. I want to play it but with chracters on level 30, using that book that gives you 10,000 experience.

I don't think so - using google and reading the average story-premise takes but 5 minutes, than to play Wiz IV - would require endurance 19 or a talent check on reading, though. END to nullify all that that stupidness....that you have to endure.
And you just need to know one thing before playing BG and skil that tedious game.

And this is why we're getting BG3 by Larian folks. Even if it's a troll, it seems the folks from Belgium are catering to the masses of them. Instead of breaking out the oil of fiery burning.
BG and BGII are different than the Divinity Original Sin games, it's not my fault I don't even like DOS. If Bioware changed some things in BGII it's because they thought it would be better design and they were right. For example less traps, what's the point of having lot of those, it's boring. You have to search for traps at almost everytime because there are lots of them, the only you do is waiting until they appear and then disable them, really fun wow. Or if you get it by one and this does a lot of damage you have to use shitty potions that heal pathethic amount of hp and healing spells that are the same shit (youn don't do this, you just reload your game), at least the weaker healing spells, wow really fun. How about resting in periods of eight hours? It forces you to savescum, let's say you got really hurt in a fight, you have no potions, no healing spells, so you rest and heal a pathetic amount of HP, you rest again, monsters, a los of them they beat your ass. So you save, then rest eight hours, and savescum, and then rest again. It's bad design and a lose of time. Instead if you can rest until healed you have on chance of fighting monsters and the other option is having you party fully healed, perfect, not tedious.

Other thing annoying thing is walking a lot, the characters walk slowly and there a lot of walking with noting happening. This is something that was great back in the day because the game was the latest shit, and you could get in that world and enjoy that but now is old, it doesn't feel like exporing a real world, it feels like exploring and Age of Empires II, but in AOEII you find useful information, in BG you just find some shitty generic enemies. It's very likely that you'll will hate BG if you played a similar more modern game like Dragon Age Origins for example. The only reason two reaseons I see someone enjoying are, one, you have tolerance with archaic gameplay, and two, you have played it in your childhood.
 

Chippy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 5, 2018
Messages
6,037
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Dramart I find it amazing how all these people make these staments like they know what's going on inside your head:
"It's nostalgia!".
"I know how many hours you've put into that game!".
"I know why you find this game garbage, and that game good! And that company bad!"

Sigh.
You wouldn't happen to be one of those silly modders I was talking about that couldn't write? In the sense that they clearly knew what was fun, and then projected their version of reality & rulz onto the entire game?.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
dude, BG1 is the only Bioware game worth playing (excluding NWN1 which is a horrible game with a good toolkit, so potentially worthwhile in a different manner)

if you want to play BG1, go vanilla or skip it entirely as you'll be missing the point otherwise

BG2 is utter shit, so anything that mixes BG1 with BG2 is shit-stained by default

anything Beamdog is even worse: not just shit but sexually aroused by shit and ravenously lusting after shit-eating - when you see someone recommend it you know their innermost shit-gobbling desires and can act accordingly
 

Dramart

Learned
Joined
Nov 28, 2019
Messages
540
Location
Argentina
Don't bother with the 1st is shit, bad aged, it's not a masterpiece like the sequel. Bad pacing
Meanwhile, in Baldur's Gate 2: "Oh no, our loyal companion just got kidnapped! We have to save her!"

*five minutes later: circus shenanigans*
That's a good quest in my opinion. It's also good that one in which Jaheira is affected by a curse. Other good one is when you have to take that injured guy to that house next to the arpists house, the first time Bodhi appears, Lilarcor, that part in Irenicus' Dungeon where you have to solve quizzes, the start of the game is great too, man what a game, astounding and creative deitals, the developers where truly inspired. No doubt why is on of the Codex's best RPGs of all time and a good game for almost everyone with a decent taste in games.

dude, BG1 is the only Bioware game worth playing
BGII, KotOR, ME trilogy, Dragon Age Origins. Jade Empires is supposedly good too, but it doesn't interest me that asian martial arts.

I agree that enhanced edition are not as good as the classics.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
if you want to play BG1, go vanilla or skip it entirely as you'll be missing the point otherwise

Anyone who skips BG and just plays BG2 is a dumbfuck.

Likewise, anyone who skips Fallout and just plays Fallout 2 is a dumbfuck.

Anyone who plays BG2 before BG, or Fallout 2 before Fallout, is also a dumbfuck.

They are tainted forever.

In addition, anyone who prefers to play BG in BG2 engine or Fallout in Fallout 2 engine is a shit-eater.

And anyone who recommends others play originals in sequel engines is a shit-eater.
 
Last edited:
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
Bioware chose to make the single fighter class weaker.

It was mean. :cry:

In BG, BioWare capped XP progression one level before Fighter attains Grandmastery (161,000 XP or 8th), but True GM is technically in BG (and IWD and PS:T). But in BG2, BioWare indeed nerfed GM because they are idiots.

They broke a core AD&D rule and yet allowed all sorts of imbalancing non-AD&D rules or supplemental AD&D rules.

Just another reason why BioWare were already retarded at the point of BG2 dev.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
play BGEE is asking for troubles, since the added companions are, basically, written by talentless modders. Unless you know which to avoid, which you dont as that is your first game.

PLay BWP is not a good idea because you are going to have disconnected feeling in later part of the game when your levels (play in BG2 engine) outpace BG1 content (which is low level).

So for your 1st run, it's best to do the original game. Patch fix and all. BUT not the EE version because they are done by modders gone wild.
 

CappenVarra

phase-based phantasmist
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
2,912
Location
Ardamai
CappenVarra what makes you say BG2 is "utter shit"?
only most of the game content and a few other details

asks the guy named after a BG2 character :lol:

on the upside, you get to fight dragons and liches
on the downside, it includes katanas with better stats than longswords by default

the difference can be illustrated by simple things such as:

* inventory illustrations of non-magical shields - everything in BG2 is way more elaborate, but elaborate in a rather stupid and repulsive direction

* starting locations: compare Candlekeep 'fetch hangover cure for a cow to get a book to resolve another fetch quest' to a S&M dungeon about bondage and abuse (wow much adult)

* treatment of Imoen - in the first game you dump her after taking the wand and potion and never hear from her again; in BG2 she's plot-centric and mandatory and don't you dare think otherwise

* walk around for half an hour after starting the game and count the number of times you're interrupted by dialogue initiated by NPCs (either party members talking about their feelings, or random idiots giving you chores)

...
 
Self-Ejected

Thac0

Time Mage
Patron
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
Messages
3,292
Location
Arborea
I'm very into cock and ball torture
You can sniff out the new NPCs, they glow in the dark.
For some arcane reason playing the game with German voices all new NPCs will still have English VA while the rest of the cast speaks in the much superior German VA. I assume this is the same for all languages except English.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
BG2 is crudely conceived and designed with bad taste. From aesthetics to mechanics to writing.

The community it cultivated reflects that, too: degenerates.
 

The Jester

Cipher
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
1,414
In addition, anyone who prefers to play BG in BG2 engine or Fallout in Fallout 2 engine is a shit-eater.

And anyone who recommends others play originals in sequel engines is a shit-eater.


I see that your buttocks are still burning from the Fallout et tu thread:smug:
 

Zboj Lamignat

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
5,521
God damn these degenerate shield designs in BG2.

I like how only 3 or so pages ago a guy was seriously asking if people here suffer from mental issues :lol:
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
monocled BG1 paperdoll vs. degenerate BG2 paperdoll:

paperdolls.jpg


monocled BG1 weapon icons vs. degenerate BG2 icons:

weapon%2Bicons.jpg


bg2.jpg


monocled BG1 menu vs. degenerate BG2 menu:

titles.jpg


Almost no BG2 areas have height-mapping:

heightmapping.jpg


The city of Athkatla is not contiguous and logically laid out like BG:

bgcitymap.jpg


Sprites look better in BG. They're much clearer:

12.jpg


See the background behind the journal? BG2 doesn't have them and EE removed them:

character%2Brecord.jpg


Want to talk about mechanics next? Story progression? Writing?
 

Chippy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 5, 2018
Messages
6,037
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I think (fuck citations) a case can be made for companies either not knowing what made their product good, changing staff with different ideas of what was good, or being forced my management/publishers into making stuff they think is good.

Let's say I'm a R.A Salvatore fan. Whatever you have to say about the guy, there are lots of them. The main theme of his books are these family of characters that stay together through thick and thin. So in BG1 I picked these characters that represented my clan (like Yeslick), then in BG2 they just disappear.

So what I'm getting at is: my idea of the FR was creating an alter-ego in it, and a 'clan' or party of characters around him. So Bioware are a bit schizophrenic like that; they say they're about party members and their stories, and then they just drop them from one game to its sequel or expansion.

Maybe it's a generation thing. When BG3 comes out, they'll be saying: just play that. To me it's like somebody making a LOTR 4 film and not really seeing the first 3 films and The Hobbit prequels as important.
 

Zboj Lamignat

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
5,521
I maybe would like to talk about things that interest me in crpgs, like itemization, party building or combat (jk btw). But I do understand that the journal background is very important to you and I fully support you in your everyday struggle.
 

kangaxx

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 26, 2020
Messages
1,385
Location
Atop a flaming horse
I maybe would like to talk about things that interest me in crpgs, like itemization, party building or combat (jk btw). But I do understand that the journal background is very important to you and I fully support you in your everyday struggle.

Don't forget the additional degeneracy in the sword icons in BG2.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
I think (fuck citations) a case can be made for companies either not knowing what made their product good, changing staff with different ideas of what was good, or being forced my management/publishers into making stuff they think is good.

I've said that before, too. BioWare knew BG was great, but they didn't know why it was. Which can make us think BG worked accidentally, especially if we look at BG2 and the other shit they crapped out afterwards. But I think there were a few in BioWare that knew what they were doing while making BG. I don't mean coding, writing or artwork, but broad-vision stuff and making it so everything fits and feels right.

But in BG2, management stepped in. With management comes a checklist. Design documents, narrative designers and other bullshit. In addition, a few degenerate fans had their say (romances, minigames, munchkinism).
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
Patron
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,576
Location
Germany
Lilura Paperdolls and items sure took a nose dive design wise, but the overall GUI of BG2 looked much better, and more complex, than the simple and boring stone looking one. And just because you're missing a background imagine in BG2 doesn't make it objectively inferior to the BG one. Also, what the heck is this height map nonsense you're talking about? BG2 has a lot of maps with different heights as well.
 

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