Game News Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition announced, to be released within a month

[Infinitron]

Tags: Beamdog; Icewind Dale

It looks like the merry men of Beamdog haven't been idle over the past year. Today at PAX Prime they announced Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, a spruced up version of Black Isle's classic isometric dungeon crawl from 2000. The release date is "likely within a month". Here's what the game's official site says, plus a trailer:

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Announced!
August 30th, 2014

Beamdog and Wizards of The Coast announced at PAX today that pre-orders have begun for Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition ahead of its upcoming release.

Originally released in 2000, Icewind Dale is hailed as a classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure based in Wizards of The Coast's legendary Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The Enhanced Edition will allow new and experienced gamers alike to enjoy this epic adventure as never before. Available on PC, Mac, iPad, and Android tablets and phones, the game will retail for $19.99 on desktop and is available for pre-order now.

Icewind Dale has been enhanced with new kits and character classes, dozens of new items and spells, and restored quest material cut from the original game. The redesigned user interface features Zoom capabilities and a Quickloot Bar, among numerous other improvements. Up to six players can simultaneously enjoy Icewind Dale with the new cross-platform multiplayer mode.

Q: When will Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition release?

A: Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition has entered beta and will release "when it's ready" to ensure the best experience for players, likely within a month.

Q: What specific enhancements does Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition offer over the original game?

A: Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition features the following enhancements:

• Six expanded quests, featuring content cut from the original game
• 60 new items
• Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansions
• 31 new class and kit combinations from Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, well as the half-orc playable race
• 122 new spells carried over from Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
• Cross-platform multiplayer
• A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens
• Available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android

Cut content, eh? I'm guessing that's gonna be an adaptation of the G3 Unfinished Business mod. Doesn't look like they plan to enhance the graphics though, despite the known availability of the original Icewind Dale assets, which I'm sure the folks at Obsidian would be happy to provide.

 

[pakoito]

Rape whistle needed?

 

[felipepepe]

A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

What bothers me is not the dumbing down... is the concept of someone playing Icewind Dale for the story.

 

[Grauken]

Can you even call that playing anymore?

 

[getter77]

Well, in theory this should turn out pretty well considering the sheer momentum they've gained from both BG EE projects---I'd also imagine this bodes much the same for IWD 2.

On the other hand, they essentially managed to trip on a corner and fall down the stairs at the starting line of what should've been a straightforward footrace somehow in terms of the polish level and patching needed on BG EE II which shouldn't have been in such dire straits coming off of BG EE----I hope that trend wouldn't continue or somehow manage to worsen with IWD EE...

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Meanwhile (in Poland ?), Lucius quietly works alone on Daggefall XL.

 

[m_s0]

Can't wait for that new Planescape: Torment content

A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

What's the point? Jennifer Hepler must be very pleased with this, though. I guess.

 

[Duraframe300]

A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

What bothers me is not the dumbing down... is the concept of someone playing Icewind Dale for the story.

Its not even that.

Youre going to spend the vast majority of the game with dungeon crawling anyway. Except now its incredible boring due to a complete lack of challenge.

I mean whats the point? It just makes the game worse with close to zero benefit.

Who the hell would want this???

 

[Infinitron]

Well, in theory this should turn out pretty well considering the sheer momentum they've gained from both BG EE projects---I'd also imagine this bodes much the same for IWD 2.

On the other hand, they essentially managed to trip on a corner and fall down the stairs at the starting line of what should've been a straightforward footrace somehow in terms of the polish level and patching needed on BG EE II which shouldn't have been in such dire straits coming off of BG EE----I hope that trend wouldn't continue or somehow manage to worsen with IWD EE...

Icewind Dale 2 would be harder for them to do because they'd have to throw away much of the accumulated work they've done on the IE AD&D implementation. I think I even remember seeing somebody from Beamdog outright say that they wouldn't do it.

 

[felipepepe]

Who the hell would want this???

People that played BG:EE for the story, heard about Icewind Dale and totally expect it to be like BG, I guess...

 

[m_s0]

Well, in theory this should turn out pretty well considering the sheer momentum they've gained from both BG EE projects---I'd also imagine this bodes much the same for IWD 2.

On the other hand, they essentially managed to trip on a corner and fall down the stairs at the starting line of what should've been a straightforward footrace somehow in terms of the polish level and patching needed on BG EE II which shouldn't have been in such dire straits coming off of BG EE----I hope that trend wouldn't continue or somehow manage to worsen with IWD EE...

Icewind Dale 2 would be harder for them to do because they'd have to throw away much of the accumulated work they've done on the IE AD&D implementation. I think I even remember seeing somebody from Beamdog outright say that they wouldn't do it.

Yup. Unfortunately I don't think those P:T engine idiosyncracies will prove significant enough to constitute a deterrent. Then again, maybe they'll just move on to making BG3 after 'enhancing' IWD

 

[Infinitron]

Well, in theory this should turn out pretty well considering the sheer momentum they've gained from both BG EE projects---I'd also imagine this bodes much the same for IWD 2.

On the other hand, they essentially managed to trip on a corner and fall down the stairs at the starting line of what should've been a straightforward footrace somehow in terms of the polish level and patching needed on BG EE II which shouldn't have been in such dire straits coming off of BG EE----I hope that trend wouldn't continue or somehow manage to worsen with IWD EE...

Icewind Dale 2 would be harder for them to do because they'd have to throw away much of the accumulated work they've done on the IE AD&D implementation. I think I even remember seeing somebody from Beamdog outright say that they wouldn't do it.

Yup. Unfortunately I don't think those P:T engine idiosyncracies will prove significant enough to constitute a deterrent. Then again, maybe they'll just move on to making BG3 after 'enhancing' IWD

Eh. I don't know what exactly they could do with PS:T other than repackage it with high res and Quinn mods. What are they gonna do, add classes, kits and spells to it? And all the graphics and everything are different, even for those elements that it does share with the other IE games. And then there's the wildly different UI.

Of course since Torment is a popular game, it might be worth working on, but it'd be a different beast than what they've done already. Not a slam dunk like this IWD:EE release.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

I'm pretty sure that one or two of the devs have expressed that they would like to do an all new IE game (not a BG3), also.

My bet, too, is they do P:T:EE next. The codex should go nuts for that, right?

 

[tuluse]

Icewind Dale 2 would be harder for them to do because they'd have to throw away much of the accumulated work they've done on the IE AD&D implementation. I think I even remember seeing somebody from Beamdog outright say that they wouldn't do it.

Beamdog can't do what Black Isle did in 9 months while building a whole new game. Quelle surprise.

 

[m_s0]

Well, in theory this should turn out pretty well considering the sheer momentum they've gained from both BG EE projects---I'd also imagine this bodes much the same for IWD 2.

On the other hand, they essentially managed to trip on a corner and fall down the stairs at the starting line of what should've been a straightforward footrace somehow in terms of the polish level and patching needed on BG EE II which shouldn't have been in such dire straits coming off of BG EE----I hope that trend wouldn't continue or somehow manage to worsen with IWD EE...

Icewind Dale 2 would be harder for them to do because they'd have to throw away much of the accumulated work they've done on the IE AD&D implementation. I think I even remember seeing somebody from Beamdog outright say that they wouldn't do it.

Yup. Unfortunately I don't think those P:T engine idiosyncracies will prove significant enough to constitute a deterrent. Then again, maybe they'll just move on to making BG3 after 'enhancing' IWD

Eh. I don't know what exactly they could do with PS:T other than repackage it with high res and Quinn mods. What are they gonna do, add classes, kits and spells to it? And all the graphics and everything are different, even for those elements that it does share with the other IE games. And then there's the wildly different UI.

Of course since Torment is a popular game, it might be worth working on, but it'd be a different beast than what they've done already. Not a slam dunk like this IWD:EE release.

I hope they'll go full hog on 'enhancing' the story. Though it would be pretty funny if they dumped a fuckton of new weapons into the game as well. They probably couldn't get away with adding more classes if they wanted to, but a couple of swords they can totally manage

 

[pippin]

will I be able to romance the ogre in the tower?

 

[Rivmusique]

Hope no one thought it was a good idea to restore Marketh's Ring as it was in the UB mod. That was some tedious shit.

Story Mode, amazing.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

will I be able to romance the ogre in the tower?

You'd be disappointed, he always has convenient headaches.

 

[Roguey]

Who asked for this?

 

[Morality Games]

Who asked for this?

 

[ColCol]

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Tigranes]

Fuck them. Please go die and stop distracting people from playing the actual classics.

 

[jdinatale]

My prediction: IWD 2:EE and PS:T:EE by the end of 2015, announcement of BG3 or a new IE game by 2016.

 

[Western]

A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

What bothers me is not the dumbing down... is the concept of someone playing Icewind Dale for the story.

I'll be eagerly awaiting your reaction to PST enhanced edition.