Baldur's Gate II

[Lumpy]

Saerilith has nothing on the *wonders* of the NPC flirt pack. That one's a must-install....

Never played with the flirt pack, though I will some day when I replay BG2. Any reason Zinc can't install both of them at the same time?

 

[Jasede]

Saerilith has nothing on the *wonders* of the NPC flirt pack. That one's a must-install....

Oh, I get it.

Err...

Well, yeah, also try the Drizzt Romance Mod and the Edwin Flirt Pack!

 

[ghostdog]

Better conclusion:

Play BG 2 with the dialogue patch (THANK GOD for that, it improves the writing a LOT and removes almost ALL typos), the Baldurdash fixpack, and nothing else.

Yes

Who the fuck is Saerilith anyway...

If they are talking about the Saerileth romance npc mod , then we must have failed a sarcasm check.

 

[Lesifoere]

Saerilith has nothing on the *wonders* of the NPC flirt pack. That one's a must-install....

Oh, I get it.

Err...

Well, yeah, also try the Drizzt Romance Mod and the Edwin Flirt Pack!

The--? There's a Drizzt romance mod out there?

 

[Jasede]

Yeah, but it has nothing on the Aerie/Jaheira/Viconia foursome mod. The writing is pretty tight, if you know what I'm saying.

 

[MetalCraze]

Ermmm.... Really?
I think he has mistaken it for that Solafein-whatever mod

 

[ghostdog]

meh

 

[Mareus]

Also for future playing. If you are asking questions about BG then I presume you also haven't played Icewind Dale 1,2. It's a bit less character and story orianted and more about battles, but it was built on the same engine with many similarities, so you might as well buy those games too. I think you will enjoy them.

 

[aboyd]

Isn't two patches, one that fixes all the left-over bugs, and the other that improves and pretties up the writing a tad and fixes typos, much better than something as superfluous as "widescreen" [Can't you set it to 1024x786 anyway?] or some romance?

Built-in, BG2 will display up to 1280x1024, I think. You have to start up the configuration app, which I think starts up on its own the first time you try to play. It has options for how many graphical features you want to include (in this day and age, any GHz computer should be able to run with everything enabled), and on the 2nd or 3rd tab, it has an "advanced" option for bigger displays. I usually do 1280x1024, but it also has 1024x768.

BG1 however cannot do bigger than 640x480. At least, not built-in. You could get the widescreen mod. Or, you could get Tutu. That's a free mod, it takes your BG1 installation, and copies the data files into your BG2 folder, as if it were a new module. Then, you start up the BG 1 Tutu app, and it plays BG 1 using the BG 2 engine. That gets you the usual 1024x768 and 1280x1024 sizes.

 

[Mareus]

I used Baldur's Gate trilogy mod that connects BG1, BG2 and Throne of Bhall into one huge epic game using the same engine. It even gives you new animated movies where you see what happens in between BG1 and BG2. In my opinion it is a lot better choice than BG tutu mod. But if you add some other mods it may screw up the whole game, but not if you know what you are doing. I had over 30 mods installed and I played through the whole game without big problems. The only problem I had was not being able to get to some locations, but that is because I had a mod that opens the locations before it was intended for the game. Simple teleportation cheat solved the problem.

 

[Shoelip]

Ya know, I never finished ToB... It was too linear and the story just wasn't all that compelling

 

[Mareus]

Ya know, I never finished ToB... It was too linear and the story just wasn't all that compelling

ToB is very linear true, but on the other hand I have yet to play a game which gives you the feeling of being a truly epic hero like in ToB. Seriously, nothing can compare with the epicness of ToB. Music is superb and my heart still starts beating faster when I remember the battles and superb music.

----EDIT----
If you play BG trilogy you will see how people responed to you in the begining and how they respond in ToB. At first you were just a pipsqueek that noone was worried about, while in ToB you are well reknowned hero that even the Gods start to fear. Seriously, BG1, BG2 and ToB should be played as one huge game. BTW ToB is just a culmination of everthing and it works like two big missions(Watcher Keep and the main quest) in which the story comes to an end. Watcher's keep is just a very nice dungeon and I think there is a way to solve it in different ways. I think you can even avoid combat completely. Just look ToB as few more quests that will bring the story to the end, and don't look it as a whole game.

 

[Shoelip]

I think quit around right after you kill the Drow Bhaalspawn. It was so damn predictable. I even guessed that what's her name that always comes to try and help you was the real badguy. I mean, she always comes just a little too late to save anyone... figures, and of course you never have any choice but to kill them all. I dunno, I didn't feel all that epic. I just felt like I was going around killing things for questionable reasons that I don't even remember. The only BG2 songs I remember are the SoA main theme and the romantic theme for some reason. The BG2 theme is really great though.

I had all the Baldur's Gate music on CDs but I don't know where they are now. It was all available on the old Interplay website.

 

[Mareus]

Just listen to this and don't tell me this doesn't sound... AWSOME!! I swear just this makes me want to play the game again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V6ayeiKkT4

PS. They just don't make games like this anymore..

 

[Shoelip]

Why the heck is the music in games these days so underwhelming? Usually if there are any good ones it's just the opening theme. Morrowind had a great opening theme, but then Oblivion just ripped it off, and altered it for the worse. Advent Rising had a good opening theme. That trailer for EVE Online Empyrean Age has a good song... I can't really think of any more.

 

[ghostdog]

I'll argee that the battles and music in ToB were epic , but the story was rather boring and predictable. The ending battle and aftermath were nice though.

 

[Mareus]

Some newer games also have good music, like Lineage 2, but nothing that I have heard lately can beat Baldur's Gate music. BG doesn't have just few good tracks. The whole game is filled with awsome music. Combine that with great gamplay, good story and bunch of different characters, hundreds of quests, items, magic... ISO perspective instead of clunky 3D crap and you have yourself BG. I envy anyone who missed this game, because he is into a treat full of awsomness.

 

[Mareus]

I'll argee that the battles and music in ToB were epic , but the story was rather boring and predictable. The ending battle and aftermath were nice though.

Spoiler

I don't know why you say boring. Predictable maybe in a Highlander kind of way. You know, there can be only one crap. But other than that I was surprised with the destruction you brought. It is kind of ironic that if you played a good character, you bring to the world the very thing you were fighting against. Destruction and death, just like the prophecy foretold. Also I am not sure anymore if it was the mod I had installed or the original, but I was quite shocked to discover your own mother wanted to sacriface you and it was Gorion who saved you from certain death. Melisan turned out to be one of Bhaal's wives or something and it kind of hints that she could very well be your mother. Now I am not sure if this was in original or in the modded version, but if I remember it, it was something like that. Quite a few shockers if you ask me.

 

[Shoelip]

The highlight of ToB for me was when Arrie took my PC aside and told him she was pregnant. I just thought that was really cool. I mean, is there any other romance plot in an RPG where the female character actually gets pregnant?

 

[MetalCraze]

You've picked Aerie out of 3? You fag.

 

[Mareus]

 

[Shoelip]

Aerie is adorable, and hot.

How exactly does picking a woman make me gay?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Aerie might be annoying, but she's the best caster you can find in the game in terms of utility, because she takes one place while having both mage and cleric spells.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Aerie might be annoying, but she's the best caster you can find in the game in terms of utility, because she takes one place while having both mage and cleric spells.

She basically can provide all the healing you need, so she's a great choice for the cleric spot. If you can stomach Jaheira (I hate her voice and personality so much) then the two of them fill the role of healers without sacrificing any spot for a pure healer, which is awesome. Of course, if you make the bhaalspawn a ranger/cleric, he will provide all the divine magic you need, and be an awesome front line fighter.

 

[Relayer71]

You can compress the experience of BG2 into a few moments by squirting salty lemon juice up your urethra.

He said BG2, not Oblivion.

I agree with the others, it has aged very well as far as presentation and overall mechanics/gameplay.

For me however, it's a case of the whole package - the sum being greater than the parts (or however that phrase goes, not much sleep last night, feeling a bit dopey) - you know what I mean. Taken individually, none of the parts were outstanding, in fact some were rather mediocre - but as a whole the game just clicked with me and I loved it.

To elaborate...

The story was good but nothing special. Some parts were actually pretty interesting, but others they could have changed or done without. I wasn't in love with all the characters but none really irritated me (except for the main antagonist - but this was more due to the voice actor used, they did a good job as far as motivation and backstory). Dialogue wasn't exactly Planescape type quality but again, it was fine. I loved the music at the time but can't say I remember any of it (not memorable like the PS:T or IWD soundtracks).

But the game plays well, looks amazing still (technically it's good but overall art design is excellent) and is pretty fucking epic. Most games promise epic, but in BG2 your quest takes you to quite a variety of locales, you have a lot of optional quests, and the story takes a few surprising turns. It's a long game that felt really satsifying when I finished it. That's not to say I loved the ending, have mixed feelings about it - but getting there was a blast.