Baldur's Gate Beamdog's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions

[SwiftCrack]

If Trent decided to make an EE of ToEE would people approve or disapprove of it?

He might actually casualize it into being playable

 

[Western]

Please dear god don't let them get near Planescape.

Dear god please.

Any god, I don't care.

PLEASE!

Don't fight it, it will be over soon.

 

[Invictus]

Hahahah fuck trent and his money grabbing schemes.
I like the Baldur's Gate games just fine but if he dares try his shit with Planescape Torment I will personaly take a flame thrower to his company

 

[Delterius]

Planescape would be something of an insanity for Beamdog to do... they'd have to focus on making new actual content as opposed to an arena and a few sidequests -- The future seems bright young'uns.

 

[Zed]

there's no way in hell Avellone or McComb will ever "artistically approve" Beamdog adding some shitty characters and "additional content" for an "enhanced" PS:T.

baldur's gate has a huge modding community and there's already an audience for stupid and subpar superfluous content.
also beamdog actually has some BG developers on board.
they have nothing for PST. NOTHING! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTHIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

 

[sea]

Been playing this for several days now. I assume since it's out, embargo is gone. Thoughts:

• The new content is good. Better than BG:EE's, not as good as BG2's. It's not as forced-in. The backgrounds look a lot better and almost perfectly blend in withe originals (aside from the colours in the artwork being a bit smoother and the overall look less "grainy"). Lack of integration of the new party members into the original content, dialogue, etc. is very obvious. Maybe they weren't allowed to modify the existing story stuff, dunno.
  
• There are no real bugs that I've seen aside from one or two small visual glitches (which might have been in the original, not sure). Much, much better than the first game's Enhanced Edition.
• I like the updated menus. Not as cheap-looking as in the first Enhanced Edition. The upate wasn't needed but it's done a bit more tastefully.
• The new font for dialogue is better. Easier to read, still fits the game's look.
• The bad: it's $5 more. $25 still seems like a bit much if you've played the original. If you haven't, it's a great deal and honestly, unless you want specific mods that aren't gonna get released for the new version, you might as well pick it up instead. Not sure I'd recommend it if you have already played Baldur's Gate 2 though, maybe get it on sale.

 

[Cosmo]

sea, is the zoom still blurry as shit ?

 

[sea]

sea, is the zoom still blurry as shit ?

Yes.

 

[Average Manatee]

It's quite impossible for zoom not to be blurry. That's what zooming in on a static image does. The only out would be to re-render from the source at a higher resolution, which we know they can't do.

 

[Zed]

Been playing this for several days now. I assume since it's out, embargo is gone. Thoughts:

• The new content is good. Better than BG:EE's, not as good as BG2's. It's not as forced-in. The backgrounds look a lot better and almost perfectly blend in withe originals (aside from the colours in the artwork being a bit smoother and the overall look less "grainy"). Lack of integration of the new party members into the original content, dialogue, etc. is very obvious. Maybe they weren't allowed to modify the existing story stuff, dunno.

Aren't the characters the same shit as in BG:EE?
I played through BG2 like a year ago so there's no way I'm gonna play this anytime soon, but let's assume a day comes when I think "maybe I should give BG2:EE a try"(maybe the seconds after I have a stroke or something): How does the non-canon characters carry over from EE to EE2? How do you meet them? Where do they pick up on their individual stories?

 

[sea]

Been playing this for several days now. I assume since it's out, embargo is gone. Thoughts:

• The new content is good. Better than BG:EE's, not as good as BG2's. It's not as forced-in. The backgrounds look a lot better and almost perfectly blend in withe originals (aside from the colours in the artwork being a bit smoother and the overall look less "grainy"). Lack of integration of the new party members into the original content, dialogue, etc. is very obvious. Maybe they weren't allowed to modify the existing story stuff, dunno.

Aren't the characters the same shit as in BG:EE?
I played through BG2 like a year ago so there's no way I'm gonna play this anytime soon, but let's assume a day comes when I think "maybe I should give BG2:EE a try"(maybe the seconds after I have a stroke or something): How does the non-canon characters carry over from EE to EE2? How do you meet them? Where do they pick up on their individual stories?

I've only found Dorn and Neera so far. Neera is more forced into things, but it's still done okay and doesn't feel out of place in the game (scripted encounters). The writing is still kinda weak, but not insufferably so. I dunno. Again, not great or anything but it's still not bad if you don't mind more gameplay in your Baldur's Gate. I think the companions fit a lot more into Baldur's Gate 2 than the original game due to the sequel focusing much more around them to begin with.

 

[Sensuki]

One major problem I had with BG:EE is that the default zoom lever is closer than 1:1 of the backgrounds, and every time you enter a new area it resets to default. Back to original / 640x480 for me. That's one of the reasons I still have a spare CRT monitor.

 

[m_s0]

Planescape would be something of an insanity for Beamdog to do... they'd have to focus on making new actual content as opposed to an arena and a few sidequests -- The future seems bright young'uns.

Yeah, it's either they shoehorn an arena of some kind in, which I believe they would be entirely capable of doing for Torment - and it definitely would be almost worth it just to see their justification - or they try to cobble together actual content which would end up being even funnier and expose them for the hacks they are. At that point even the Beamdog apologists should notice that something isn't quite right here, but then again I might be giving those people too much credit.

Frankly, the possibility of them "improving" Planescape: Torment is the sole reason why I even follow what they're doing and read any of these threads here.

 

[J_C]

Bought BG2 for 1,8 bucks on GOG yesterday. A few mods, and the game leavs this shit in the dirt.

 

[Oesophagus]

And how many new bugs and CTDs have they implemented?

 

[Infinitron]

I suspect that unlike the first game, BG2:EE isn't actually going to actively suck. It will merely be redundant and overpriced.

 

[Grunker]

This is my understanding as well.

 

[Cosmo]

It's quite impossible for zoom not to be blurry. That's what zooming in on a static image does. The only out would be to re-render from the source at a higher resolution, which we know they can't do.

No, if zoom rendered your pixel count divided per 2, it wouldn't be blurry.
And since i'm only playing isometric RPGs right now and that viewing Arcanum and IWD from afar is not my cup of tea, i'm seriously starting to consider buying a 1200p screen (to play in 960:600)...

 

[Surf Solar]

Been playing this for several days now. I assume since it's out, embargo is gone. Thoughts:

• The new content is good. Better than BG:EE's, not as good as BG2's. It's not as forced-in. The backgrounds look a lot better and almost perfectly blend in withe originals (aside from the colours in the artwork being a bit smoother and the overall look less "grainy"). Lack of integration of the new party members into the original content, dialogue, etc. is very obvious. Maybe they weren't allowed to modify the existing story stuff, dunno.
  
• There are no real bugs that I've seen aside from one or two small visual glitches (which might have been in the original, not sure). Much, much better than the first game's Enhanced Edition.
• I like the updated menus. Not as cheap-looking as in the first Enhanced Edition. The upate wasn't needed but it's done a bit more tastefully.
• The new font for dialogue is better. Easier to read, still fits the game's look.
• The bad: it's $5 more. $25 still seems like a bit much if you've played the original. If you haven't, it's a great deal and honestly, unless you want specific mods that aren't gonna get released for the new version, you might as well pick it up instead. Not sure I'd recommend it if you have already played Baldur's Gate 2 though, maybe get it on sale.

Can you post some screenshots of the new areas please?

 

[set]

Am I the only one who thinks BG:EE is a good idea? Well, it's certainly not a great idea, but it's not broken. Just the way Beamdog does it is poorly executed.

I think it's a good idea because, well... It makes sense comercially. BG has a long legacy. People will continue to buy it for decades probably. Because not only is it on 'the list of RPGs worth playing' (a list that never seems to get much bigger year after year) but because it's hard to 'out-date' it. Nobody is releasing sprite-based isometric games anymore (not even PE is going to use sprites), there'll never be a 2E D&D RPG again, I'm hard pressed to find RPGs as massive either. Adding new content to this game keeps it relevant and stimulates discussion, which raises its sales.

BG/BG2 are the kind of games where 'yearly DLC' could work. Not only would long-time fans be interested, but you'd have a continual stream of new consumers buying the base game. If you own the property for several decades, this could generate a lot of revenue (and make the game even more ridiculously large than it is, over time). This theory doesn't really work though if your work is going to be on par (or lower than) the average BG mod. BG is also in an odd place since WotC seem to dislike promoting their old material, so I'm surprised these EEs have even seen the light of day.

BG2 may also be a bad game to do this with, since... well, BG2 sort of has a 'fixed end point'. There's a point at which adding new content not only imbalances the game (just by the level curve alone), but takes it nowhere new. Maybe a game like JA2 would better benefit from this strategy - where an EE could introduce an entire new campaign with its own story and map. But here? What more can you do but add a few pointless side quests and characters? The most you can do with the added characters is try to shove in some relevance to the main story areas you visit by giving them flavor context. And it's not like Beamdog has access to a deeper level of power than the average modder, who can pretty much do everything they can with all the public tools available. It would be great if Beamdog could add additional player choice to how certain existing dungeons or quests unfold, but it doesn't seem like something they are willing to do.

 

[Xzar]

I have strong suspicion that Codex' hate of Beamdog has something to do with that gog.com banner in upper right corner... That, or boredom caused by prolonged absence of Bioware-related lulz.

 

[sea]

One major problem I had with BG:EE is that the default zoom lever is closer than 1:1 of the backgrounds, and every time you enter a new area it resets to default. Back to original / 640x480 for me. That's one of the reasons I still have a spare CRT monitor.

If you disable UI scaling in the options, this doesn't happen. In fact, this was fixed by an INI tweak in the original after like, 1 or 2 patches. The default zoom level is correct to the original, it's just that it got upscaled along with the UI depending on your resolution.

 

[J_C]

I have strong suspicion that Codex' hate of Beamdog has something to do with that gog.com banner in upper right corner... That, or boredom caused by prolonged absence of Bioware-related lulz.

What the fuck are you talking about? We hate BGEE because it is a bug infested, technically inferior version of a classic, which can be bought for dirt on other sites.

Am I the only one who thinks BG:EE is a good idea?

Yes. I hope.

Well, it's certainly not a great idea, but it's not broken.

The only thing the original BG needs for me is figuring out how can I run the widescreen mod without sufferring massive framerate drops. And while BGEE achieves this, it adds a lot of shitty thing.

 

[titus]

The only thing the original BG needs for me is figuring out how can I run the widescreen mod without sufferring massive framerate drops. And while BGEE achieves this, it adds a lot of shitty thing.

Use a lower resolution.

The only thing that the EE does better than the original is the insta-save thing. I assume it's the same in 2.

 

[J_C]

The only thing the original BG needs for me is figuring out how can I run the widescreen mod without sufferring massive framerate drops. And while BGEE achieves this, it adds a lot of shitty thing.

Use a lower resolution.

I don't like using a different resolution than my monitor's native res, it doesn't look too good. And even when I tried, it didn't help that much. The frame rate was better, but it still suffered from under 30 digits.