Another thing with Enhanced Edition, old mods for BG1 and 2 are not compatible with EE. So, basically, you are restricted to those mods that they picked for EE. You can actually make the original games better than Enhanced Edition if you get your time in setting up the mods. And we're not talking about complicated things, just click, install, and manage them.

Yupp. Go with the originals. I just got the EE because of my OCD to collect.

BG EE and BG2 EE are worth it. They make the game much more enjoyable to play in a ease of use basis then just the regular games + Modding. The whole modding aspect of it is overblown since the EE games have many of the same mods now as well, including the NPC Project for BGEE. There's really no reason to play the originals aside from stubbornness or you're in the very small camp that have serious issues with the performance of the port.

I can't comment on IWD EE but I'm assuming it's in the same boat in that there's no reason to not pick it up since it makes the game easier to play out of the box.

Yea, that's my issue too, and why I have not really ruled the EE versions out, along with convenience.

The originals as others have said are really easy to mod. Just run the installer and done. However i do plan to play the EE to compare it to the originals at some point.

Huh? Its exactly the same game, with a widescreen mod. As far as i am aware there is nothing different except that, and a few small extra content bits which add more bugs than necessary. The original games install fine out of the box, no need to do anything to them at all. We add mods onto them to expand the original games, and no, at last looking a very small amount work with the "enhanced" version. There's no stubbornness, only idiocy to pay vast sums of money for something which is fine and working in the first place. As I said, I will stick to my (well one copy of) big box cd version, with big manual, and all the associated goodies, plus big world setup (30gb of additional content), all working fine and at the click of a button, you can go ahead and pay £20 for a restricted version with more bugs.

For those interested, you can pick up these games for a couple of quid off amazon, for example the 4 pack is £4, 25% of one of these "enhanced" versions.

On sale, yes. Full price, no.

I played the original Baldur's Gate 1-2 and Icewind Dale (GOG versions) vanilla, no issue there. So it isn't a requirement to mod them or anything, you can also enjoy them vanilla (I usually like to play my games vanilla, at least the first time, unless there are some game-breaking bugs). The only thing I didn't like was the journal (quest log) on BG1 and IWD, the BG2 quest log is better (easier to tell which quests you've already finished and what to do next).

As already pointed out, the enhanced editions also use your CPU power in a saner way. This might be mainly an issue for laptop gamers where heat problems may occur (or alternatively you'll hear your laptop fans roar at full speed all the time) if the game tries to use CPU core at 100% all the time (on newer multicore laptops it is normally 50% though, due to HyperThreading I presume). And, if this becomes a problem (as it occasionally did to me on a T400 laptop), the workaround is to select a power profile in Windows where CPU usage is restricted to low, when playing the game. Then the game can't steal excessive amount of CPU cycles for no good reason.

http://www.gog.com/forum/baldurs_gate_series/baldurs_gate_12_enhanced_editions_also_100_or_50_cpu_usage/page1

Specifically for BG: EE, its video parts (like the intro etc.) are poorer than in the original. I presume this is because the game is designed also for mobile devices where there is less space for videos, so they replaced them with 2D animations or slideshows, and apparently some videos are even missing from the BG: EE.

BG2: EE doesn't seem to have the same issue, I think its videos look just as good as in the original PC version. Not sure about IWD: EE.

Does it come with the printed manual? I really miss those! :-(

Yes. I actually own 4 or 5 copies. The original release (although I don't have the tosc one), plus a big box version, plus a slim book like version, plus a dvd version. Hence why I am so annoyed about this money grab version, no reason why new content shouldn't be compatible with the normal version, its just greed.

But do you think they're still worth it for $20 when you already have the modded originals?

i bought them when they arrived cause i was curious to see what it would look like, funny thing is, i still need to play them, i am mainly buying games now :D and play them later, still have lots of games to play from the last fall/winter and insomnia sales

I picked it up. My primary reasons for doing so was that it will be a lot easier to play multiplayer and it will be easier on the eyes on my main desktop and it worked natively for Linux! Lastly, b/c Beamdog is making a BG1.5 that will cover the time between BG1 and BG2 in a full-sized BG1 expansion.

For BG standard, you need an IPX wrapper to get multiplayer running (that's the only way I could anyway).
I have an ancient laptop that I use for business trips that has Myth, Quest for Glory and BG 2 on it. I do my BG playing on business trips. That said, I'm hoping to get a new job soon and nullify most of those trips. So I thought it was worth the gamble to get it in wide-screen ( hate the WS mod) and I'm stoked about zooming in and out. :)

Anyhoots, I haven't tried either of them yet, but I got them all. And I have all of those games on discs (a collection and individually), standard downloadables and now EE. And I don't regret a dime spent on them (and I'm pretty cheap).

P.S. All that said, for about the same price, you can get all the old infinity DnD games + NWN1+2 + ToEE. That's a far better deal. But I'd say get them both! :)

No one seems to have mentioned it yet - the EE versions also bring native Linux support.

GOG sells the originals for Linux, but they are just wine ports - the EE's are native.

I also find that the EE interface is a lot nicer to work with than a widescreen modded original - that's just a personal preference though. It is a scalable interface though - put it in window mode, and you can drag it to whatever size you want.

The additional content is meh.