Its called money, they added a widescreen mod to the game, and unfortunately that meant everyone has to buy it again.
No, its not. If you already have the originals, look up something called big world setup. It is a program which merges the two games, and adds a ton of extra content in. That is the definitive edition of the game to my mind, and I own several different versions.

So there really are people that post reviews even though they haven't played the game or have anything to contribute.
I always suspected as much.

So they forced SJW crap into this expansion? Yeah not buying until there is a mod that removes this crap. I hate these Thought Police idiots. When the modding begins for this, I'll take another look at it.

Oh my, am I glad I exercised caution and read the comments here and over the BG:EE threads before committing to buying this expansion.

That is some of the worst writing I have ever experienced in a game in my life (certainly THE worst if you only take into account story-driven games and exclude mindless FPSs or Hn'Ss).

Take this for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__6nFM5GER8

So, the developers decided to introduce a Trans-gender character.
Not what I would have thought to do (definitely not with someone else's widely beloved and already established brainchild) but OK.
Disregarding the course of action the video uploader decided to take, let's focus on the execution itself.

Firstly, it is beyond jarring that they used a "normal" female voice for the introduction line and switched to an effeminate "male" voice for the "explanation" line, making it feel like an after-through or sth someone "patched" in at the last minute without anyone else noticing.

And then of course there's the part that, political (in)correctness aside, this is just plain BAD writing, made even worse by the realization that the writers in question were so focused on ticking this box and forcefully throwing it in the player's face (with THE lamest story-telling device imaginable) that they completely disregarded a story-telling device that already was in the original game and that would have made PERFECT sense to use.

Yep, you guessed it, I'm talking about the "Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity".

Now I'm not a writer but if I were asked to introduce a Trans-gender character I would have opted to use a Lore Check and identify that said NPC was wearing the accursed girdle and then have the party comment on that. To make it even more accessible I would have made the check auto-succeed if the party had already come across said item in the original game.


To take it a step further, I would have probably been tempted to take this opportunity and make him/her a recruit-able party member instead which by default wore the girdle.

Then, possibly after checking the inventory and seeing that the character was wearing the girdle, I would have made it so the game triggered a conversation where either the Bhaalspawn or another party member would commend on the girdle and offer to have it removed, thus prompting said character reluctantly revealing that wearing the cursed item was intentional.
I believe that a GOOD writer (i.e. NOT the one that actually wrote this) would have been able to flesh out a particularly memorable and IMHO even identifiable character; perhaps not literally for many but I believe the struggle with the world around them and within themselves for acceptance would have resonated on multiple levels.

Naturally there would have to be an optional set of lines for the player to either forcefully remove the girdle or convince the NPC to accept him/her-self for who he/she is/was born as, thus opening a plethora of possible outcomes and also ticking all kinds of LGBT checkboxes since that it basically what the developers/writers' intention appears to have been.


Heck, to take it even further, it would have been possible to make said party member romance-able, thus giving a heckova lot of diversity to the game using just a single NPC (that the purists would have been able to easily ignore if it offended their sensibilities) and, again, ticking a whole lot of LGBT checkboxes if they were so inclined.

Or at least set a time delay between a game becoming available and reviews being allowed.
I'm a firm believer that reviews should be left to professional reviewers. I've lost count of how many "reviews" show up after less than an hour of a game's release, or give a negative rating due to "no multiplayer/ no coop/ whatever it is I don't like"
Obviously there are proper amateur reviews with good arguments, proper pros and cons and factual information but, unfortunately, they are few and far between.

Isn't there going to be a Baldur's Gate 3 and its being made by Beamdog?

And after this whole controversy now I wonder how BG 3 is gonna be like.

The question now shifted to "it will be a BG3, anymore?"

Same question as how can there be a bit between the games, how can there be a baldurs gate 3? The storyline was done, finished, with BG1+2+TOB.

I already wasn't planning on buying the new expansion (because I've had my own headcanons for more than 15 years now of what happened to my characters in between), but I was considering purchasing the base EEs with the heavy discount for owners of the originals. This silliness makes me reconsider whether to purchase even the base EEs. It's the idea of an author defending the poor quality of their writing on the grounds that "It's politically correct!" that offends me. Any author who can't separate criticism of their style from criticism of their social opinions will never be able to develop their skills and justly deserves to fade into obscurity.

Sorry for being too cryptic. Seeing the whole PR disaster, i wonder how the sales went, because Trent Oster mentioned that the sales of this new expansion will factor heavily if Beamdog will be able to start working on BG3 or not.

How can there be a Witcher 4?

GOG, just so you know, you have a typo in patch notes to version 2.0 of BG1 - it says patch was released 1. march, whereas it was released 31. march.

That's harsh, from a general writing point of view, it's not harsh it's limited and giving up on reading many good stuff.

Video games is a different context but it's even worse, because historically video games tend also target younger population, many had/have a much higher focus on imposed morale than do really good writings.

Your problem here is a part of the imposed morale of the game isn't a morale you share. You probably didn't even noticed plenty other imposed morale and ton of other "politically correct" stuff. So in my point of view, it's hardly the "politically correct" your problem because original BG1 is already full of it. Your problem is more because you don't share it on this specific aspect (gay/trans) and it's important for you.

Now how video games often tend manage morale is far to be the best way to manage it, the trick shouldn't be to impose a morale point of view to a reader/a player, but instead expose the points and make him think himself about it.

In context of the game it could have been to offer to players a few interaction well thought and subtle enough, with a bit of positiveness or a bit of negativity, for or against trans/gay, the choice would have gave a chance to think a bit about the subject. More complex and more subtle would have been to build a quest and some true players choices about the subject.

A second potential error the dev eventually did, is try build a com about the subject. If their purpose was to sell better the game they probably failed, if their purpose was that the subject was argued and thought about it more by more people, they clearly succeed. :-)

Is all of that worth vote down good detailed reviews that don't bother comment negatively this aspect, in my opinion not at all, it's just players that feel they act good and feel it's justified to do so without realize they are nose handled by some anti hype. But ok down vote is a free choice, just a choice. :-)

I have no idea. I played W1 through, great game. I have W2, not played it yet, go the boxed edition when it was released as well, computer couldn't handle at the time. So no, not nuying W3 till they make a complete edition at a reasonable price. Already had it with BG series, I have 2 physical copies of BG1, 4 physical copies of BG 2 + TOB, 1 digital of each, plus a digital of the "enhanced". I mean how many more fecking versions do I need, what with these d---heads only releasing new things for the new version.
BG1 + BG2 + Big World Setup - only way to go!