Hi there! So I got your attention ha? Let me take this opportunity to thank GOG and its sister company CDPR for giving us this wonderful DRM-FREE experience.

I've been a loyal GOGer since its beta time and most of my games are RPG and I would like to congratulate further GOG for bringing stellar games like Baldur's Gate 2, Demon Stone, and Dragonshard.

Thank you GOG!

PS. Bioware Sucks!

wat

Don't forget Torment.

Playing it at the moment for the first time, and it is perhaps the best game I have ever played. Pure brilliance. Wish somebody could make quality games like that (or BG) with today's graphics. If they could make it almost 15 years ago, why can't they now?

Wait, how you you be on GOG since beta if you signed up in 2010?

Not 2009? Huh, that was a long time ago.

You weren't supposed to notice that.

I was already a lurker here during the beta times.

PS. Bioware still sucks!

Alright, that's good to know. Wasn't sure if they stopped sucking between the start of your thread and this last post. Thanks for keeping us up to date.

These forums definitely have a most weird way of attracting people to topics.

First off, I like Bioware! I like them even more now than I liked them in the late '90s. In my opinion, their best game in their beginning was MDK 2. There, I said it.

People need to understand that different gamers like different games. If you don't like a game, simply move on. I really don't see the appeal in HL 2, but I don't go Valve bashing all day and proclaim "No hope left for Half-Life 3" on the forums. If gamers act like spoiled little brats that didn't get their iPad for Christmas, nobody is going to take them very seriously. I wouldn't. Nobody will take justified complains seriously, if you complain about everything.

And more thing about Baldur's Gate. I was there when it was released. I followed the development and I even went out of my way to get the pre-release Demo. BG was the CoD: MW of its time. It was, compared to the RPGs before, dumbed down, too easy, focused on graphics, had a predictable and boring story and mostly lame, borderline obnoxius characters (although there are some really awesome). It spawned, just like CoD, countless mediocore clones that we all have rightfully forgotten.

Yet, I don't "dislike" Baldur's Gate, quite the contrary, I like it. I put RPGs back on the map, it made PS:T possible and it brought many gamers to RPGs that were put off by the complexity and difficulty before. I still have my BG complete collection at home, which I never finished. I have it on my GOG shelve, for that one day, when I finally come around and play through them back to back.

Demographically speaking, the average gamer is older than me, so for christ sake, act your age. Complain when it is a proper issue, like when games get released in beta stages (which, from what I've head, seemed also to be the case with TW 2) or don't run on ati/nvidia cards. But don't complain like a spoiled brat and don't go postal if you don't like the artistic direction a game has. Just move on to a game you like.

Sorry for the rant, but I get the feeling that complaining is the new black around here.

Fixed it for you!

See the effect memories, personal predilictions and opinion have?

I was there at the begininng to, and as far as I remember, most of what you wrote simply isn't true,

BG certainy wasn't the day's COD.. COD is tremendously popular, BG was NEVER popular at all, and even less so overall than it is today, the complicated RPG system with numbers made it even less accessable. Although I certainly admit it was opening a door.

As far as BG spawning clones... I think you have things a little crooked, everyone was still reeling from Diablo's release . that game had the largest effect on RPG's.. people were crying out for more complexity or at least a product which lived up to earlier games, this is where the 'dumbing' down arguement, in general, first raised it's head but not from previously complex games rather from the precieved dumbness of Diablo and it's clones a lot was being said about SSI, Arena and Daggerfall but the major concerns were of what kind of influence button mashing would have on the D&D franchise, as it turned out unfounded, it was well received by those who knew what to expect.

Predictability and boring story, again I don't remember that being the case, maybe I spent too much time on the forums and my views were slanted by that. There were obviously the detractors as with all games , but pretty much from the start, and certainly in most of the mags of the time, it was being hailed as hard to get in to but original and the interaction with party NPC was seen as fresh, new and innovative, obviously you can look back in hindsight and say that other rpg's were doing the same thing, although I can't think of any that offered such a range of NPC's that actually interacted so completely with game and character, but there was never any 'predictability' arguement, because at the time it was fresh. The graphics were considered great, yes, but lot of people still wanted the open world of Arena and Daggerfall or the '3D' of Diablo, so in general they were either loved, recognised for what they were, 2D painted backdrops with '3D' chars or slated, again pretty usual, iirc most people were commenting on the useage of the paperdolls, and the changing pixel avatars that was a big draw but I certainly don't remember too much emphasis on graphics over substance.

I guess it all really boils down to the side of the fence one was on, as to their rememberances of the release time.. and I'm sure that other's have different recollections.

..and yep, I think Bioware suck now too.

If any game released in 1998 could be compared with COD:MW, it would be Half-Life... Both have single-player campaigns that are scripted corridor-shooters, with completely linear progression, and both were insanely popular at release.

No, they don't. Just play KOTOR or Baldurs Gate