ktchong: Just bought Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. off Steam. I already own the classic editions here, and have been waiting and hoping that the Enhanced Edition will show up here. I've been reading all the reviews and comparisons, and almost everyone said the Enhanced Edition is an improvement over the original one.
I posted a question in the developer's forums and asked them if they would sell their games here. Apparently they actually did not even want to sell the games at Steam. They want to sell the games exclusively on their own web store. But Atari, which holds the license to D&D and Baldur's Gate and allowed them to remake the games, wanted to put the games on Steam and has the right to do so. That's how the games ended up on Steam.
So I do not expect Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition to end up here... unless GOG works with Atari.
skeletonbow: The GOG Baldur's Gate game card page has a link to mods that allow you to combine both Baldur's gate games into one big mega game using the BG2 UI and features, plus adds support for high resolution displays and widescreen and all kinds of other stuff. From what I've read, these mods are superior in functionality to the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition that is on Steam although I don't know from first hand experience. If you search around though that's what many people claim. I've got the two games installed as one big mega game here right now and with the high res patch and other bits and it is pretty damn cool. Anyone who has the GOG versions of these games should definitely check it out, just visit the Baldur's Gate store page here and scroll down to find the link.
Update: here are the URLs
https://secure.gog.com/game/baldurs_gate_the_original_saga For enhanced gameplay in your GOG.com edition of Baldur's Gate please follow this modding guide:
https://secure.gog.com/news/enhance_the_gameplay_in_your_edition_of_baldurs_gate_from_gogcom HTH
I already know about the mods. FYI: almost all of the major mods work with the Enhanced Edition. However, the Enhanced Edition has features that cannot be added to the original edition with mods. For examples: the Enhanced Edition introduces new new characters, i.e., new NPC companion.
The biggest problem with the first Baldur's Gate (the classic) was the NPCs were bland and did not interact or banter. The depth and interactiveness of NPCs were first introduced in Baldur's Gate II, (it has since become a BioWare's competitive advantage.) The Enhanced Edition actually fixes that problem by introducing new NPCs that behave like NPCs in Baldur's Gate II: they banter, they interject, they interact, they have their own stories and missions. Those new NPCs can be carried over to the second game, and the decisions you make for them in the first Enhanced Edition game will be carried over to the second Enhanced Edition game. That is something that was NOT in the classic game, (the first one,) but it really improves the first game.
As far as I know, you can't add those new NPCs to the classic games with mods. (I think they are trademarked/copyrighted, so modders cannot legally rip those new contents out of the Enhanced Edition and add them to the classics.) On the other hand, you can pretty much use most any mod with the Enhanced Edition. So, Enhanced Edition has all of the advantages of the classic games, but the classic games do not have the new features and the new NPCs of the Enhanced Edition.
Seriously, I know a lot of people here have negative feelings towards the Enhanced Edition because they are being sold at Steam and not here. They just want to criticize the Enhanced Edition for any reason, mods being the biggest reason to claim the original is better than the Enhanced Edition. But do some research: it's not like people do not already know that Enhanced Edition also works with the same mods for the originals. Even if you go to G3 or another mod sites, they already tell you straight out that their mods would work with "EE" aka Enhanced Edition.
BTW, there are actually new mods that are coming out (e.g., the new trilogy mod) that work with the Enhanced Edition but NOT the classic... I read that modders are already working on new mods for the EE and only the EE.