That website that popped up that everyone was talking about has some more information on it. GameBanshee posted information.

It looks like it could be fun; integrating the mods from the community and adding new characters/NPCs

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/107296-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-announced.html

Looking forward to what they do. Maybe if there's enough support they'll think about doing more. :D

BG2 has steadily maintained the position of #1 favorite game for me since I first bought it allll those years ago.

I dream of the day when it finally gets ousted from that position. Would have to be one hell of a game. Hahaha. Would be awesome if they took the (c)RPG world by storm yet again. Doubt it, but one can dream, right? Riiighhht?

Anyway, can't wait to see more info as the months pass. :)

I definitely wanna see these enhancements, but at the same time I'm wondering how well it'll play with the many, MANY mods that the BG community has made over the years, especially since many of the people who made those mods have moved on and probably wouldn't come back to update them for whatever changes this new version makes (assuming it's even as easy to mod as the current ones are).

Basically, I'll wait to decide whether I'll get it until we know more about what it brings to the table, as well as how our current mods will interact with it, if they do at all. If it doesn't work with our current mods and doesn't compensate with enough new material, I'll probably pass

Edit: According to http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116361-Beamdog-Boss-Reveals-More-About-Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Edition, they're keeping the 2nd edition ruleset, the music, and all of the original soundfiles. They're also trying to play nice with existing mods, so we might be able to get the best of both worlds, here. :)

Of course, they're also releasing BG and BG2 separately, but I suppose I can live with that. At least they're not making us buy the expansions, as well.

Actually, they are planning to do Baldur's Gate III. That is why they are enhancing and re-releasing I and II.

http://www.slashgear.com/baldurs-gate-iii-the-black-hound-tipped-14218443/

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/1220929p1.html

I can't even begin to describe how happy this makes me.

Excuse me while I go temporarily insane. OMGWTFLOLBBQVNZXKCWTOU350SADFZXNDFOEWT08ZXV YES!

There is sadly, one big downside, in that the EE is going to be DRMed.

BeamDog requires you to use their client to download products (this client appears to include BitTorrent functionality so you'll be uploading to other users too - a potential problem for users with bandwidth caps) and every purchase requires activation before use.

It seems to be "activate-on-install" rather than "activate-on-play" but still a deal-breaker for those concerned about game longevity (if the original BG had used this system, no-one here would have been able to play it legally thanks to Interplay's closure).

This is discussed in Beamdog's forum thread: DRM and You: Responsible Consumer Practices.

Wow. That's like... I really just don't have adequate words for that.

I thought Ubisoft DRM was bad (well.. it is, as it's always poorly implemented), but this is just silly.

Ugh.

What the heck is Beamdog? I mean, I'm totally on board with enhanced remakes of both Baldur's Gate games, but I'd rather not have to install another digital distribution client.

It's a digital distributor with their own client. Not sure if running the client is required for playing the games, but it is needed for downloading and installing.

EDIT:
http://www.beamdog.com/about/faq
"We do not limit the number of computers you can install your games on, we do however limit concurrent usage of those games. When you buy a game from us we grant a license to run only one copy at a given time. If you log into another Beamdog Client, we log you out of the previous session."

You probably need to have the client running.

The Beamdog client seams a lot like steam to me. You can also use if offline if you installed the game. But yeah, Still DRM....

Don't get too excited guys, the article says:

"Baldur's Gate 3 has been our long term goal. We have a lot of things to put in place before such a project can be launched. So currently there is no such project but that's the one we want to do. Our thoughts have been that Enhanced Edition for BG 1 and 2 just make sense before there's any Baldur's Gate 3."

If a lot of things don't fall into place, we may still never see a BG3. It's something they are aiming for, it's not guaranteed.

@GoatBoySteve

Eh, considering there were no hopes of a real BG3 before, it's not that bad to get excited.

Think of it like religion. Even if it turns out the religion one followed was BS, at least there was still that measure of hope. :D

Maybe that was a horrible example. <_<

I don't see the point of Baldur's Gate 3. What would the story be? The Bhaalspawn saga was brought to a satisfying close with Throne of Bhaal.

Not to mention the changes that have been made to D&D and the Realms in the meantime. 4th edition and the wrecked Forgotten Realms setting wouldn't be the same as the classic BG experience.

Now if they were to take the style and make a similar experience, I wouldn't mind. We need new blood in the RPG world, not endless rehashes.

Well first off, the original concept for BG3 had nothing to do with the Bhaalspawn saga. It was just a new adventure set in the same area. I'd be good with that.

As for what WotC has done with the rules and setting, so what? They could always make the game still in 2nd Ed rules (or 3 or 3.5) and they easily could ignore any changes to the setting.