I'm not sure if this has already been asked, but is GOG going to release the BG Enhanced Edition that's coming out later this month?

I am actually happy that GOG is not releasing the "enhanced" edition, as it is a very shoddy job. Beamdog is just trying to cash in on the popularity of an old game. They haven`t added any worthwhile content that has not been covered by fan made mods already.

If you`re new to BG, buy BG1 and 2 from GOG instead and download BGTutu and some quality mods for extra content, and if you`re a fan already it`s definitely not worth the 20 bucks.

How exactly have you determined that it is a 'very shoddy job' when it hasn't even been released yet?

I was expecting this question.

I based my opinion on the released screenshots and descriptions, and the very poorly written short stories that go along with the new characters, which, in this case are enough to judge the finished product.
The new interface is atrocious and does not go well together with the color scheme and overall theme of the game, the new areas are all uninspired and have gaussian blur all over them, which is a poor effort on the designer`s part to adjust them to the higher resolutions. The 3 new characters are all generic and smell of fanservice, not to mention that they will be totally unbalanced in regards to content compared to the vanilla joinable NPCs. Oh, and let`s not forget the bonus arena combat type quest, which should be exciting in a narrative driven rpg because...?

Really, over the years the fan modding community has done much more, and in some specific cases a much better job at adding bonus content to the original games. They have put more effort into their work, and they made it availabe for everyone for free. After that, I think it is disgraceful that Beamdog dare ask money for their "enhancements".

Have you seen any final screenshots? Because I haven't. Do you REALLY think they are putting their best effort into short stories that won't even be in the game? Have you ever read any of the absolutely horrid Baldur's Gate novels or stories that were released around the original game? Again, have you seen finished work or just the teasers that they have showed at times? (all while stating that its not a finished product yet) What exactly would an inspired area consist of? Have you seen the areas or are you just basing this off descriptions? And you'd complain if they made the new areas all high quality, high resolution since they wouldn't fit with the original game since the original art is no longer available to them. Fans asked for new NPC's, they got them. What was so original about the existing NPCs? Unbalanced in regards to content? How so, because they actually will have banter and back story and quests? You'd likely complain that they were just meat puppets if they had the same level of the original NPC's. Well, its not actually IN the main game, its just a nice bonus thrown in. Poor us. Not really. They've done a great job at many things (like the widescreen rez mod, though it has its own issues as well), but a large number of mods are total junk (The Darkest Day anyone?), particularly the ones that try to introduce new areas (almost always just rehashed from existing ones). I've done some work on mods myself and followed the modding community since the games first came out. There is a ton of effort on the part of the modding community, but I don't seem to recall any of them doing it as a full time job. And again, you have yet to see a finished product, so this is just conjecture on your part. Well 1) they can't legally charge for it even if they wanted to and 2) did you expect a company to release an enhanced version for free? yeah, how DARE they ask for money for making the game run natively in modern OS's (and more than the original ever did) rather than using complex hacks and mods (and with GemRB* it still doesn't handle everything in the game properly).

The point of what Beamdog has done is to essentially modernize the game for people that want a quick and easy way to play it on modern systems. Yes, we have BGT and BGTuTu and the Widescreen mod, and a dozen others that fix, tweak and otherwise enhance the game for us, but its a bit of pain to get it all running. Every time I play these, I have to go find a mod list to get the enhancements I want, make sure I install them all in the correct order, and even after that sometimes things still don't work.

Most new players and many old players don't want to deal with that. That hour or more that I spend just trying to get it installed and tweaked is time I could spend actually playing the game. I don't get that much time to game anymore due to work, family, dog, and who knows what else, so I'm extremely appreciative of a version of BG that I can play on a Tablet (and has a UI designed for it unlike the GemRB* port) if I like, or just download, install and go on a modern PC.

And I'm happy to pay the people that put the work into making that. The fact that it has sold so well and that the vast majority of posters on their forums are supportive of their efforts would indicate that you are in the extreme minority on your views.

* I mean no disrespect to the people behind GemRB, its a phenomenal achievement. Its just that its a hobbyists tool and will likely always be in a state of development like most open source software.

I so look forward to how this game will play, especially if they have sorted out the horrible pathfinding issues of the originals. But I don't like that new content, areas and NPCs have been added. The arena stuff sounds a bit crap tbh. But it will be nice to have a 'modded' BG from the get go, with hopefully additional fixes than most mods can do. Whether it's worth 20 dollars is hard to say now, and I'll only make up my mind whether to buy it or not once it's out and I can see some user reviews, videos etc like with all games. So far it hasn't looked much different than a modded BG to me, but we'll see how it pans out when it comes out.

1) I always find it amusing when people try to defend their point in this sort of arguement with "but they are not final screenshots". Why show them at all then, if they are so insignificant regarding the final product? They are supposed to create interest in the game. And by the time the screenshots were put up on the website, BG EE was close to being released. ( It was supposed to have been released around September, I think.)

2) The new areas are all empty and barren. If they have new areas with actual content in them, why not showcase those, to pick the interest of possible customers?

3) The Baldur`s Gate novels came after the game, and, just like this "remake", were created with blind fanboys in mind to capitalise on the success of the game. And no, I haven`t read them, as I know better than to read junk like that.
The short stories for the enhanced edition were put up on the website to advertise and add more "flavor" to the new NPCs. A poorly written short story - the purpose of which is to create interest in the new content, I might add - is certainly not a hint towards that the actual writing in the game is going to be any better, since the idea of the characters themselves has been flawed from the start.

4) The existing NPCs in BG1 have very little to no content to them, that`s true. But the point of "enhancing" something is to make it better. How three generic characters with fanservice content is going to make this part of the game better? Might as well leave them out, if they can`t come up with better ideas. But I suppose fanboys will take anything these days, as long as it is "romanceable", as this seems to be the selling factor for RPGs nowadays.
And if someone wants talkative NPCs in BG1, there`s always the BG1 NPC mod for Tutu.

5) Bonus Arena content: I really do not care for it, and I do not see how something like that would "enhance" a narrative driven RPG.

And I could go on, but I`ll just leave it at that. You see, my main gripe with all this is that it was being advertised as the "revival" of BG, and there was much hype going around it about how "awesome" the new content will be. And being a long time BG fan, it did pick my interest at the beginning. But as the screenshots of the then nearly finished product were being released, I realised all the hype was just another marketing trap, behind which there was actually very little content.

If someone wants to release a version of BG that would be playable on a Tablet, that`s totally fine, and that is the only value of this new release. But then do not pose yourself as as a "saviour" of a "long forgotten game".

There are several things wrong with this project, the first being that Beamdog does not have the rights to alter any of the existing content to begin with, therefore they cannot really "enhance" the game. And the content they created by themselves is simply not good enough to really turn my head and say "yes, these guys know how to handle this, I would like them to continue their efforts on future IE remakes and possible sequels", and definitely not as awe inspiring as they would like people to believe.

As I said before, release BG on a Tablet with higher resolution, and if that alone is worth it for someone, they can pay the 20 bucks for it for all I care. But you could not cash in on something as simple as that now, could you?
And yes, I know that the point of a project is to make money. Why not create something worthwhile from scratch then? Because it is easier to take advantage of something that is immensely popular and slapping some half-assed content on it and calling it "revival" and "enhancement".

Because fans like to see things? It was close to the original release date, but that doesn't mean it was final by any means. Again you make an assumption that may or may not be correct and base your assumption off it. All empty and barren? How so, they haven't even shown the entire areas yet! The BG novels didn't come far after the game, regardless the point remains, they are not part of the game, so who cares if they are the best thing since Tolkien or utter crap? The short stories were designed to give a taste of what they have in mind, not be literary masterpieces. Well if you INCLUDE those three characters, it would likely enhance the game play since they have the additional content! And you ignore the fact that the original NPC's were as generic as they come anyway! (And let's not forget that they weren't allowed to change the underlying story, which would include the original NPC's banter and content, so don't blame beamdog for that).

Again, you revert bad to the mod response. Guess what, not everyone wants to have to mod a game!! And while the BG1 party banter mod was nice, it was no where near the production quality of the banter in BG2, so lets not act like it is some masterpiece. Just because YOU don't want to play it doesn't mean others won't. Personally, I'm not that interested in it, but then I am not a tactical player. People who really favor tactics (there are plenty, look how many tactics mods are out there) may really enjoy it. So basically you just don't like their marketing. It would be funny to see the rant you'd probably post if Beamdog had ported it to tablets and didn't release a Windows version that had whatever changes/updates they made. I certainly wish they had the rights to do as they pleased, but you can't fault them for that. It wasn't their call. The UI is what really needs enhancement anyway. Playing the IE games on a 1600x1200 monitor is a painful experience, even with the widescreen mod. The content has not been released so you are basing your opinion on conjecture. Sure they could. This thing will likely sell far more on tablets than it will on PC's. I'm sure they'd love to create something from scratch, but as you may have noticed, the cost of creating a production quality game from scratch is in the millions of dollars. Sure maybe they could have done a kickstarter like the Project Eternity guys are doing, but BGEE was conceived well before that.

When if comes down to it, if its not for you, then don't buy it, but don't go bashing it and coloring people's opinions on nothing but conjecture presented as fact. It's intellectually dishonest and ethically wrong.

1. release game only through one single DRM based online service
2. complain about piracy
3. ????
4. profit!!!!

You keep answering only to parts of what I`m typing, and therefore mostly missing the point of my complaint. While I bear no grudge towards you personally, you keep responding to my claim that what Beamdog is doing is intellectually dishonest, as you put it, as I if had insulted you personally. I think I can state my opinion on a public forum. And I certainly appreciate a good arguement. But I do not appreciate being lectured by someone who has got nothing to do with Beamdog or the project itself. Or have you?

And how is it intellectually honest to pose yourself as the saviour of a game - as Beamdog does - and promising "awesome enhancement" when you know that you will not be able to produce anything that will really make a difference to the actual content of the game? They knew from the start that they would not be able to alter any significant content, since they could not afford the rights to ADnD and Baldur`s Gate. And the fact that they can enable the game to run on higher resolutions is nothing to boast about, since modders have already achieved that.

The new content they put in the game should have been a chance for them to showcase what they are capable of when it comes to original work. But it is either too insignificant or just reeks of unoriginality for these people to be capable of pulling off a possibe sequel for the series - as they intend - that would be in any way progressive and worth my money.

Marketing is, by default, dishonest. However, they chose to go with such a marketing. They could have kept it more low-key, promising a new version of the game that would work better on newer OS and would be playable on a Tablet. There is nothing wrong with that. But that`s not what they did, and they are not living up to what they had promised. Why would I want to respect that? Why would I give my money to these people then?

As for the areas:
If they have more interesting images of the finished areas (and I am sure they must have had, since the new version was supposed to have been released months ago) why not show those? If they can put up such a catchy marketing, why is it that they have trouble with selecting the most interesting parts of their new content? Maybe because they do not have any?

As for the NPCs:
Baldur`s Gate, in general, is not the pinnacle of literature, I`m sure we can agree on that. But it was good writing for a video game, and the party banters did add some flavor to the gameplay of BG2, without taking too much focus away from the game itself, (which was actually a novelty at the time, I might add) and the BG1 NPC project managed to keep most NPCs in character and avoided resorting to too much fanservice. Beamdog, however, is doing nothing but succumbing to the latest trends in RPGs and games in general, and writing their characters according to that. Why should I find that an awesome enhancement?

Yes, I am ranting. Because for my opinion I was given a rant as a response.

of course you can state your opinion. That doesn't make it right. BTW, with the exception of one paragraph I responded to you point by point.

My issue is that you coming out here, telling people NOT to buy it, when you haven't even seen it. I'm not affiliated with beamdog in any way outside of being a customer, but how would you feel if someone was out bad mouthing your work, potentially costing you sales (income), when they hadn't even seen your work?

If you want to advise people to wait until it is released, I have no issue with that. Most people probably should. I pre-ordered to show my support. But to advise people not to buy it when you can't possibly have seen enough of it to form an education opinion is pretty low.

Since dozens of tenthousends of people already preordered the game (for whatever reason eludes me) BG2 EE is as sure as my next nervous breakdown. And giving the state of the market we all know that roughly three months after release both games respectively will be off by at least 50%. Also, roughly six months after BG2 EE there will be a BG EE Complete Edition which in turn will be off by at least 50% roughly three month after that.

Coincidentally theses nine months would also be the time after which most of the essential mods should be ported for the BGEE-versions (BGT EE being the most important one imho).

Soooo, as this whole affair absolutely reeks of cheap money-grabbing, fueled by the unbelievably disgusting pandering to the fans' hope for an BG3, my advice would be this: Wait till you get both EEs for 5-10 bucks. Nothing of the game content they've shown so far isn't already covered by mods. Although, if you absolutely must play Baldur's Gate on you iPad at release, because if you don't, your earlobe will eat itself into your brain and make you dance salza all day and all night, then by all means buy it.

I guess you completely missed the point that you can play the game on a tablet Or other mobile device.. (something you cannot do with the old version)

Not to mention a ton of new fixes are being added, that fans have brought to attention, tons of bugs, that were never fixed in fan patches, including all the ones that fans brought in..

and lets not forget improved mulitplayer matchmaking and stablitly.. (yes BG is a great fun multiplayer game, though it has some issues.. this is fixing many)


So to for the brand new user, to beable to get it all included in one spot, not have to worry about tracking down mods, and setting them up.. Not to mention some added content.. It is more than worth the 20 bucks...


funny to see people go out of their way to say how people are just wsting their money.. it is 10 bucks more than the orginal, and i'd say more than 10 dollars worth of improvements. Perhaps a better use of time would be to stand in a pub and tell people their 10 dollars are better spent on buying a six pack.. cause that is about what it boils down too...

ripped right off their FAQ:

Q: Will this game be on Steam? Or GOG? Or Impulse? Or...

A: We cannot comment on the future availability of BG:EE on Steam, GOG, or any other distribution service at this time. BG:EE is temporarily exclusive to Beamdog.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/2011/pre-order-faq#latest

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i wont buy it unless it ends up on GOG. hopefully that "temporarily exclusivity" isnt too long lived. it would be nice to have the option here on GOG of the orignal BG (with all the mod fun) or the BG:EE to see how well the 'fixes' are if its not just the free mod fixes repackaged aferall.

the BG:EE Droid version has interested me. its release date as TBD isnt a shocker. if they can get it working with multi-player (the only reason an 'arena' would be interesting to me) and they can get an Ouya (Droid OS) to run it that might be worthwhile.

the In-app purchases of the 'additional content' seems flawed to me, why else would i be playing the BG:EE. (iOS and Droid versions require/will require IAP)

would the saves from BG:EE transfer to BG2 standard or will i have to wait for BG2:EE?