Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition

[Cairhiin]

hmmmm, interesting, but not sure if its worth 20 bucks if they arent updating any models/adding any new ones, as the above post sums up as being pretty much impossible.

The improvements consist of the Black Pits (stand alone adventure), three new NPCs (+ new adventures/areas associated with them), high resolution support, newly coded UI, BG1:EE ported to BG2 engine with all its kits and improvements.) Here is a list from their forums:

ENGINE ENHANCEMENTS
Based on the Throne of Bhaal engine.
BG:EE is based on the latest Throne of Bhaal code, which means it includes all features from Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal, as well as all bug fixes from those titles and their relative patches.

Rebuilt Threading Model.
The threading model has been cleaned up and fixed, thus eliminating the no-ops that characterized the original and improving performance. Several "Windows-95isms" were removed to make the engine run smoother and increase new-OSs-friendlyness.

Rebuilt Renderer.
The renderer was also cleaned up, and ported entirely to OpenGL for better performance. The graphics are now 100% hardware accelerated.

Fixed up multiplayer.
Baldur's Gate's buggy multiplayer support has been fixed up and improved, eliminating bugs and introducing cross-platform compatibility. It will be possible to play a multiplayer BG:EE game connecting a Windows based PC, an Apple Mac PC, an iPad and an Android tablet simultaneously.

ToBEx engine fixes.
The Overhaul team is working with Ascension64, author of the mods Throne of Bhaal Extender (ToBEx) and Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT) to improve the engine and bring over all the major fixes from those packages.

Extensive bug fixing.
BG:EE will feature a huge amount of bug fixes as suggested by the community, found by devs and beta testers, and found by modders throughout the years. Several bugs that currently require Baldurdash, Dudlyville, Tutufix, BG Fixpack or BG2 Fixpack - as well as a plethora of hardcoded bugs that require access to the source code to be fixed - will not exist in BG:EE.

VISUAL ENHANCEMENTS
Native support for high resolutions.
BG:EE natively supports high resolutions in 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10 format up to 2880x1800. The source area art will be filtered via hardware to scale it as required and enable the zoom in/out feature.

Dynamic zoom in/out feature.
It will be possible to zoom in and out of the battlefield dynamically during gameplay by scrolling the mouse wheel up and down, within generous limits.

New, high resolution cinematics.
The original, low resolution 3D cinematics will be replaced with new, never before seen high resolution 2D animations drawn by BG:EE's Art Director Nat Jones.

New, high resolution GUI.
The Graphic User Interface (GUI) has been completely unhardcoded, thus making it possible to overcome its inherent limitations in terms of resolution. Beamdog / Overhaul Games are currently working on a brand new, high resolution GUI drawn by BG:EE's Art Director Nat Jones and fellow artist Madoline Bee, which will be customizable / moddable to a generous extent (some limits still apply due to the original BG code's resilience to Cameron Tofer's attacks; hopefully, Cameron will manage to find a silver-coated machete with which to treat the old code post-ship, further expanding the GUI's customizability).

Flipbook animation transparency and Alpha blending.
As per this thread, BG:EE will feature flipbook animation transparency and alpha blending for BAM files. In the longer run, a new version of BAM files with multiple-layer alpha blending is being considered.

One Pixel Production (1PP).
Erephine has agreed to include the 1PP work into BG:EE. The devs are currently trying to make it play nice with the BG:EE setup. Share your opinion on which components would suit BG:EE better here!

AUDIO ENHANCEMENTS
OpenAL based audio engine.
The audio engine has been completely ported to OpenAL, thus ditching the now obsolete DirectSound API, thus bringing back environmental audio support for newer OSs.

Original music by Michael Hoeing.
Purists have nothing to fear, as the original soundtrack by Michael Hoeing will remain untouched in BG:EE.

New music by Sam Hulick.
Sam Hulick, the composer who scored the soundtrack to Mass Effect 3, will write new music to go with the new contents in BG:EE. He is an admittedly huge fan of Michael Hoeing's work, and is trying his best to remain faithful to its spirit and atmosphere.N

NEW CONTENT
One new playable kit.
BG:EE will feature one new playable kit never before been seen in an IE game: the Blackguard.

Three new joinable NPCs.
BG:EE will feature three new joinable NPCs: Rasaad, a human male Monk; Neera, a half-elven female Wild Mage; and Dorn, a half-orc male Blackguard. Their dialogues, romances and interjetions will be written by fantasy novelist Dave Gross, alongside Phillip Daigle. All three characters will be romanceable.



One new adventure.
BG:EE will feature one new adventure with dedicated, newly developed area art and "nasty AI". The Black Pits (codename: Adventure X) is a standalone arena mini-campaign consisting of 15 fights and taking place in the Underdark. New and old NPCs will react to the new content with interjections.

Several new items.
The devs are adding a number of new items to BG:EE to even the item spread out a bit for the classes and the new kits.

New portraits for player characters.
A portrait pack drawn by former Black Isle Studios portrait artist Jason Manley is being added for free to PC/Mac, and as paid DLC to iOS/Android.

New voice sets for player characters.
A new collection of player character voice sets is bundled with BG:EE. It will include three new male and three new female voiced sets. One of the voice actors has been confirmed to have already done voice-over work for the Baldur's Gate saga.

[PizzaSHARK]

I like how the new portraits are free for PCs but you've gotta buy them for mobile devices.

[Cairhiin]

I like how the new portraits are free for PCs but you've gotta buy them for mobile devices.

That's because the iPad and Android versions are only 10 euro for the game instead of 20.

[PizzaSHARK]

That's because the iPad and Android versions are only 10 euro for the game instead of 20.

And it's the same game? Why? Are there some kind of limits on what you can charge for mobile-based games?

[Cairhiin]

And it's the same game? Why? Are there some kind of limits on what you can charge for mobile-based games?

I don't really know but for iPads and Android the game is sold separately from the extras. I neither own an iPad nor Android phone so don't really know.

[Deleted]

Going to wait for enhanced bg 2 and Planescape. The first bg was like a appetizer, the second one was full scale rpg, almost compareable to reading Lord of the rings. And Planescape torment have always been a favourite because of its dialogue and creative universe.

Lol, found this pic when browsing the enhanced versions btw:

[LeDragon]

...I don't know if I'm super excited or worried. I absolutely LOVE BG1 and BG2, but I'm afraid all the enhacements will go the way of modern RPGs, and ruin the epic, immersive feel of the game. But I could be wrong. It could end up amazing but without all the needed mods.

[Moralio]

So has anyone played it yet here? Personally I sat at my PC yesterday, already irritated because once again another developer was overwhelmed by the concept of worldwide release. I've already predownloaded 1.3gigs of data, and what would you know? There is still more to download! And it downloads of course really slowly at whooping 30kb/s where Steam usually has at least 200kb/s for me. At least reviews are generally favorable and most complains come from people who expected hell knows what. It is basically pure Baldur's Gate with few improvements that allow you to play on newer Windows without having to worry about mods and suchlike.

Will try to download it today for sure, just mildly annoyed by that effin download.

[Tackhisis]

Does it use original format talk file?

[Deleted]

I don't really see the advantages (other than a few new characters) that this will have over using the Tutu or BGT mods. Especialy with all the character interaction mods for both games out there.

There are so many mods out there for Tutu that make the game much harder or more immersive, and just more tailored to your individual style that the EnEd still seems like it will be behind by a long way compared to the work the BG mod community has done, at least from the perspective of someone wo doesn't own a tablet and has access to a decade old PC.

And personally I don't know if I have another BG1+2+ToB playthrough left in me. Still will be a good starting point for people wo are new to the games, but I imagine most of those planning to buy it already know the game inside out.

edit: and again, on a personal note, after IWD2 and ToEE I don't know if can go back to 2nd edition rules. AD&D 3rd edition blew me away in terms of customization and possibilities, and the old way just feels a little ... old.

[Deleted]

I've never played a Baldur's gate game, I don't know why, I think I just never owned one while they were new and now haven't bothered to try them, Maybe I'll try this when it comes out, every one of my friends is acting like it's the second coming of christ so it must be pretty good!

[PizzaSHARK]

Early reviews seem to indicate that unless you're looking to avoid the hassle of modding, buying BG1+BG2 on GOG.com or similar sites is still the best deal. Especially since Enhanced Edition is just BG1 and doesn't include BG2 (which will be sold separately and is slated for release next year.)

[Tackhisis]

I hope we are getting a whole UI overhaul, as original one was a bad antipiracy measure: WTF is THACO? Why armor class is higher without armor equipped? Why my strength is 18/53? and similar idiocy.

[WarpedAcorn]

Early reviews seem to indicate that unless you're looking to avoid the hassle of modding, buying BG1+BG2 on GOG.com or similar sites is still the best deal. Especially since Enhanced Edition is just BG1 and doesn't include BG2 (which will be sold separately and is slated for release next year.)

This was going to be one of my concerns. However, I will probably still buy the Enhanced Edition if, for nothing else, to support the company so that they can continue to "Overhaul" older versions for gamers who never got to experience them in their prime. I believe the desire and market for story-driven old-school isometric RPG's is still out there based on the attention both BG:EE has gotten as well as Project: Eternity's astounding Kickstarter success.

[ddsad2212]

Don't no if I should get it or not. When this game came out I was fairly young and the family computer was pretty much for business use only so didn't start pc gaming until this game had gone out of mainstream play and thus never heard much about it. Anyway when I heard enhanced edition I expected it to look how it looks now, but when I heard this company was interested in doing the 3rd game if this goes well, then I expected them to have a bit more balls and really show us what they can do. I mean I am not a graphics whore, but this still looks out dated , and 20 euro is alot of ask. I'd have really hoped they at least updated it to something similar to magicka style of graphics(I am just using the game as an example as I'd assume that would be the next logical step in terms of game look from there, not saying change the art style ofc). But instead they seem to have changed up the art assets a little bit, enhance the sound and from what I hear add decent content, but nothing special.

It just feels this was the dev's chance to really show what they can do , with a really bit enhance to the game. Update to a more 2.5D graphic style, change the mechanics a bit to make them feel better etc. But really they just went the way the FF7 re-release did this year. But hey some of the things I said are probably wrong, due and this is also more then likely what people wanted, just does not fill me with confidence that they want to do BG3 without really showing people what they can do

[Shinzai]

I hope we are getting a whole UI overhaul, as original one was a bad antipiracy measure: WTF is THACO? Why armor class is higher without armor equipped? Why my strength is 18/53? and similar idiocy.

Surely you'd know what THAC0 is if you've played the original? To Hit Armour Class 0

[PizzaSHARK]

I hope we are getting a whole UI overhaul, as original one was a bad antipiracy measure: WTF is THACO? Why armor class is higher without armor equipped? Why my strength is 18/53? and similar idiocy.

Considering they didn't change it from AD&D 2.5E... probably not.

[manybadgers]

I was having graphic issues for some reason so in case anyone is experiencing that what I did to solve my problem was turn off triple buffering and vertical sync on the nvidia control panel for baldur.exe

As to game play, I only got to play it for a few minutes and I already got annihilated by a guard =(

[Deleted]

As to game play, I only got to play it for a few minutes and I already got annihilated by a guard =(

Stop stealing everything then!

[WarpedAcorn]

The Gibberlings outside won't be any more polite. =)