Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Re-release with enhanced graphics Summer 2012

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**nels1031**

Apologies for threadomancy most foul, but recent developments!

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition, a remake of the classic 1998 role-playing game, is now available for preorder via the official website. Well, assuming you want to play it on Windows-based computers, that is. Said Windows version will be available from September 18 for $19.99 — though if you preorder you’ll get $2 off, a special forum badge (woo!) and the ability to preload the game and be ready to go as soon as it’s released.

Meanwhile, iPad and Mac OS X versions will follow at an unspecified time in September, and the Android version doesn’t have a release estimate as yet. The iPad and Android versions will cost $9.99 each, while the Mac OS X version will share the $19.99 price point of the Windows version.

So what’s new in this “enhanced edition?” New developer Beamdog has certainly been playing its cards close to its chest on this one, leaving many to ponder exactly how much this would resemble the original game and how much would be completely new.

Now we have an answer: the Enhanced Edition will include the entirely of Baldur’s Gate and its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast. That’s not all, though — the game incorporates a new 6-hour adventure known as The Black Pits, in which the player’s party is tasked with taking on a series of challenging arena combat battles for the entertainment of the mad drow Baeloth the Entertainer.

Three new characters join Baldur’s Gate’s memorable cast, too: Rasaad yn Bashir is a monk from Calimport; Neera is a half-elf wild mage “struggling to come to terms with her enormous magical potential”; and Dorn Il-Khan is a half-orc Blackguard wielding a black sword and a variety of unholy spells. All three characters feature between four and six additional hours of gameplay thanks to their associated quests and new areas, and romantic types will be able to put the moves on Neela as they help her escape the Red Wizards of Thay.

Aside from the new content, developer Overhaul Games claims to have made over 400 improvements to the original game. This includes an enhanced interface featuring native support for high-resolution and widescreen displays — the original only supported 640×480 4:3 screens without modding — and platform-specific enhancements for iPad and Android. Improvements from Baldur’s Gate 2 have been incorporated into the original game, including class kits and subraces to allow for additional customization of the player character. The recognizably “late ’90s CG” cinematics of the original have been replaced by hand-painted animated sequences directed by American artist Nat Jones. Multiplayer has been balanced and improved to incorporate matchmaking functionality, and all versions of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition will be able to play online together, regardless of whether the player is running the PC, Mac, iPad or Android.

Finally, Overhaul also claims that the game will continue to support the mod community, which has played a big part in ensuring the enduring popularity of this excellent series.

Preorder the Windows version of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition and find out more about the game via the official website — and we’ll see you on the Sword Coast in September.

I'm actually quite pumped for this. But ewww! at in app purchases.

**Palindrome**

Its suprisingly expensive given that a lot of the the improvements can already be gained from mods. Its twice the price of the original.

**Testify**

The high res mods are pretty rubbish. AFAIK though all the wiedu mods should still be compatable with the new editions.

**djones520**

This is the first I've heard of this, I'm very thankful for the necromancer who brought it up from the depths.

**Ahtman**

Palindrome wrote:Its twice the price of the original.

Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

**BaronIveagh**

The graphics still look like Fallout 1 to me. When I heard there was going to be an update, for some reason I was picturing Baldur's Gate with Dead or Alive 5/Mass Effect 3 graphics.

**Trondheim**

I will be buying this, just to demonstrate to my cousin how real RPG games are

**Palindrome**

Ahtman wrote:
Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

That would be relevent if this was a new game, its not. This is basically a professional mod.

**djones520**

Palindrome wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

That would be relevent if this was a new game, its not. This is basically a professional mod.

With roughly 15ish hours of new content, according to the website. It's worth the 10 extra to me, especially since I payed twice that for Dawngaurd and didn't get half that much worth of content.

**Testify**

Palindrome wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

That would be relevent if this was a new game, its not. This is basically a professional mod.

Considering that a good professional mod can be as good as an add on, that's not saying much.
Plus the graphics got a huge overhaul.

**Necroshea**

I look forward to it. I miss the oldschool isometric (ish) rpgs.

**Destrado**

And support for this means that hopefully they could revisit Torment and Icewind Dale.

I still play them today, some of the few original games I bought when I was a youngster.

**Ahtman**

Palindrome wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

That would be relevent if this was a new game, its not. This is basically a professional mod.

Considering it is completely revamped in many ways and adds completely new content, making it fairly different from the original, it probably isn't actually that relevant to compare it to a cheaper version and say it is overpriced. For what you are getting the price seems about right. If you want the lesser version without the improved graphics options, portability, and no new content, feel free to spend less money. If you want all those features you pay a bit more. You pay less, you get less, you pay a bit more, you get a bit more.

**djphranq**

I'm totally going to get these Re-releases. I was at Good Old Games' site the other day and debating if I should buy the old versions of them (I still might for nostalgic purposes).

**marv335**

I'll be getting the iPad version.

**Palindrome**

Ahtman wrote:
Palindrome wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

That would be relevent if this was a new game, its not. This is basically a professional mod.

Considering it is completely revamped in many ways and adds completely new content, making it fairly different from the original, it probably isn't actually that relevant to compare it to a cheaper version and say it is overpriced.

Its not completely revamped; an adventure has been added, 3 new characters with their own quests (who appear to be mutualy exclusive) along with Baldurs gate 2's classes and equipment. The grahics are the same, just at a higher resolution. Its a mod that costs the same again as the main game when other mods offer the same or similar enchancements for free.

I will be waiting for it to drop in price before I get this.

**Ahtman**

Palindrome wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Palindrome wrote:
Ahtman wrote:
Baldur's Gate didn't launch at $9.99, let alone $19.99.

That would be relevent if this was a new game, its not. This is basically a professional mod.

Considering it is completely revamped in many ways and adds completely new content, making it fairly different from the original, it probably isn't actually that relevant to compare it to a cheaper version and say it is overpriced.

Its not completely revamped; an adventure has been added, 3 new characters with their own quests (who appear to be mutualy exclusive) along with Baldurs gate 2's classes and equipment. The grahics are the same, just at a higher resolution. Its a mod that costs the same again as the main game when other mods offer the same or similar enchancements for free.

I will be waiting for it to drop in price before I get this.

I was under the impression that there was more done to the graphics then just making it widescreen.

**djones520**

According to the website, the only sig changes were allowing it to work with hi def and widescreen monitors now.

Also seems to have extensive bug work done on it, more then 400 problems in the original code have been fixed.

**Karon**

So..no graphical update?

What?

**Testify**

Karon wrote:So..no graphical update?

There is a substantial graphical update.

**BaronIveagh**

Testify wrote:
Karon wrote:So..no graphical update?

There is a substantial graphical update.

I don't see it from these screen shots. Still looks like the same old engine.

**Destrado**

Why would it need "substantial graphic update", other than a few tweaked graphics and running in 1920x1080 or something?

**Ahtman**

What I thought they were doing was updating the sprites to HD sprites, as well as widescreen support, much like the Street Fighter III HD version on Live/PSN. I knew it was still going to be sprites and 2D.

**Palindrome**

Testify wrote:
Karon wrote:So..no graphical update?

There is a substantial graphical update.

There isn't. Support for higher resolutions, an improved UI and the ability to zoom is all that is being added. Just look at the screenshots, they look exactly the same as the original game (at a higher resolution obviously).

From the FAQ found here http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/9/faq[url]:

1) Improved user interface. The old Baldur's Gate interface was created around 640x480 resolution. We are going in and re-writing the UI system to work for multiple larger resolutions and we are using the iPad 3 (at 2048x1536) as one of our target resolutions.
2) Convert the graphics completely over to OpenGL. By using the hardware present in all devices, we can run BG at higher resolutions and run it faster and smoother that it ever could before.
3) The addition of the ability to zoom in and out dynamically during gameplay.

**Testify**

Palindrome wrote:
Testify wrote:
Karon wrote:So..no graphical update?

There is a substantial graphical update.

There isn't. Support for higher resolutions, an improved UI and the ability to zoom is all that is being added.

Right. That's a graphical update. The same scale as before at a far higher resultion means a much crisper image.
Just because it's not 3d doesn't mean it can't have better graphics.

**Palindrome**

Testify wrote:
Palindrome wrote:
Testify wrote:
Karon wrote:So..no graphical update?

There is a substantial graphical update.

There isn't. Support for higher resolutions, an improved UI and the ability to zoom is all that is being added.

Right. That's a graphical update. The same scale as before at a far higher resultion means a much crisper image.
Just because it's not 3d doesn't mean it can't have better graphics.

http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

This does it for free.

I would also be loathe to call upping the resolution a signifiant graphical update.

**Karon**

Whatever, I'll buy it.

Always been a sucker for Forgotten Realms.

**Testify**

Palindrome wrote:
Testify wrote:
Palindrome wrote:
Testify wrote:
Karon wrote:So..no graphical update?

There is a substantial graphical update.

There isn't. Support for higher resolutions, an improved UI and the ability to zoom is all that is being added.

Right. That's a graphical update. The same scale as before at a far higher resultion means a much crisper image.
Just because it's not 3d doesn't mean it can't have better graphics.

http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

This does it for free.

I would also be loathe to call upping the resolution a signifiant graphical update.

Yes, but does downloading that contribute to the creation of Baldur's Gate III?
Honestly I regard this as a community fundraiser for BG3.

**Orlanth**

Same game, buy it twice.

I will stick with Tutu and Mods, its free.

**marv335**

Testify wrote:

Yes, but does downloading that contribute to the creation of Baldur's Gate III?
Honestly I regard this as a community fundraiser for BG3.

This.
100x this.
If BGEE and BG2EE sell well it'll make it far more likely that BG3 gets made, and that's something that I think we all want to see.