New Baldur's Gate game coming.

[General Plastro]

And i am really worried that it will bomb horribly.

News here:

http://www.pcgamer.com/beamdog-confirms-that-a-new-baldurs-gate-game-is-in-the-works/

As for my expectations, i was going to write a comment on PCGamer, but the first comment pretty much sums up my view on the whole thing, so i will post it here:

"I still can't believe this obtuse industry managed to ignore/neglect a franchise like Baldur's Gate to the point of letting a no-name and no-talent developer like Beamdog the chance to acquire the rights for it.

Just to put things in perspective, we aren't talking about some weird niche stuff as some ignorant people label these games in retrospective; Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were multi-million sellers when selling a single million was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ big deal even for a lot of big budget projects.

What's even more depressing is how Beamdog's work remastering these classics was some half-♥♥♥♥♥, underwhelming effort and their added content was fanfiction-tier stuff.
On top of that, their wording about this new one makes it sound like they aren't even planning to update the tech or anything, just to recycle once again 14 years old assets.

Saying I'm not expecting much would be a massive understatement."

I know it may seem bleak and pessimistic of me, but i truly dont see how can Beamdog (from everything we have seen of their actual skill at making new assets) would make something even close to the original games.

Choosing to make the new game be a "bridge" between BG1 & 2 seems like a really terrible ideia, as Beamdog not only stands in a really limited ground for creativity, but also can make they look really bad if they break continuity (and with a plot like BG, thats rather easy to do).

Wish they could have taken the smart route and made a adventure during the same timeline, maybe during BG2's time, but set in Baldur's Gate itself.

At best i am hoping for something akin to Icewind Dale, but i truly dont put but faith even in that.

[Zim]

Couldn't agree more. Baldurs Gate is the Lord of the Rings of videogames. An old and epic saga, which shouldn't be touched by anyone.
When playing the EE I couldn't help myself, I just wasn't able to play or even interact with the new characters for they were so uninspired and bad written.

[General Plastro]

Originally posted by Zim:

Couldn't agree more. Baldurs Gate is the Lord of the Rings of videogames. An old and epic saga, which shouldn't be touched by anyone.
When playing the EE I couldn't help myself, I just wasn't able to play or even interact with the new characters for they were so uninspired and bad written.

To me its not even about being untouchable or not.

Its about Beamdog themselves, they simply do not have the skill to make a game that is going to be inevitable be compared to one of the best RPGs of all time.

Their whole idea is doomed to be considered "meh" at best and a disgrace at worst. No matter how good the new game is, it will always be compared to the originals, which almost inevitably means it will fall flat on people's opinion.

Using your analogy, imagine if the LotR rights get passed to a upstarting writer (who never did anything original, only fanfics) and he decides not to make a new story withing the LotR universe (which would be way easier and way better received) but prefers to make a new book set between Two Towers and Return of the King.

We all know how well received such book would be...

It also means that Beamdog made it harder upon themselves to make a successful game, while i wish they had the means to truly make one on part with the originals, reality simply says that wont happen.

I hate to be pessimistic, but Beamdog only knows how to re-hash old games (MDK, BG, IWD), their writing department is very sub-par (you guys could probably use some pointers from the mod community, Bone Hill, Ascension or even the Banter Mods, all of them are better written then the Beamdog NPCs) and the first original project you guys are attempting is one that will compete with a LEGENDARY rpg?

As i said in the BG1 forum, it would be like if NAM tried to compete with Duke Nukem 3d/Shadow Warrior.

I really question who within Beamdog thought that was a good idea.

[JustTooks]

Well. I'm excited, More BG is more BG. You guys don't have to play the new game so...don't. Simple as.

[General Plastro]

Originally posted by Tooks:

Well. I'm excited, More BG is more BG. You guys don't have to play the new game so...don't. Simple as.

I understand... i will probably pick this up when its on sale with 75% off (or more), like i did with BGEE 1 & 2. But thats beside the point.

I think its about the fact that a new entry in the BG series could be so much more than this, instead... we will have... BG 1.5 with amateur-ish quality.

Well, to stay on the positive side, at least a new entry in the series will atract attention and thus we (hopefully) may see new content being released by the community :D

I wish i was as optimistic as you are, but sadly i am not.

[happy]

we will all buy it guys...

like we had any choice...

it ll cost us pride, a few neurons, maybe our eyes(flashy bad taste graphics?), we ll feel insulted by the writing

but we were all cursed in 1999, it s our fate

beamdog knows it, we re junkies and they ve got the stuff

look how pityfull i am, i know it ll suck, but it still gets me all giddy

[happy]

oh! oh!

...do...you think we ll get...the...black pits 1.5????

my o my....

[Carl Richardson]

Not sure you can say we would all just buy it. Today there are so many choices for our gaming dollars.

[Army Pea]

I find it interesting that Beam Dog would choose this particular moment in the story line to add in new content.
Having played both games in the series , and expansions, I've always wanted to know what happened before the events of bg1.
Bg2 TOB was able to fill in a considerable about of back story that I found so intriguing.
Playing a story that runs parallel to that time but charname won't be a bhaal spawn.
Real potential there.

Doing a bg1.5 , seems even more difficult to write than making a new stand alone game.
I hope they are up for the task.... But I'm not at all optimistic.

[General Plastro]

Originally posted by Army Pea:

I find it interesting that Beam Dog would choose this particular moment in the story line to add in new content.
Having played both games in the series , and expansions, I've always wanted to know what happened before the events of bg1.
Bg2 TOB was able to fill in a considerable about of back story that I found so intriguing.
Playing a story that runs parallel to that time but charname won't be a bhaal spawn.
Real potential there.

Doing a bg1.5 , seems even more difficult to write than making a new stand alone game.
I hope they are up for the task.... But I'm not at all optimistic.

Indeed, you nailed it right.

We could have a prequel story about Gorion rescuing the Bhaalspawn.

Imagine, you could team up with Gorion, Jaheira and Khalid (and new people) and do quests, the Main Plot would involve helping our Gorion in one way or the other.

The protagonist could be a friend of Gorion or maybe more like a mercenary that got hired by him (would depend on aligment & choices?)

Beamdog would have way less trouble with continuity, could still use cameos from our known NPCs (Jaheira & Khalid could be NPCs, but not find out about the Bhaalspawn stuff) we could have cameos (like Kivan & his wife or such).

We could have have more depth story on the bhaalspawn's mother, probably she could be the Villain of the prequel (you could maybe kill her in the end?).

Seriously, why did they choose a road travel story (because thats pretty much the only thing that happens between BG1 & 2) that will probably take a week of in-game time or so.

And if they blow that story out of proportion, it will feel very silly to anything "epic" occur during what essentially should be a "filler episode" if the Baldur's Gate series was a TV series.

[Zilkin]

Originally posted by happy:

we will all buy it guys...

like we had any choice...

it ll cost us pride, a few neurons, maybe our eyes(flashy bad taste graphics?), we ll feel insulted by the writing

but we were all cursed in 1999, it s our fate

beamdog knows it, we re junkies and they ve got the stuff

look how pityfull i am, i know it ll suck, but it still gets me all giddy

Pretty much this.

[Planewalker]

I imagine they've been funneling the majority of their efforts into this behind the scenes then. That explains why other projects and patches have taken them so much time. That being the case, this might actually be pretty good. I thought the Black Pits were quite fun and had some great characters. Heck, they are very good at humorous writing, as evidenced by much of the Black Pits and the hilarious series on "How to Avoid Horrible Death in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition." To me, one of the best aspects of Baldur's Gate is the humor in the writing. Golden moments (like "I'll take the lesson" at the Slaver Compound in Athkatla) really stick in my mind. I have seen Beamdog deliver on that kind of humor delightfully so far. I'm willing to suspend doubt and see how it turns out.

Plus, they design areas and encounters very well. The combats in the Black Pits series were some of the most interesting D&D battles I've ever had either on computer or in pencil and paper.

I'll also do my best to avoid letting nostalgic expectations cloud my judgment.

EDIT: Also they have done a really good job at adding improvements to the game. Autoloot, improved pathing, faster load times, zoom, high res, and so much more...I doubt I could go back to the normal version after all these improvements. Patch 1.3 in particular was a stellar upgrade with a lot of care and attention put into the game.

[General Plastro]

Originally posted by Quantum Phantom:

I imagine they've been funneling the majority of their efforts into this behind the scenes then. That explains why other projects and patches have taken them so much time. That being the case, this might actually be pretty good. I thought the Black Pits were quite fun and had some great characters. Heck, they are very good at humorous writing, as evidenced by much of the Black Pits and the hilarious series on "How to Avoid Horrible Death in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition." To me, one of the best aspects of Baldur's Gate is the humor in the writing. Golden moments (like "I'll take the lesson" at the Slaver Compound in Athkatla) really stick in my mind. I have seen Beamdog deliver on that kind of humor delightfully so far. I'm willing to suspend doubt and see how it turns out.

Plus, they design areas and encounters very well. The combats in the Black Pits series were some of the most interesting D&D battles I've ever had either on computer or in pencil and paper.

I'll also do my best to avoid letting nostalgic expectations cloud my judgment.

EDIT: Also they have done a really good job at adding improvements to the game. Autoloot, improved pathing, faster load times, zoom, high res, and so much more...I doubt I could go back to the normal version after all these improvements. Patch 1.3 in particular was a stellar upgrade with a lot of care and attention put into the game.

To me the most memorable moments are probably the NPC and party interaction, Dynaheir, Kivan, Jaheira, Khalid, Imoen and of course, Viconia were all great characters that set the standard on many other character archetypes that followed in other games (not saying they invented the archtypes, but its one of the first time it was succesfully applied to a videogame).

Minsc & Boo's Dialogue, Viconia's Romance, Aerie's whinning, Jahera's sorrow, Keldorn's family troubles and etc were all really striking to me.

Not really sure how can you say the most memorable thing in BG was the humor, sure you had Noober and some other comedic things here and there (Jan Jensen & Minsc), but most of the game was played straight.

To me Baldur's Gate is like a classic book (such the LoTR, Dune or any of the original Sherlock Holmes books).

But to each his own.

But anyway, about the Black Pits, i played through them and if you ask me to rememer ANYTHING from it... i am really at loss for words.

Seriously, while i also played through some bad mods for BG, the Black Pits probably also stands together with said mods.

Sure, it was a dungeon crawl, but it was as generic as it could come and the background for it was... horrible to say the least, its like the writers didint even tried to make up a interesting story, i am not kidding when i say i could do better writing than that (and probably many people here with experience at DMing/Writing could also do better).

And before you think wrongly of what i am saying, i am not even comparing what Beamdog did to the original game in that regard, but to freely avaiable mods, which are, in many aspects, completely better than what Beamdog wrote.

Sure, they get credit for the technical upgrades, but i will still hold them accountable for butchering the intro of BG1 (and removing cutscenes) and for the horrible launch they initially did.

I will also give credit to them for actually reaching out to the community and work with people such as the WeiDU team to bring mod compatibility to the EEs, this fact alone is the reason as to why i bought their products in the first place, what they completely lack in skill, they at least kinda make up with sympathy with the community.

[DogMeat]

I believe the Black Pits only exist as a means of character planning. You create a group of characters and see how they handle various challenges so you can plan your main character for the real game.

Originally posted by General Plastro:

Not really sure how can you say the most memorable thing in BG was the humor, sure you had Noober and some other comedic things here and there (Jan Jensen & Minsc), but most of the game was played straight.

To me Baldur's Gate is like a classic book (such the LoTR, Dune or any of the original Sherlock Holmes books).

But to each his own.

Fallout 1 and Baldur's Gate 1 were my first RPGs. As my first introduction to D&D Baldur's Gate 1 was almost a comedy. Almost every line from a character was some reference to a show or joke of some sort and characters would retort with lines like "C-c-c-click on someone your own size!". I actually really disliked Baldur's Gate 2 for a long time because it played it so straight in comparison with the first game. Much darker and more serious to the upbeat tone of the original.

As time has passed I've come to appreciate Baldur's Gate 2 and I'm actually enjoying it more now replaying it over a decade later than I did the first times. Minus some side quests breaking from time to time. (Grumble... please fix this crap BeamDog!)

Despite the occasional issue (keep lots of saves!) I really like the Enhanced Editions. My only real complaint with the new content is that it can feel a bit out of place. It fits in well in Baldur's Gate 2, with some characters feeling like they were always a part of the series, but they completely stick out in Baldur's Gate 1.

[Kyoko]

Agreed.

[Combat Wombat]

As long as its not a cow clicker i'll be happy :)