Baldur's Gate Message Board

The enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate II just came out on iPad, and the folks who made it want to convince you that it's worth your time and money.Read more...

Do you want to know almost everything ever about Obsidian’s newly renamed Kickstarter opus, Pillars of Eternity? Then click that link for impressions and more new information than you can shake a stick of truth at. But still, somehow, thousands of words later, there is more. What follows is an interview snippet concerning Eternity’s development progress, what’s been left on the cutting room floor, the game’s size/scope, party members, and of course, the Dungeoniest Dungeon To Ever Done Dungeon A Dungeon.

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It’s official! Project Eternity finally has a real big boy name: Pillars of Eternity. On its own, that’s hardly the most exciting news in the world, but it also means that Obsidian is finally ready to take the wraps off more than, like, three screenshots and precious little else. I had the good fortune of traveling to Obsidian to witness plenty of gameplay and conduct multiple eternities-long interviews, and The Artist Formerly Known As Black Isle sent me away with some video to boot. See, hear, read, and – I guess if you want – taste and touch so very, very, very much of the newly rechristened Kickstarter darling below.

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Come November 15, Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition will make its debut on the PC, Mac, iOS and Android platforms. That date appeared this morning on the game's official website, where developer Overhaul Games has also added a pre-order link.

Overhaul Games seems to be adding many of the same features found in its previous Baldur's Gate remake to Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition (higher-definition graphics, simple multiplayer options, new characters), though this game has a $25 price tag. On the other hand, Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition should offer more content than its predecessor, as it includes both Baldur's Gate 2 and the Shadows of Amn expansion pack.

Thirteen years after release, Baldur's Gate II is still one of the best role-playing games of all time. No joke. If you consider yourself an RPG fan, this is a game you have to play.Read more...

One of the best role-playing games ever made is coming back on November 15. Like the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate before it, BG2 is getting a total overhaul: four new party members, a widescreen version, and so forth.Read more...

Looks like the legal issues plaguing Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition have been resolved—the game is back on sale.Read more...

This fresh screenshot the devs at Obsidian released for their upcoming RPG Project Eternity is just too damn awesome. Looks like Planescape: Torment mixed with the first dungeon from Baldur's Gate 2. And that's not a bad thing at all!Read more...

Well, this is a drag. Citing contractual issues, the people who made Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition have removed it from sale on their site and the Apple App store. The game won't be getting an upcoming patch, and the Android version has been put on hold, as has the planned enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate II. Don't worry, though: if you've already downloaded the game, it won't just up and disappear. You'll be able to keep your copy. Beamdog, the Extended Edition's maker, says, "If you have already purchased Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition from Beamdog or the Apple App Store, you can still download and play your game." Beamdog president Trent Oster addressed the issue in a letter posted to the BG:EE website: Dear Friends of Baldur's Gate, We recently removed Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition from sale on Beamdog and the Apple App Store. We've taken this step at our publishing partner's request as we attempt to resolve a number of contractual issues. Unfortunately, until this matter is resolved, we are unable to release the latest Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition patch or Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for Android. This also prevents the launch of Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. I sincerely apologize to the series' fans and promise we are working diligently to remedy the situation. Regards, Trent Oster President, Beamdog & Overhaul Games There's a FAQ posted to the Baldur's Gate site in which Beamdog says they're unable to discuss the "complex legal matters" surrounding what's going on. As for Baldur's Gate II: EE, they've got this to say: We have been developing Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition for some time now, but until all issues with our publishing partner are resolved we cannot officially announce or offer this game for sale. This has resulted in significant amounts of wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the development team. Such a bummer. We've reached out to Beamdog and will update if and when we learn more.

Let there be Torchlight. The ARPG’s sequel thoroughly impressed John and the original is free until June 20th as part of Good Old Games’ summer sale. There will be new deals every day until July 5th and the first day’s offerings include Alan Wake and American Nightmare for $4.48, and a massive Dungeons and Dragons pack for $21.10. That one includes Torment, Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2, and Icewind Dale 1 & 2. Whatever happened to every series at least reaching a lacklustre third part? It’s probably Valve’s fault. Remember, Torchlight is only free until the 20th, so best to download it right away.

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Whoops, this is insane. Completely insane. Game designer and ex-TimeGate-er Drew Rechner’s been on a seven-year quest to recreate the entirety of Baldur’s Gate (including expansion Tales of the Sword Coast) in Obsidian’s Neverwinter Nights 2, and he’s finally succeeded. With the help of a programmer and contributions from a ragtag team, he squeezed every last drop of the original’s genre-defining juice into a glistening concoction of role-playing past and present. There’s a trailer after the break, and it’s pretty bonkers. I’m reinstalling NWN2 right now, because wow. Madness.

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It took him seven years, but yesterday, game designer Drew Rechner finally released Baldur's Gate: Reloaded, a ridiculous mod that puts the entirety of BioWare's classic RPG—including the expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast—into Neverwinter Nights 2. To play the mod, you'll need a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansions (which you can get on GOG). Then you can download and install the mod for free right here. I'm still kind of stunned that this exists, and I'm strongly considering re-buying NWN2 just to check it out. Rechner, who says the bulk of work on this mod was done by him and a programmer, Shallina, tells me this project helped him get into the game industry. He worked at TimeGate Studios (Section 8) until recently, and he was let go just before they shut down. Baldur's Gate. In 3D! Amazing.

#baldursgate Here's a heartbreaker: Obsidian Entertainment was *this* close to starting work on Baldur's Gate 3. They spent over a year negotiating the deal. And then the whole thing fell apart. More »

#baldursgate When PC role-playing classic Baldur's Gate was released in 1998, I was writing for a small gaming news site called Videogamers.com. BioWare's masterpiece was my first official PC game review. While Videogamers.com is long gone, the magical Internet Wayback Machine houses an archived version of the review, at least until I figure out a way to erase it. More »

#baldursgate On November 30, 1998, a little-known company called BioWare released a strangely-titled game named Baldur's Gate for personal computers. It was critically and commercially acclaimed, an excellent RPG with a gigantic world, interesting characters, and a ton of little details to discover and enjoy. More »

#baldursgate Happy Thanksgiving! Take a trailer for the upcoming remake of one of the greatest RPGs ever made. After some big delays, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition should be out next Wednesday for PC (and somewhere around then for iPad as well). More »

Following the delay of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, GOG.com swooped in with a guide for how to make your own enhanced versions of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2. While the dow noted the delay to the update from Trent Oster's Beamdog, the distributor saw that as an opportunity to post the step-by-step guide to enhance the games' graphics. Credit goes to GOG.com forum user GoJays2025 for putting the guide together.

For the record, the enhancement requires six mods, and both of the games. It's convenient, then, that GOG.com has them on sale at $3.49 each. Meanwhile, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition is scheduled to hit November 30.

Look, playing actual Dungeons & Dragons takes a lot of time and effort. First you have to find a group of people you don't hate to play with, and then you have to spend days constructing a campaign for them to adventure through. And then, when you finally get down to playing, that one guy decides to be a maverick a pull some crazy stunt that breaks the encounter.

Thankfully, there are alternatives for people who want the lore without actually having to play Dungeons & Dragons, and said alternatives just happen to be on sale at GOG for the next six days. Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga, Baldur's Gate 2 Complete, Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition, Icewind Dale Complete, Icewind Dale 2 Complete, Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone and Planescape: Torment are all available for less than five bucks, or in one big bundle for $30.01.Dungeons & Dragons games on sale through GOG

It looks like fans will have to wait for Baldur's Gate to swing open once again, as Beamdog head Trent Oster has revealed that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition has been delayed. Writing in the Baldur's Gate forums, Oster noted that the overwhelming response to the project - and the resulting influx of volunteers, additions and fixes - has lead Beamdog to push the project back from September 18 to November 30.

In other words, it sounds as if the project has grown larger than Beamdog originally intended. "The suggestions, fixes, and translations continue, and more volunteers keep joining," wrote Oster, adding that Beamdog has delayed the project to provide "the best possible product on launch."

Oster asks for patience from fans, promising "something a little extra" is in the works for those who have already pre-ordered.

#baldursgate Remember that awesome scene near the beginning of Baldur's Gate II, when you're escaping that first (annoying) dungeon and Irenicus comes out, kidnaps one of your companions, and wreaks havoc everywhere? More »

Hmm. Well, this came out of nowhere. OK, not entirely nowhere - we are living in the age of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Wasteland 2, and talk of a new Planescape: Torment, after all – but I can’t say I was expecting Black Isle to just suddenly explode out of the suspiciously human-sized birthday cake that is life. And yet, here we are. Black Isle Studios is apparently back. I mean, look at that picture. It’s as clear as day.

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#baldursgate Mmmm, tastes like music clips. More »

#baldursgate Just listen to it. Listen to that puppy. That groove in five, that sinister melody. The way it pushes you, onward. Onward to the character creation screen! More »

Lots of news on that remake of Baldur’s Gate. First of all, a release date – the 18th September. Second, a price – a surprisingly high $20 when it’s released, and a teeny pre-order reduction at $18. There are new adventures, characters, and improvements. Details below.

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Enhanced Edition is a project much more ambitious than simply porting to a new platform.

If you, like me, have never played Baldur’s Gate, Beamdog is removing any excuses come September.

The company has announced new details about Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, a revamped and retooled version of the BioWare classic coming to PC, Mac, iPad and Android-based tablets.

All but the Android version is scheduled for September, with the PC and Mac versions costing $19.99, while the iOS edition is $9.99. On iPad, players will have to use in-app purchases for two new characters--one's included. The PC version arrives on September 18, while the other platforms are a more vague "September."

The new characters include Blackguard half-orc Dorn II-Khan, half-elf mage Neera, and Calishite Monk Rasaad yn Bashir. Every version includes Bashir, the others are an additional purchase on iPad.

Beamdog is also including a brand-new dungeon in the Enhanced Edition, The Black Pits. The Black Pits is Underdark-set environment which the studio is billing as having six hours of additional gameplay across 15 levels of “arena-style combat challenges,” and a “a bizarre cast of characters.”

Some of the new improvements sounds pretty great, too, including “over 400” fixes to the original game code, features taken straight from Baldur’s Gate 2 (class kits, new subraces and classes), and the ability to participate in multiplayer with other users on completely different platforms.

Getting games even just a decade old up-and-running on modern hardware is no small feat, and if a way does exist, you often have the hardcore communities of fans to thank. See: System Shock 2. In this case, Beamdog seems to be going the extra mile to treat Baldur’s Gate right. Good on them.

Also, I’ll no longer have any excuses. Good ones, anyway.

The full list of changes are available on the official website.

#baldursgate If you've been getting the urge to replay Baldur's Gate, you might want to wait til this fall. More »

#baldursgate The upcoming rerelease of Baldur's Gate will get its own paid DLC. More »

Beamdog has announced the writer for all of that new content coming in the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate: Dave Gross. A very experienced fantasy and D&D writer, Gross has worked for TSR in the past, as well as having written two Forgotten Realms novels. More recently, he says, he was "sitting in a coffee shop complaining about the lack of classic RPGs for the iPad, when [Beamdog's] Trent [Oster] appeared in a sulphurous cloud and said, 'Have I got a job for you.'" Gross will presumably work to update the old game, as well as oversee all the writing on the new content as well.

Elsewhere on that team, artist Nat Jones has also joined up. He's got a background in fantasy and horror comics, and has worked on some story elements in Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer comic series as well. Good to hear there's some substantial talent working on this much-anticipated revival.

#baldursgate Classic Western role-playing games are hard to find these days. The most successful ones are chimeras, like Mass Effect 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, games that graft a role-playing game's quests and statistics onto shooting or action-based mechanics. Even party-based RPG series like Dragon Age can't seem to emulate that thrilling classic notion that every move matters, that if you don't outfit and command your party properly, you will die quickly and in brutal fashion. More »

#baldursgate The enhanced iPad version of classic role-playing game Baldur's Gate, slated for release this summer, won't cost you more than $10. Also, it will support multiplayer. More »