So there's a new counter at BaldursGate.com (http://www.baldursgate.com) which currently has just over 40 hours remaining. Looks like they might be announcing an actual release date/cost for BGEE.

I don't know about you guys but this damn countdown has totally renewed my interest in this.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Nice. But personally I got tired of this 'countdown' scheme.
But it would be nice anyway, if the they announce the release date or some other content!

Might finally get some screenshots...

Quoted from DSOGaming:

Taking a closer look at the website’s code, we can see a hidden message that was added in July 23rd and reads:

“Evil” is a term wept by the weak and the defeated. What have I done? I have cleansed the world of a band of treacherous dogs.”

:)

The 'fun' of these countdowns and cryptic messages hidden in code is vastly overrated, IMO. :skeptic:

^ Yeah.

Worked well the first time 'round, though!

Seems to work for enough people that they're still doing it. Ah, the joys of marketing...

I find it bizarre that they haven't bothered to make these countdowns compatible with Internet Explorer. Just like their previous countdown, it works fine with Firefox and Chrome, even Safari... but no countdown shows up on IE. Seems like that would be an obvious browser to market for.

I have been following from the beginning, both on Redditt and their new site and have not realy came away with much. It's rather disappointing actually. These little countdowns are just big letdowns so far. It almost seems like they are effing with us, which is starting to bother me a bit. Could be the difference between me buying and not buying the new edition.... just saying.....

As someone who doesn't use twitter or Reddit, the main site is pretty much my only source of info for this game. Well, that and the info I read here in the News Forums.

That said, the extreme lack of updates in the site has been disappointing. At least this way I know there will be something new there tomorrow!

http://www.baldursgate.com/images/bg.jpg

I can spot 3 new portraits there.

http://www.baldursgate.com/images/bg.jpg

The one in the second row doesn't quite fit stylistically with the originals, but the other two look pretty neat

Looks promising. I really hope they can bring back the old voice actors and give us a lot more NPC banters. Combine that with finishing off loose ends like Kagain's quest and modernized ("improved" seems inappropriate) graphics... New portraits seem to fit in about right, if you consider that the style also focuses on diversity. If the colors/shading are right I can maybe forgive the lack of detail.

http://baldursgate.com/windows.en.html

It's out Sep 12th.

I guess I'll get it although I hate the DRM and the news of upcoming DLC makes me a bit uneasy. But hey, at least one should give it a try.
The screenshots of the new areas don't look too spectacular though.
New Kit is the Blackguard. Meh for me, but I know others want him.
The new NPCs look promising.

$20? That's kinda crazy. Especially after repeatedly saying that they wouldn't dare charge more than $10 for it.

Well I just paid my $17.99 for it, let's hope I don't regret this. Kind of disappointed in the iPad aspect of it, thought. Considering they had previously said you could save on the cloud, I would have thought this would mean you can play on your PC and then pick up your tablet and continue there, but if two of the new characters are paid DLC for the iPad version I can't imagine how they'd do that. "Oh you loaded your game on the iPad? In that case you only have five group members now, sorry"

Considering that the "old" version is still selling for $10 on GOG, $20 doesn't seem all that unexpected.

With that said, I find the new features to be rather underwhelming for the price they're asking. Their "new adventure" seems to be a series of arena battles, not even a true dungeon, and the rest of the additions sound fairly minor. I don't see how someone who owns the original game can get his money's worth out of this, unless you want a tablet version.

Well, kinda undecided!

Somehow I expected more.
But then again they list over 400 changes/enhancements to to the original game.
Most of the new NPC's and Adventures don't seem much more than Fan Made Module already are.

$20? That's kinda crazy. Especially after repeatedly saying that they wouldn't dare charge more than $10 for it.

I thought the same.

Apparently that holds true only for the tablet version. But there, two NPC will be missing and if purchased will add up to approx. 20 $ as well.
Just read it in their forums.
So it seems all potential DLC is already included in PC/Mac Versions (I hope so, dare you not come up with additional DLC, Beamdog! ;P).
Nevertheless 20 $ is still a bit harsh.
Torchlight 2 which looks awesome even compared to Diablo 3 costs 20 $, and is totally new to boot.

The EE looks underwhelming to me as well.
But then again I want to support oldschool games development. Besides it can still be better than I imagine.
Depends on how good the NPC are. And even more important to me: Hopefully the didn't mess up the game balance.
Because BG Tutu isn't something I'd call balanced, and since the EE follows the same approach I'm a bit sceptical.

The background environments look noticably better to my eyes than they have before in previous versions (even with the Widescreen mod). Even to the point that they are causing the characters to look rather outdated in comparison. It's like we have these super smooth environments, with rather choppy looking characters running around in them.

Am I the only one who feels that way?

---------- Added 0 hours, 6 minutes and 17 seconds later... ----------

Some of the pictures look better than others. This one was one of the more troubling pictures: http://www.baldursgate.com/images/neera/screenshot01.jpg

The trees in that picture almost appear to be photograph real quality. On the other hand, the mage, in particular, appears to have very choppy edges around her, like she doesn't fit in the scene.

Probably won't be able to tell for sure until you see them moving, but I agree they look a bit cloddy in the still.

The background environments look noticably better to my eyes than they have before in previous versions (even with the Widescreen mod). Even to the point that they are causing the characters to look rather outdated in comparison. It's like we have these super smooth environments, with rather choppy looking characters running around in them.

Am I the only one who feels that way?

---------- Added 0 hours, 6 minutes and 17 seconds later... ----------

Some of the pictures look better than others. This one was one of the more troubling pictures: http://www.baldursgate.com/images/neera/screenshot01.jpg

The trees in that picture almost appear to be photograph real quality. On the other hand, the mage, in particular, appears to have very choppy edges around her, like she doesn't fit in the scene.

The backgrounds in the shots are anti-aliased to the point blurring, it's really quite horrendous. And since they're using SpeedTree for new trees, yes, they are photo-realistic. And stand out too much... should have used the original models instead.

But yea, who thought that blurry backgrounds were a good idea? :hmm:

If I recall correctly, the blurring effect is call Depth of Field, and it is meant to simulate the blurring that occurs in photographs in the background. I've gotten used to this effect in other games, such as Shogun 2 Total War. While I'm not going to sing its praises in these shots, I'm clearly not bothered by it like you are. Even still, I believe that all of these little visual enhancements/tweaks/whatever-you-want-to-call-them only serve to make the characters look more out of place.

Hopefully things will work out better in game when they are moving about, as Gaear suggests. I admit that not all the photos look nearly as bad as the one that I linked. Even still, I would have loved to have seen a lot more attention given to the avatars.

Just gotta peak from my home PC. The 3 NPCs look good and will add new classes to the game, which I love. That's a plus. New areas are also a plus, though they are only hinting at 2 new areas. Whoopdie-effing-do......

Marceror and Tal are right, the graphics look out of place. Unless the new content is dynamite, I would hazard a good guess that there are several mods out there that will provide a better experience. And they'e free....

Hopefully we're dead wrong....

And I sure hope they don't keep releasing little tidbits. That is childish to the extreme. Most of the original players are a bit older now and have no interest in that grade-school non-sense. Just release all the info you plan to reveal on the new Edition for crying out loud. It's just a re-worked, there is no suspense....

Edit:

I also noticed this on the BG2 Features portion...

"All of the additions and improvements from Baldur's Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn have been brought to Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Now you can use class kits, new subraces and classes that were previously unavailable."

New Subraces is plural. The only new race in BG2 was Half-Orc. I hope that is not a typo or oversight. I am a big fan of more character build options. The more Races/Classes/Kits the better, but only if they balanced the new editions to BG1. Or balanced the game to the kits, though I think that would be tough to accomplish. Adding Drow, Wild Elf, Aasimar or Tiefling would be sweet...

though they are only hinting at 2 new areas


I believe there are actually 3 areas. The monk brings a new areas, as does the wild mage. And of course, there's the arena area in the Underdark. Sorry to "red-pencil" you on that BoV.

I think it looks good so far. But I would be interested in knowing about those 400 changes thy have made.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the changes is fixing Keldorn's armour so that monks can't wear it :(

Marceror, the depth of field you're referring to is a 3D effect. The BG backgrounds are flat bitmaps. They're just blurry.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the changes is fixing Keldorn's armour so that monks can't wear it :(

Seems a fairly safe bet. I'm betting that a lot of the stuff that you find in the more popular Fixpacks will be included in that list of 400. Why reinvent the wheel?

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Marceror, depth of field is a 3D effect. The BG backgrounds are flat bitmaps. They're just blurry.

It's a similar effect, to my eyes at least.

I think it looks good so far. But I would be interested in knowing about those 400 changes thy have made.
Haven't you been reading the tweets?!? (<<-- sarcasm about having to read tweets as a changelog) ;)


Looking more closely at Marceror's still, I think what makes the center figure stand out is the lack of dynamic lighting/shading. (She appears to be standing in the shade of those trees and yet she's fully illuminated.) Didn't the BGs use that technology?

Looks like the three new NPCs are getting alot of the new stuff. I wonder, though, if they have added alot mor dialogue and bantering to the rest of them. Would suck if I had to go with the new ones, simply to get all the content. The rest of the NPCs being exactly the same as in the original game.

I think it looks good so far. But I would be interested in knowing about those 400 changes thy have made.

Maybe Typos!:D

Well... typos are horrible. So....

Typos indeed :)

I believe there are actually 3 areas. The monk brings a new areas, as does the wild mage. And of course, there's the arena area in the Underdark. Sorry to "red-pencil" you on that BoV.

I missed where the Arena actually is... is it a new map area or inside one of the current areas?

I missed where the Arena actually is... is it a new map area or inside one of the current areas?

As I understand it, it's a game apart from the game, or a separate adventure altogether, where you create a full party and then battle through the arenas.

http://www.baldursgate.com/blackpits.en.html

As I understand it, it's a game apart from the game, or a separate adventure altogether, where you create a full party and then battle through the arenas.

http://www.baldursgate.com/blackpits.en.html

Ugh, that doesn't sound fun to me at all. Even when they are part of a game like in Fable or the Elder Scrolls games it feels like a chore to me. If there isn't some kind of benefit to the main game I highly doubt I'll be doing this.

I see that one of the new ones is a Blackguard. Did 2ed even have those? i thought they were called Anti-Paladins. And that Blackguards popped up as a prestigue class for 3ed?

Yep, it was a 3rd edition Prestige class. But teh sorcerer and barbarian builds of BG2 are 3rd edition as well, so it is what it is I guess.

Battle Arena sounds fun, hopefully it will be replayable. B

The more I think about it, I will be buying it for Windows PC. This is my favorite type of game and no one else is making anything new out there that fits the bill. So what the heck... 20 bucks isn't breaking my bank....

I think the sorcerer, barbarian and monk were 2ed classes. They were about to be implemented into the 2ed, but Wizards of the coast bought the franchise, and 3ed came out soon after. Blackguard, however, is pure 3ed. Ergo...its filth has no business being in a BG game!!!!

The BG2 versions of Monk/Sorcy/Barbarian match up more closely to the 3rd edition versions as opposed to the early versions frmo back in the 80s.

But the Blackguard has already been added as a fighter kit in one of the mods. The mod version allows only ** in weapons, max rep of 14, no dual-classing options, poison use and some other minor abilties. I don't remeber what mod, but I have it installed on my home PC (I mostly post from work...)

I think the sorcerer, barbarian and monk were 2ed classes. They were about to be implemented into the 2ed, but Wizards of the coast bought the franchise, and 3ed came out soon after. Blackguard, however, is pure 3ed. Ergo...its filth has no business being in a BG game!!!!

Well, don't knock it till you try it. Maybe it will become your favorite class. :)

Even if it wasn't there, I don't see how it's so different than having, say, the assassin class. The assassin is essentially an evil rogue. The blackguard is essentially an evil warrior. Regardless, it's another option for players that should make the experience more enjoyable for those who enjoy that sort of character. I can't see any reason to get in a twist over that.

If it's that you are a 2ED purist, well, BG is anything but pure 2ED, so you should be over that by now.

And finally, hating on 3ED is so 5 years ago. Cool people know to hate on 4ED! :D

Ohh I wasn`t hating on it. I just remembered the developers saying the game would be "pure 2ed".

And YES, i do hate 4ed. I guess i am cool.

Pre-purchased for sept 18 o.O!

I'm such a sucker :(

4ed DIE!

I see that one of the new ones is a Blackguard. Did 2ed even have those? i thought they were called Anti-Paladins. And that Blackguards popped up as a prestigue class for 3ed?

Yep, Blackguard was once Anit-Paladin. But in later editions, both became prestige classes of their own!

But BOT: I too will purchase BGEE, simply because!

Bought it.
Just the fact that this may work with far less issues (or work at all) on a Windows 7 machine is enough for me to buy this game.
Not to mention, I don't have this. I only have SoA, so its fine.
Rs. 1040 for a game that's considered the grand-daddy of all RPGs today is not that big a deal.
So about 20 days before I can play the beginning part of the game I have sunk more hours into (other than AoE II : AoC) than is probably healthy.
Cant wait.

Bought it.
And only if for supporting this great game engine.

I'm still waiting for a purchase. Right now I'm not seeing a visual upgrade, as the character models look dated as f*ck. I expected at least an overhaul in that department. Disappointing. Given the fact that we all played BGT or BG Tutu we already experienced the game with the BG2 engine. It's nice to have some additional content, but right now it doesn't seem worth it. Not to someone with little cash like moi. :D

Will definitely buy the remake of BG2 though, as I just love that game too much.

I'm still waiting for a purchase. Right now I'm not seeing a visual upgrade, as the character models look dated as f*ck. I expected at least an overhaul in that department. Disappointing.

They can't do that because the original models were lost.
Creating them new from scratch would have been too time consuming:


All the original area art, paperdolls, monsters and character models are lost with the exception of a few 3D models of monsters from Throne of Bhaal. There is nothing anyone can do about it. Therefore, it is not possible for the devs to deliver Baldur's Gate HD, and/or re-render any art at higher resolutions. Significant modifications to sprites, like displaying cloaks and hats, adding new/more armor styles, or removing the mirroring effect from BG2 animations, are also off-limits.

As per Trent Oster, the devs are currently limited to the existing animations. There will be no new animations in BG:EE, so it is no use to ask for them. Recreating character models from scratch and rendering them at high resolution is out of question, because it would take more time and resources than are currently available to the devs. Also, recreating character models alone is not an option, as they would look glaringly better than all monsters that weren't re-rendered; if something got redone, then everything else should get the same treatment for the sake of visual consistency, thus making this an even more demanding (and unfeasible) task.


source: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/1588/bgee-please-read-list-of-things-that-cant-be-done

That's just bizarre ... kind of like NASA losing the original tapes of the first f*cking moon landing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes).

I mean, I don't suppose at the time of BG's making they figured "yep, we have to preserve this for all eternity," but still, just because you don't think that shouldn't mean your hard drive with all those assets on it gets scheduled for reformatting the next day. That's just bad business practice, if nothing else. I bet there are countless crappy games out there that have all of their original assets safely stored away somewhere just because the developers knew it was prudent to do so.

Some former Bioware sysadmin is probably using that harddrive as a coaster right now, fully intact, and laughing his arse off at the trouble he's caused. :p

Let's see:

Only enhanced bit in this Enhanced Edition appears to be a support for different resolution
Barely any new content and certainly not nearly half as much as a few of the mods out there
Costs $20
Needs activation through this Beamdog thing (apparently you can download it before the release date but won't be able to play it until the release = activation)

In short: won't be getting it. Maybe if it appears for a few bucks on GoG, but don't see that happening anytime soon (the originals still cost $10 on GoG and since this version most likely needs to pay royalties to the owner of the property, the price will not likely ever be below that of the original games, outside of sales, possibly).

Whatever.

*Goes back to play some more BG and IWD*

I think judgement should be put on hold until the EE is actually out.
Sure there is a ton of story mods out there but in most cases they aren't on the same quality level as the original. And at Beamdog there have been some professional at work for the EE. Looking at the concept work of Nat Jones, e.g., shows the quality of the art.

The DRM isn't that bad either, it's just a onetime check, and then offline play is possible (though I prefer no DRM as well).

Well, content looks pretty empty for 20 $ but Imho one should give this project a chance.

Well, they are adding support for other means of play like ipads, android, etc.. though IMO the fan base would rather have enchanced graphics/game engine first, more content second and enchanced support for other appications last.

Well, content looks pretty empty for 20 $ but Imho one should give this project a chance.
Of course, judgement should be reserved until the game is actually out. And I would be willing to give it a chance for max $5 on GoG (i.e. no DRM).

As it stands - do not care.

Marceror, the depth of field you're referring to is a 3D effect. The BG backgrounds are flat bitmaps. They're just blurry.
IWDII EE!:
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/240/image1sce.jpg

Jokes aside, the screenshots of the new content bother my eyes. I was expecting the new areas to look much better than the old, not the other way around.

Any kind of blurring in the backgrounds is exceedingly rare in the IE games... pretty much everything is characteristically sharp. So much so that that kind of blurring sticks out like a sore thumb unfortunately. It's anybody's guess why they're doing it now - either they've got absolutely no eye for detail and style continuity - or they're just doing it to make the new content stick out like a bloody finger.

Either way, it's a fail in my eyes.

Any kind of blurring in the backgrounds is exceedingly rare in the IE games... pretty much everything is characteristically sharp. So much so that that kind of blurring sticks out like a sore thumb unfortunately. It's anybody's guess why they're doing it now - either they've got absolutely no eye for detail and style continuity - or they're just doing it to make the new content stick out like a bloody finger.

Either way, it's a fail in my eyes.
The new art direction and character portraits are proof enough. I can't think of any areas that are blurry in BG/BGII, the background in some Severed Hand areas are blurred but, it's representing distance (and still easy on the eyes).