Poll: Who is going to buy BG:EE at time of release

[Blades of Vanatar]

Just wondering who is looking to try BGEE right away....

[Marceror]

I most likely will. I'll be due for another BG runthrough soon anyway, and I suppose it might as well be with the EE. That said, I haven't preordered or anything yet, so I am holding out a certain level of resistance, it would seem.

[omnigodly]

I already purchased it. 1 month to go.

[hannibal555]

Already have.

[henkie]

I won't.

Too expensive for what is essentially not much more than widescreen mod.

I most likely won't get it at all. Why pay a premium price for a game that I already own?

[olimikrig]

I won't. I still have too many games left that I haven't played yet (some even back from the steam winter sale) that I want to have a go at first.

The new content does not look exciting enough to warrant a purchase anytime soon; besides I don't really have the BG itch.

[Shaitan]

Not likely as BG works fine for me as it is.

[jsaving]

I will, mainly as a show of support for future efforts.

[Vorona]

I'm not sure. Probably not, but more from lack of attention than anything else. Or money. It will depend on when it's actually released and whether I know it's released or not, and if I have enough money at the time. And I'm probably going with the Mac version, since it's my newer computer and I'm not sure how my old computer fits with the system requirements (specifically the graphics card -- I'm not sure what "equivalent" I have). But after I get my new computer (probably next summer), I'll look into the PC version.

[T2Bruno]

Not for $19.99....

[Sjerrie]

I already have. I've wanted to play it again for a while now (and expand on my ideas for a mod) so this is the perfect opportunity.

Also, when some game *expansions* (Sims, WoW) are close to $40, is $19.99 really that bad?

[Nykidemus]

20 bucks does seem a bit steep, but I really want to support anyone who's going to do any work with the Infinity Engine. The golden days of RPGs have come and gone, and anything to bring them back is to be cherished.

PC version of course.

[Jondar]

I have as well. It'll be interesting to see the new areas. Have a few more NPCs to choose from.

[Gaear]

Is $20 really an issue for some people?

[henkie]

It's an issue when it's basically half the price of a new game, except you're paying it for a 14 year old game. It's not even a remake with a new engine, just a small overhaul of the existing engine. And there's plenty of mods out there that have a lot more new content that are free.

By buying this you're not supporting people making this kind of CRPGs, you're supporting the rehashing of old stuff and paying high prices for barely any content (it's no better than most DLC in this respect).

[Darion]

But if it sells well, the there might be a chance that they do Icewind Dale 1+2 and Torment.
Which would be nice.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Originally Posted by henkie

It's an issue when it's basically half the price of a new game, except you're paying it for a 14 year old game. It's not even a remake with a new engine, just a small overhaul of the existing engine. And there's plenty of mods out there that have a lot more new content that are free.

By buying this you're not supporting people making this kind of CRPGs, you're supporting the rehashing of old stuff and paying high prices for barely any content (it's no better than most DLC in this respect).

Your right, kind of... but this is the test run to see if there is interest in rehashing the old games. If there is enough support, then there is a good possiblity that they can start redoing more titles, with more room to expand/improve/upgrade the games, like BG2, IWD, etc.. Maybe, possibly even moving into the realm of a BG3 or a similar type of game with new content. This quite possibly could be the resurrection of CRPGs that I for one have been looking for. That alone is worth my $18 pre-order buckaroos.... I hate the current MMO world we are stuck in.

[Gaear]

Originally Posted by henkie

It's an issue when it's basically half the price of a new game, except you're paying it for a 14 year old game. It's not even a remake with a new engine, just a small overhaul of the existing engine. And there's plenty of mods out there that have a lot more new content that are free.

By buying this you're not supporting people making this kind of CRPGs, you're supporting the rehashing of old stuff and paying high prices for barely any content (it's no better than most DLC in this respect).

Okay, if you're standing on principal or something, that's cool. It just seemed like a literal money issue based on some comments here, but $20 is what, maybe the price of three fast food lunches? Seems rather negligible if you're already among the game-buying public, particularly for a 'beloved' game like BG. Hell, I'd pay that just as a show of support, even if I never intended to play the game, and I'm by no means Mr. Big Stuff money guy.

[Barmy Army]

What makes this different to BGTutu?

[hannibal555]

Originally Posted by Barmy Army

What makes this different to BGTutu?

Not much .
- You can scroll in and out
- better support of modern machines, better support of multiplayer
- cleaned up coding, which will result in almost non existant loading times between areas
- Many fixes of bugs that were hardcoded and couldn't be fixed by fans
- 3 new NPCs with professional voice acting and art
- some new areas, which by screenshot, I have to admit don't look that gorgeous
- one new arena kind of minigame (which isn't integrated in the main plot; it's rather a minigame of its own)
- a new cinematic
- new player voice sets
- new player portraits

Many of these issues can be realized (or already are) as fan mods but then there's still the difference between amateur - professional kind of quality.

In the end it is still not THAT much to warrant a 18/20 $ price tag, but I personally like the premise of the added content, plus I want to support Trent Oster who eventually will be able to do more awesome stuff with BG2EE if BG1EE is sucessful. I'm not overly hyped that he will, but still, there is the possibility ^^.

[omnigodly]

It's not a big price jump from the gog digital copy, includes a bunch of content so I don't have to go download/install in the super specific order so as not to ruin all the mods/game/remember what I already installed (since there's about 1000 tweak mods)....

Not to mention how many of my friends couldn't play BG2 (much less BG) because of the graphics (and lack of willingness to mod). Not everyone is willing to spend the time to mod their game. Most people just want to play what's there.

On top of that I'm hoping it's far more stable and easier to install/mod in the future on a modern OS.

[henkie]

Originally Posted by Blades of Vanatar

Your right, kind of... but this is the test run to see if there is interest in rehashing the old games. If there is enough support, then there is a good possiblity that they can start redoing more titles, with more room to expand/improve/upgrade the games, like BG2, IWD, etc.. Maybe, possibly even moving into the realm of a BG3 or a similar type of game with new content. This quite possibly could be the resurrection of CRPGs that I for one have been looking for. That alone is worth my $18 pre-order buckaroos.... I hate the current MMO world we are stuck in.

Funny. I don't buy it on principle. You buy, but also on principle.

If rehashing is all you want, then this is a great development, I suppose. But rehashing is generally just cashing in and does not lead to original thought. I would not expect this rehashing stuff to lead to anything but rehashing. The whole business model of the guys that are making BG EE is based on remaking old games. In this case, just cashing in on nostalgia with minimum effort.

@omnigodly, if your friends didn't like the orginal games because of graphics, then they won't like this much either. Graphically, not much has changed. And there's a lot of fixes, but there's generally only need to install the one G3Fixpack.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Here's another way of looking at it as well... I have played a TON of mods designed for the BG/IWD series games. All for free. Many have spent a lot of time and effort on these mods. BGEE will put BG back out there, possibly making the modding world a bit easier for today's modder. For $18 I am willing to contribute, for once , to the modding world.

[henkie]

That's a strange way to support modding.

A bigger public interest may result in more modders being attracted to BG which might bolster the modding community (but probably with largely short-lived interest). But on the other hand, this Overhaul Games studio is also using the community patches that have been available and maintained for years, and are now using it to earn money for themselves. It seems to me that if you want to support modding, donating to the people who are doing the modding is a much better and directer way.

It's also interesting to see that they actually have a volunteering section on their forums. Here's people helping this company to earn money for no reward for themselves. Let's not forget that Overhaul Games is a company and companies are there to make a profit, not for our benefit.

Also, does anyone else here find it somewhat of a stretch of reasoning to assume that buying something from a gamestudio named Overhaul Games will ever lead to any original games? Or even new games?


I'm sounding rather negative here - and I guess I am very cynical about this whole enterprise - so let me just end in saying that I do like that they appear to have added zooming in and out to the game, I always like that kind of functionality. It's just not worth more than maybe 3-5 euro to me.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Well henkie, a lot of the modders are working on this project. That alone will help them mod in the future once BGEE is released. I still play the Black Isle games religiously, so for me, it's a plus. But if you don't play BG that much these days, hey, I see your point. But $18-20 bucks is a drop in the hat, so that doesn't phase me in the least. Plus, how rich can they get off of that? They aren't going to sell a million copies, let alone a 100k copies.

I also think that most of the BG fans really want to see BG2EE redone and possibly the IWD series redone as well. It won't happen if BGEE is not supported and becomes a flop. I don't expect everyone to have my opinion or expectations as not everyone is as interested in the BG series as they used to be. Basically, for me, it's wishful thinking. And I am okay with that.