Baldurs Gate 3?

[Amaron]

It's still going to be 2D, 2nd Edition, half voice acted, etc etc.   Sounds like UI/graphic enhancements are going to be the selling point.   It's more appealing than some fuckup studio trying to pull off BG3.

[Shaje]

I know that I am not alone here when I say that BG2 was a formative experience for me. I am all over this.

[Lucas]

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=19256

Here's a collection of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition tidbits gleaned from Trent Oster's twitter feed. I'll summarise, rather than linking and fully quoting each one:

"There will be two games. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition #bgee=BG+TotSC, bg2ee=bg2+ToB"
"new content for the game you love, made by some of the original team members"
"...Beamdog exclusive. As for other platforms, tune is same time next week"
"We take mods seriously. (I led NWN after all) mods both current and future are important. More announcements to come"
"We're using the 2nd Edition D&D rules"
"Infinity Enhanced is based off the latest Throne of Bhall codebase"
"We're 2D isometric all the way"
"We're going to stay with the BG model of only voicing some of the content. We feel it allows for more in-depth writing."
"we are trying hard not to break mods"
In answer to comparing the look against BG + Widescreen mod: "it will be better. We've got the code to rework the UI and rendering"

[Teleku]

Actually looking forward to this....

....except for the beamdog thing.  Thats kind of a big downer.

[HaemishM]

If all they're doing is updating the graphics with this "enhanced" edition, I'll be on board for this. I loved that game and I would love to see it kept intact with some new clothes so to speak.

Having never played either of the originals, I'd be in for an HD remake.

[Merusk]

I worry only that the RPG story will be eye-rollingly bad in retrospect.   It's remembered fondly but I attribute a lot of that to playing it in my 20s. 

I wonder if they'll tweak how fucking overpowered archers were at all.   I remember killing big bad bossdude before he was even fully on the screen, since I had 2 rangers a bow-warrior, druid and cleric as the group.

[Rasix]

Well, they were pretty bad in BG2.  Just disgustingly OP in BG1, however.   I think I'm the only person that ever had a problem with the Sarevok fight.

[Lucas]

Well, they were pretty bad in BG2.  Just disgustingly OP in BG1, however. 

Yep, in all honesty, Kivan was the true saviour of the world in BG1, not me :P

[Ironwood]

Not so much the Archers as the wide range of arrows available.  It was like your Ranger was Hawkeye.

[K9]

If they did this with Final Fantasy 7 I'd be all over it.

Go back and play Final Fantasy 7 again. It's held up worse than FF VI. The writing and mechanics are unfuckingbearable and the world is a hodge podge of shit.

Possibly one of the most overrated games of all time.

You're hurting my sentimentality here man.

[Rasix]

Yah, but he's right.  That game does not hold up well at all.  It's just so boring.

[K9]

But, I want to believe.

I'm not going to argue against schild's JRPG-fu though.

[koro]

I don't believe we're going to be getting a full-on "HD" remake for this, since the original BG art assets have long since been lost, but I don't think some touch-ups are out of the realm of possibility.

I knew Oster was wanting to make BGE mod-friendly, but I wasn't aware they were going quite so far as to try to keep it compatible with currently-exisiting mods. That's very surprising to me.

[schild]

What the fuck is a beamdog?

[sickrubik]

I think it's related to a blink dog, but shoots lasers.

[Ingmar]

I don't believe we're going to be getting a full-on "HD" remake for this, since the original BG art assets have long since been lost, but I don't think some touch-ups are out of the realm of possibility.

I knew Oster was wanting to make BGE mod-friendly, but I wasn't aware they were going quite so far as to try to keep it compatible with currently-exisiting mods. That's very surprising to me.

The original zone art actually still looks fine now anyway, you just see way more of it at once with a resolution mod. The models and spell effects, less good.

[Strazos]

I guess I'm the only one who didn't break the game with archery? 

[Zetor]

Characters with bows were crazy powerful in BG1 due to very powerful arrows (for the level range) and lack of powerful melee weapons... and also you didn't really need to buy magical missiles since most enemies were vulnerable to mundane weapons. However, none of those things really got any stronger in BG2, and some of the overpowered arrows (detonation, dispelling) were actually removed or made much much harder to get.

The actual 'archer' ranger kit was pretty strong in BG2 (especially if you used something like the +4 infinite fire ammo xbow from watcher's keep), but the base UI made it a huge pain to keep good ammo stocked for harder enemies for most of the game. Prot from Magical Weapons / Prot from Normal Missiles was also a mainstay of enemy mages, which was pretty annoying if your Breach-bot was out of level 5 spells.

e: also agree with Ingmar that the game itself actually held up fine. Use the widescreen mod and some ease-of-use / UI improvement mods and the only "clunky" stuff remaining will be...AD&D 2nd edition. Love it or leave it! 

[koro]

...and some of the overpowered arrows (detonation, dispelling) were actually removed or made much much harder to get.

Amusingly the Arrows of Detonation (which were the ones removed outright in BG2) were only really good because they were way too strong for the level range they were at. In BG2 they would've been kind of lackluster by late SoA. That said, changing Kivan in BG1 to an Archer kit is actually downright hilarious.

Of course, BG2 exchanges overpowered ranged weapons for overpowered melee ones. Celestial Fury, anyone?

[Strazos]

+5 Carsomyr + Cavalier kit = lol. 

There was some Dark Elf general you were supposed to duel late in the game...basically slapped him across the room. I don't think he got a single swing off.

[NowhereMan]

Of course, BG2 exchanges overpowered ranged weapons for overpowered melee ones. Celestial Fury, anyone?

I remember a NWN playthrough where my ranger got two of those. Fire off a dual wielding flurry with two fast katanas with 50% chance to stun on every hit=enemy dead. Can't remember if I managed to find a double in BG2 but some stuff in that game was just ridiculous.

I kind of agree that I think the graphics for it hold alright. I'd be more excited if they were using the ruleset and the game style for some new campaigns, as it is I'll probably just fire up another character at some point in BGTutu.

[brellium]

+5 Carsomyr + Cavalier kit = lol. 

There was some Dark Elf general you were supposed to duel late in the game...basically slapped him across the room. I don't think he got a single swing off.

My last playthough was with a half-orc assassin, he didn't even see me before he exploded.

[Cyrrex]

If all they're doing is updating the graphics with this "enhanced" edition, I'll be on board for this. I loved that game and I would love to see it kept intact with some new clothes so to speak.

Having never played either of the originals, I'd be in for an HD remake.

Same here.  I actually own the originals, but couldn't get past the first five minutes due to the extremely dated graphics.  This might be right up my alley.

Is there a release date?  Didn't see it on their site.

[Ceryse]

I generally replay all of BG2 every two - three years or so, so I'm actually somewhat interested in this, especially if it improves the graphics a bit (especially the sprites). It and Chrono Trigger are my primary old time RPG replays. The rest I start up, get halfway through and just ditch.

I'd both love and hate to see a BG3 type game. I want it but I don't trust anyone to actually do it right and its a bit late for it now anyways.

[Furiously]

Now I hope it does well so they give Planescape the same treatment.

[sickrubik]

Now I hope it does well so they give Planescape the same treatment.

I had to read this 3 times before I didn't read "...give Planescape the same Torment."

(also, yes please.)

[Simond]

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/03/baldurs-gate-iii-is-beamdogs-long-term-goal-could-turn-to-kickstarter-for-funding/

A few days ago, we reported that the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition had been announced, much to the disappointment of many who were in reality hoping for a Baldur’s Gate III as opposed to a graphically souped up version of the game. The good news for those looking forward to Baldur’s Gate III is that the idea of a sequel is still there, according to Beamdog’s Cameron Tofer, who revealed that Baldur’s Gate III has always been a long-term goal of theirs.

    “We have a lot of things to put in place before such a project can be launched. So currently there is no such project but that’s the one we want to do. Our thoughts have been that Enhanced Edition for BG 1 and 2 just make sense before there’s any Baldur’s Gate 3.”

Cameron Tofer also revealed that crowd-sourced funding could be one of the ways to help fund the possibility of a Baldur’s Gate III, and that popular crowd-sourced funding website Kickstarter was one of their considerations. Until then, it looks like fans of the franchise will have to contend with the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition which is scheduled to see a launch in the summer of 2012.

[Ingmar]

I don't really understand how they would have a license for BG3.

[koro]

I would imagine it wouldn't be particularly difficult to get, since the only parties you could really conceivably have to go through for it are Hasbro/WotC and Atari. If they got the license for BG1+2 (which they apparently have, hence the existence of BGE), then it stands to reason that they could get the go-ahead to do a BG3.

[Ingmar]

I have my doubts that Hasbro is going to give the D&D license to someone who has to run a Kickstarter just to fund it. Publishing rights to an already-existing game, upgraded version or not, is a different animal than making a new one.

[koro]

I agree it's not incredibly likely, but from what I've seen Hasbro is a very oddly-run company and WotC is an even more oddly-run subsidiary, so anything can happen I suppose.

[Simond]

I'd say it also depends on what edition of (A)D&D they'd want to license, what other D&D games were/are in development, and so on.
Plus, you know, it's not like either of the other two 'traditional D&D' game studios could make a case for getting BGIII - Obsidian is on the verge of bankruptcy (  ) and Bioware is, well, Bioware.

[Ivanneth]

So the story for BGIII - they'd be pretty much forced to do some kind of "Baldur's Gate: the Next Generation" scenario, right? ToB ends in a manner that's kind of hard to follow up on, so they'd probably start over with a new protagonist + friends.

End-game spoilers ahoy:

[Fabricated]

They could steal all your levels. I mean, a mean GM running the same story would do that.

[Ingmar]

There's basically no chance it would be a continuation. For one thing the setting is utterly different now, and it is anybody's guess what restrictions might be imposed on a license holder in terms of exactly which version of the Forgotten Realms they could even use.