I'd like to make a tl;dr now that the cost and their true nature has been revealed. The following is from a post at their forums (
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/21174). Though it's not by a dev, it is by the #1 superfan there who has more than 1500 posts already and a beta tester to boot, so I consider it official enough. I just want to go through it to confirm to myself that this truly is a monumental travesty once possible only by AAA pubs, sort of a hybrid of the shittiness of EA combined with the shittiness of an indie Facebook app dev.
LIST OF THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED.
Since last March, when Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was unveiled, the devs have been dropping several bits of information on the enhancements that can be expected. Be it via the official BG:EE website, their personal Twitter accounts, the official Beamdog forum, or these very boards, there have been more announcements than one would think.
The purpose of this thread is to gather and list all features, enhancements and new contents that have already been officially confirmed for BG:EE. Not only will this hopefully shed some light on the "enhancement" tag, especially in light of my recent post on the things that cannot be done, but it will also assist in directing feature requests toward things that haven't been already done.
BG:EE will run on Windows based PCs, Apple Mac PCs, all generations of Apple iPad, and certain Android tablets, such as the Nexus 7.
System requirements will be slightly higher, mainly on the OS for OpenGL support, but any video card released from 2004 on should be able to run the game smoothly. Full support for, and good performance on, first generation iPad are confirmed.
They're porting it to mobile platforms. GemRB was already well down this path, and the goal itself elicited massive shrugs from anyone not needed Wikipedia to find out what "BG" was. Only 1st gen iPad? Wasn't the resolution for that 1024x768? (Which was an unlockable -- unsupported but stable anyway -- resolution already in the game). Since I don't give a shit about non-PC titles, the rest of my post will ignore that aspect.
BG:EE will be available from Beamdog for Windows based PCs, Apple's App Store for MacOS and iOS, and Google Play for Android tablets.
The game will launch at $19.99 (pre-order for $17.99) for Windows and MacOS, and $9.99 for iOS and Android. The pricing differences between platforms come down to the PC/Mac getting all the DLC content for free and iOS/Android having it as ingame purchases.
Launch date is set to 18th September 2012 for the PC version. The MacOS, iOS and Android versions will also launch in September 2012, but a hard date can't be provided yet due to the different approval requirements of each platform.
You can get BG+TotSC for half the price. Math tells me that they think their "enhancements" are worth $10. That's what this post is about.
BG:EE will not require the Beamdog client to run.
The DRM will be a minimal system that does a quick check to start the download. After that, BG:EE can be played completely offline if desired. When launched, the updater will check for an update: if there is none, it will launch the game directly and shut down; if there is an update, a GUI will pop up asking if you want to update now or just play the version you have.
I refuse to give someone credit for not making my life unnecessarily difficult or annoying. I also wonder why checking for an update would be so important, or could this just be some bullshit excuse for the call-home DRM. Their disengenuous attitude has been consistent since even before their website went live.
BG:EE will be supported post-ship through several DLCs.
There are plans for both free and paid-for DLCs, though free DLCs will be the majority. The new NPC Rasaad, and the new adventure The Black Pits, will be free for all platforms.
As they've already said, PC users don't get the option to buy just the base game. Personally, I just want an improved engine. I'd pay $10 for a one-click install of BG:TotSC + old mod fixes + new fixes; I'm positive I won't pay $20 for that plus a bunch of crap I don't care about. Free or not, new companions and this so-called new adventure mean fuck-all to me.
BG:EE will be multilingual form the get-go.
BG:EE will ship with all available languages in a single build, and it will be possible to select the language of the text and the language of the voice independently.
Don't care. This is self-serving on their part since it allows them to sell it to more people. This isn't a benefit at all for most of the 1st world. I have no idea what "language of the voice" refers to; the cutscene narrator? new NPCs?
Based on the Throne of Bhaal engine.
BG:EE is based on the latest Throne of Bhaal code, which means it includes all features from Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal, as well as all bug fixes from those titles and their relative patches.
Hey, great... this already exists. In two slightly different forms. In fact, I would bet the lives of an entire continent that this project would never have gotten started if Tutu and BGT had never existed. Sadly, the people that worked hard on those revolutionary mods are consoling themselves by fellating the BGEE crew, trying to feel important while their honest labor is raped in front of them.
Rebuilt Threading Model.
The threading model has been cleaned up and fixed, thus eliminating the no-ops that characterized the original and improving performance. Several "Windows-95isms" were removed to make the engine run smoother and increase new-OSs-friendlyness.
Seriously? Did people have problems running BG, even 10 years ago? Isn't this bragging point already included in the platform notes?
Rebuilt Renderer.
The renderer was also cleaned up, and ported entirely to OpenGL for better performance. The graphics are now 100% hardware accelerated.
Again, this would be the fucking assumption if porting to mobile 14 years after initial release: You can't
NOT do this.
Fixed up multiplayer.
Baldur's Gate's buggy multiplayer support has been fixed up and improved, eliminating bugs and introducing cross-platform compatibility. It will be possible to play a multiplayer BG:EE game connecting a Windows based PC, an Apple Mac PC, an iPad and an Android tablet simultaneously.
Fuck social gaming. I game because other people exist and I want to be away from them for a few hours. If they can actually improve the latency issues, I'd price this feature at $1.
ToBEx engine fixes.
The Overhaul team is working with Ascension64, author of the mods Throne of Bhaal Extender (ToBEx) and Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT) to improve the engine and bring over all the major fixes from those packages.
Already have this. If Overhaul/Beamdog had any class whatsoever, Asc64 would already be on the payroll.
Extensive bug fixing.
BG:EE will feature a huge amount of bug fixes as suggested by the community, found by devs and beta testers, and found by modders throughout the years. Several bugs that currently require Baldurdash, Dudlyville, Tutufix, BG Fixpack or BG2 Fixpack - as well as a plethora of hardcoded bugs that require access to the source code to be fixed - will not exist in BG:EE.
They're being cagey about this. From my PoV, everything that could be fixed by modders is already fixed. This leaves them with fixing engine bugs. The problem is they can't or won't say what those bugs are. AFAIK, they're not actually fixing anything worthwhile.
It's cute they mention the mod fixes. Baldurdash (Kevin Dorner) was rendered obsolete more than 8 years ago. Dudleyville was Baldurdash 2.0 and only slowed down consolidating the core fixes. The fixpacks are
de rigeur and a major reason why BGEE is superfluous and redundant.
Native support for high resolutions.
BG:EE natively supports high resolutions in 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10 format up to 2880x1800. The source area art will be filtered via hardware to scale it as required and enable the zoom in/out feature.
Already have this. It's called the Widescreen Mod. And we've seen the blurry shit they "filtered". They don't have the original art, so they can't improve any-fucking-thing.
Dynamic zoom in/out feature.
It will be possible to zoom in and out of the battlefield dynamically during gameplay by scrolling the mouse wheel up and down, within generous limits.
DIDN'T YOU JUST MENTION THE ZOOM? STOP MAKING ME READ THE SAME SHIT TWICE. IT WAS BARELY WORTH MENTIONING THE FIRST FUCKING TIME.
New, high resolution cinematics.
The original, low resolution 3D cinematics will be replaced with new, never before seen high resolution 2D animations drawn by BG:EE's Art Director Nat Jones.
Note how they piss on the original in order to make their Nu-Shit seem awesome. As someone who puts "Disable Movies=1" in the ini right after install, I feel like Nat Jones is wasting my money already.
New, high resolution GUI.
The Graphic User Interface (GUI) has been completely unhardcoded, thus making it possible to overcome its inherent limitations in terms of resolution. Beamdog / Overhaul Games are currently working on a brand new, high resolution GUI, which will be customizable / moddable to a generous extent (some limits still apply due to the original BG code's resilience to Cameron Tofer's attacks; hopefully, Cameron will manage to find a silver-coated machete with which to treat the old code post-ship, further expanding the GUI's customizability).
More redundancy. New platform with different input requires and assumes a GUI rework. These guys are like the Three Stooges of salesmanship. Yes, and blame the original game for your inability to fulfill the hype you spewed.
Flipbook animation transparency and Alpha blending.
As per
this thread, BG:EE will feature flipbook animation transparency and alpha blending for BAM files. In the longer run, a new version of BAM files with multiple-layer alpha blending is being considered.
If you don't know what BAMs are, every icon and animation in the game is a BAM. This definitely qualifies as a legitimate improvement if they fully implement it. I usually don't care about eye candy, but I'm so under-budget right now. + $1
One Pixel Production (1PP).
Erephine has agreed to include the 1PP work into BG:EE. The devs are currently trying to make it play nice with the BG:EE setup. Share your opinion on which components would suit BG:EE better
here!
Self-explanatory. Ironic, too, since even with their engine access they can't actually fix the things that need to be like sprite mirroring or wonky shield syndrome.
OpenAL based audio engine.
The audio engine has been completely ported to OpenAL, thus ditching the now obsolete DirectSound API, thus bringing back environmental audio support for newer OSs.
Redundant. Assumed. Platform change. And something you wouldn't even fucking notice without audio monitoring software.
Original music by Michael Hoeing.
Purists have nothing to fear, as the original soundtrack by Michael Hoeing will remain untouched in BG:EE.
So you're not changing something you said you wouldn't change and that no one ever thought should be changed? Why not list that Charname will still be the spawn of Bhaal and not a sahuagin tadpole? That's good, too, right?
New music by Sam Hulick.
Sam Hulick, the composer who scored the soundtrack to Mass Effect 3, will write new music to go with the new contents in BG:EE. He is an admittedly huge fan of Michael Hoeing's work, and is trying his best to remain faithful to its spirit and atmosphere.
I'll be honest: I turn music off in games, especially when it's contextual. I hate getting tipped off that I'm about to enter combat because the trombones and timpanis kick in. It also lets me pay attention to the sounds that actually matter like wind and footsteps.
New voice sets for player characters.
A new collection of player character voice sets is bundled with BG:EE.
Kinda cool because the vast majority of mod voice sets are craptacular if not outright audially amateurish. Also kinda pointless since I've got a Garrett voice set I've used since '01.
One new playable kit.
BG:EE will feature one new playable kit never before been seen in an IE game: the Blackguard.
Don't care. There are literally dozens of decent-to-great kit mods already. One more is not impressive no matter what kind of language you present it with.
Three new joinable NPCs.
BG:EE will feature three new joinable NPCs: Rasaad, a human male Monk; Neera, a half-elven female Wild Mage; andDorn, a half-orc male Blackguard. Their dialogues, romances and interjetions will be written by fantasy novelist Dave Gross. All three characters will be romanceable.
Know what? BG was not in need of
more companions. And even if it were, how are these unvetted NPCs any better than the dime-a-dozen NPC mods out there? Sure, most of them suck, but I'm sure
at least three of them are as good as these. Actually better, because they're free. And more better because the modders could integrate inter-party and quest banter, something BGEE can't do because of licensing issues.
Romances? This is fucking stupid. There are no romances in BG. Period. But these new guys are? Fuck you with a Hepler-sized dildo. You couldn't hold off on this shit until BG2EE? Fuck you with a Gaider love doll.
One new adventure.
BG:EE will feature one new adventure with dedicated, newly developed area art and "nasty AI". The Black Pits(codename: Adventure X) is a standalone arena mini-campaign consisting of 15 fights and taking place in the Underdark. New and old NPCs will react to the new content with interjections.
Correct me if I'm wrong -- and I'm not -- but didn't they strongly imply, back when only one new NPC was being talked about, that this new adventure would essentially be a loyalty quest, i.e. completely centered on the NPC? What does this new info infer? That the companions have no personal quests? That there are no new side-quests that could reasonably be LARPed into the story?
Mini-campaign, huh. Completely outside of anything to do with BG, like another Durlag's Tower or Watcher's Keep. I hated those things. Combat masturbation. Stories so stupid I regretted reading the dialogs instead of just blindly selecting responses.
==========
Wait, that's it? I've only spent $2 on your enhanced shit. You won't even let me be a graphics whore. Who are you making this for again? Vapid hipsters who'll hate your blurry, generic art "style"? Old-school gamers who'll hate your paltry, overpriced, and shallow new content? Exactly what the fuck are you doing, Trent Oster?
What a bunch of lazy, stupid fucks. Modern game development couldn't possibly become even more of a parody of itself.
