Baldur's Gate Beamdog's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions

[felipepepe]

Who is this guy anyway?
http://www.baldursgate.com/news/2012/04/19/announcing-nat-jones-as-overhaul-games-art-director/
As for someone involved in graphics for fantasy RPG, he drew suspiciously few images with lesbian SM and that's not a good sign.

 

[Kahlis]

His artwork is very crude compared to the portraits done for the original BG (which I personally prefer over BG2's, they have a lot less definition to them and feel "muddier") and I'm expecting the painted cutscenes to look worse than the original FMV. Even the paintover of Sarevok on the main site looks less detailed than the original 3D rendering. He just added noise to it to create the illusion otherwise.

The cutscenes will probably not be as stylized as TW2's, but I'm expecting horrible painted backgrounds (like Candlekeep on the site background) with horrible character stills (like that disproportionate, porcelain-looking poorly-lit Rasaad) motion tweening over them. In other words, probably even worse than TW2's because the artist's work seems too blurry to look good with any actual animation to it.

 

[Volourn]

NWN's opening is awesome, and most certainly isn't worse than BG's. FFS What's so special about B G's? FFS FFS FFS FFS FFS

And, while the minotaur opening doesn't directly have anything to do with the OC, it looks a lot better than BG's. FFFS FFFS FFFS FFFS FFFS

 

[Pein]

NWN opening was not bad.

I wish the actual game looked half as good as the intro.

 

[Grunker]

NWN's opening was total shit. Random minotaur fights random dude. BUT LOOK AT TEH AWSUM GRAFIXX!

BG's intro was perfect, sinister, foreshadowed the plot. All was good.

 

[Cosmo]

I wish the actual game looked half as good as the intro.

It could have, had it been a 2D game...

 

[Infinitron]

NWN's opening was total shit. Random minotaur fights random dude. BUT LOOK AT TEH AWSUM GRAFIXX!

They actually sort of worked it into the plot of HOTU. The dude was a young Lord Nasher and you get to fight the minotaur while travelling the planes in Chapter 3, in a huge boss battle that also includes other dead characters from the series (Maugrim, Grimgnaw, and others that I've forgotten).

 

[Grunker]

NWN's opening was total shit. Random minotaur fights random dude. BUT LOOK AT TEH AWSUM GRAFIXX!

They actually sort of worked it into the plot of HOTU. The dude was a young Lord Nasher and you get to fight the minotaur while travelling the planes in Chapter 3, in a huge boss battle that also includes other dead characters from the series (Maugrim, Grimgnaw, and others that I've forgotten).

HotU is completely surperior to NWN vanilla.

 

[Pein]

I was actually talking about the slideshow intro, not the video

 

[Gord]

Hand drawn animations to replace the 3D cutscenes could potentially be quite nice, but it depends a lot on their skills.

The original 3d scenes didn't age well (as is the nature of most early 3d stuff), but if it's really necessary to replace them?

 

[Pein]

I think they have a problem because of the low native resolution of the cinematic, it would look too small on larger resolutions.

At least that's what i heard from poking around in their forums, can't remember the specific thread.

But even if it's true, it says a lot that they can't make a new cinematic themselves, along with their inability to actually produce new player models out of scratch due to low budget.

It gives you a hint about how small Beamdog is as a company.

I have NO idea who gave someone like them the permission to remake - enhance - whatever Baldur's Gate.

This will only be enhanced or remade once, and they are going to screw up everything... if we can even say that it needed an enhancement, that is...

 

[Ion Prothon II]

I think they have a problem because of the low native resolution of the cinematic, it would look too small on larger resolutions.

At least that's what i heard from poking around in their forums, can't remember the specific thread.

Strange things. Why they just don't scale it up and add a blur?

I have NO idea who gave someone like them the permission to remake - enhance - whatever Baldur's Gate.

The game made by Bioware (which now belongs to EA, both the company and franchise) getting a 'remake' by a group of former Bioware staff... not like it's surprising

 

[Kahlis]

I thought the rights to Baldur's Gate would be owned by the publisher, though - not to mention that the Forgotten Realms setting is from Wizards. With Interplay and Black Isle basically gone, I don't know who they could've gone to. Has anybody from Bioware or EA even acknowledged the existence of the remake yet? It all feels very unofficial to me.

 

[Pein]

Trollol yeah always trust good ol' Blur

You're right, it has probably something to do with them being former Bioware members, however, still their company is so low budget that they can't practically make an enhancement that matters.

The rights are with Atari if i remember correctly.

I guess the tactic "Beating a dead horse" and expect money for it is strong with them.

Ah well, may the (dead)Horse be with you, Oster.

 

[Turjan]

Ah well, may the (dead)Horse be with you, Oster.

I still see lots of excitement in fan circles. I'm not sure whether it's enough to carry the release, but there seem to be quite a few fans around that want to buy the game for their iPad. I find it weird, but we will see what happens.

 

[Cosmo]

Part of me hopes that Oster's hiding a devious, well-honed business plan behind this mediocrity. If this venture is indeed a success they'll be able to keep say 20% more revenues due to them selling via their own platform (Beamdog), and doing that a number of time could make them gather enough talent and jewgold to produce BG3.
But if the things we see now really represent the summit of their ambition, then it's not worth bothering...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Eh, any BG3 made these fuckers is going to be awful and horrible. I hope they seriously tank and Oster gets to enjoy debt prison for the rest of his miserable days. The fucker's been lying from Day 1 and is just trying to milk "fans". Die in a fire and all that.

 

[Jaesun]

I thought the rights to Baldur's Gate would be owned by the publisher, though - not to mention that the Forgotten Realms setting is from Wizards. With Interplay and Black Isle basically gone, I don't know who they could've gone to.

The Trademark for any video game using the name Baldur's Gate is owned by BioWare/EA. That basically means BioWare/EA own ALL of the game's content of BG and BG II (NOT the setting of Forgotten Realms). Artwork, writing, characters, story etc etc.. HASBRO/WotC has to approve all content for these games however. They own the setting.

Has anybody from Bioware or EA even acknowledged the existence of the remake yet? It all feels very unofficial to me.

They could never even attempt to do this unless it was explicit permission from BioWare/EA who own all rights to the originals.

 

[Stabwound]

Part of me hopes that Oster's hiding a devious, well-honed business plan behind this mediocrity. If this venture is indeed a success they'll be able to keep say 20% more revenues due to them selling via their own platform (Beamdog), and doing that a number of time could make them gather enough talent and jewgold to produce BG3.
But if the things we see now really represent the summit of their ambition, then it's not worth bothering...

I hate the people that get excited over the prospect of them making a BG3. I have absolutely no faith that these guys could even remotely do justice to the series or create a competent game. They haven't released a single game; BG:EE doesn't count as a release. Their involvement in the original games is vastly overstated and they had absolutely nothing to do with the design at all. I hate Oster trumpeting about being one of the Bioware founders when all signs point to that being completely false.

 

[Saxon1974]

Part of me hopes that Oster's hiding a devious, well-honed business plan behind this mediocrity. If this venture is indeed a success they'll be able to keep say 20% more revenues due to them selling via their own platform (Beamdog), and doing that a number of time could make them gather enough talent and jewgold to produce BG3.
But if the things we see now really represent the summit of their ambition, then it's not worth bothering...

I hate the people that get excited over the prospect of them making a BG3. I have absolutely no faith that these guys could even remotely do justice to the series or create a competent game. They haven't released a single game; BG:EE doesn't count as a release. Their involvement in the original games is vastly overstated and they had absolutely nothing to do with the design at all. I hate Oster trumpeting about being one of the Bioware founders when all signs point to that being completely false.

Agree. At this point pretty much any company that picks up a cherished game franchise and talks about doing a sequel just sounds bad to me now. Honestly bioware was trumping Dragon Age as their return to Baldur's gate style games and that turned out mostly crap in my opinion and I think that was the same main guys that made the original infinity engine games.

Let's face it, we aren't the target audience anymore. The casual and console gamer is...It's the only group the AAA dev's are intrested in now. I think Kickstarter is our only hope. Sure hope that works out.

 

[Syril]

I will gladly replay BG1 on bg2 engine without having to install 50 mods.

 

[Grunker]

I will gladly replay BG1 on bg2 engine without having to install 50 mods.

notsureiftrolling.jpg

You can play BG1 on the BG2 engine by installing a single mod. BG2 Fixpack would be a good thing in that install though I give you that.

So that's two mods.

 

[Angthoron]

Part of me hopes that Oster's hiding a devious, well-honed business plan behind this mediocrity. If this venture is indeed a success they'll be able to keep say 20% more revenues due to them selling via their own platform (Beamdog), and doing that a number of time could make them gather enough talent and jewgold to produce BG3.
But if the things we see now really represent the summit of their ambition, then it's not worth bothering...

BG3 by this team would stand for Blowing Gays 3, seeing the romance shit that's their "exclusive new content".

 

[Cosmo]

Let's forget the shit story and romances for a minute : what if it was the only way to get a fully moddable Infinity Engine 2.0 ?
After all, it may be our last chance...

 

[MMXI]

I think they have a problem because of the low native resolution of the cinematic, it would look too small on larger resolutions.

The obvious solution is to play the videos in a little window centred on the paused game screen. It wouldn't really matter if it's low resolution as it won't be the only thing on the screen.